Showing and Getting Offers on Your Multifamily Properties
October 28th, 2008 Jacquie Cliff - Real Estate Agent and Loan Officer
In the process of searching for good multifamily properties for my clients, I see many property owners that seem to want to do everything they can to discourage potential buyers from looking at their properties and making good offers. There are several things that I consistently see multifamily property owners doing that their agents should be advising them against.
Multifamily property owners consistently don’t want to allow showings prior to having signed around offers. This means that buyers have to make and negotiate an offer virtually sight unseen. While I can understand not wanting a parade of potential buyers touring properties on a daily basis and disturbing tenants not allowing any showings is extremely counterproductive, and my clients have not looked at some properties simply because of that. On others we have made significantly lower than asking price offers primarily because we had little or no idea of the actual condition of the property.
Sellers of multifamily properties also seem to forget that staging is just as important for multifamily property as it is for single-family homes. While multifamily properties are judged heavily on their financials, having positive curb appeal definitely doesn’t hurt! Given two properties with similar incomes and expenses most buyers would prefer a nice clean property over one that is looking rundown, as trash in the parking lot and furniture sitting by the dumpster. A small investment in time and money to make it properly look good will go a long way toward getting more and better offers.
As I mentioned multi-family properties are judged heavily on their financial statements. While looking through MLS listings quite often I see properties with no financial information included, or at most just the most crude numbers. To make matters worse many sellers only want to make ‘accurate’ numbers available with a sign around agreement. As with not letting buyers see the property, not allowing buyers reasonable financial information to judge a property by is almost worse than having them buy it sight unseen. If you want good offers on your multifamily property, at least make sure that your MLS listing has as much financial detail as possible, and have accurate financial records on hand for serious buyers to see.
The last big mistake that I see multifamily property owners doing is not informing their tenants that the properties for sale. Tenants will figure out their property is for sale, and it would be a lot better if they had been informed ahead of time and educated on the fact that the releases are still in effect even if a new owner takes over. Communicating with tenants, letting them know what is going on and reassuring them that they aren’t about to be kicked out will help make selling process much smoother.
Of course I only halfheartedly pass along these tips to you property owners because what he continued to make these mistakes, ready and qualified purchasers are most likely bypassing your properties in favor of ones with better curb appeal and that are more accessible. This of course means less competition and better deals on your multi-family properties for my buyers!
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