Selling a Home with a Tenant Inside

The larger the multifamily property is, the more important it becomes for the units to be rented out at the time of sale. But when considering duplexes or detached single-family homes, it is more advisable to vacate the property prior to going on the market.

We provide the research for you here, the statistics on selling a home with a tenant inside, vacant, or seller occupied.

If you’re thinking of selling a property of any size in the next twelve months, Stephen would love to talk with you and potentially schedule a tour. Call today to set an appointment.

Stephen FitzMaurice, Realtor
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Licensed Since 2003
503-714-1111

vacant house sells better

What Status Sells a Home for More: Vacant, Seller, or Tenant Occupied? 2023 Report

May 8, 2023

There are a number of factors that cause homes to sell faster or slower and for more, or much less. Whether you’re picking the best time of the year to sell in (or the worst), whether you’re on the east or west side of Portland, whether your condo is downtown or elsewhere in the metro, whether your home is on septic or sewer, whether you have a swimming pool or not, whether your home is on a single level or multiple, there are many factors that drastically change how fast a home sells and for how much. Licensed since 2003, I’ve been writing these reports for the local Portland real estate market for years in order to inform the public...

sell a home vacant or tenant occupied

What Sells a Home Best? Vacant, Seller, or Tenant Occupied? 2022 Report

June 17, 2022

Since 2017 we’ve been creating this annual report to help our clients know what occupancy status is better for a potential home sale. Is it easier to sell a home if it is vacant, seller, or tenant occupied? While most of our clients can guess it is more difficult to sell tenant occupied, this annual report helps them know just how much harder it is to sell with a tenant inside. Also for homeowners deciding to move out first and vacate or sell while still living in the home, these reports can be helpful. The numbers used. This report is based on data from RMLS, our local multiple listing service. We are looking exclusively at city of Portland proper, detached...

how to sell home with tenant

How to Sell a Home with a Tenant Inside in Portland, Oregon

April 14, 2021

Updated Feb. 2023 Selling a tenant occupied home has never been trickier. A landlord must be aware of constantly changing local regulations, whether it be state, county, or city and at the same time keep an eye on federal regulations. All of the above governmental agencies can override any existing lease between the homeowner and tenant. Vacant Homes Sell 100% Faster and for More Money In the Portland real estate market, tenant occupied homes hardly sell at all. We’ve been writing an annual report on this for years. In 2020, nearly 1 out of 2 tenant occupied homes that went on the public market for sale, never sold. They simply failed to sell at all. These homes sat on the...

sell a vacant home or occupied

What Sells a Home: Vacant, Seller, or Tenant Occupied?

September 1, 2020

2020 Real Estate Market Update. You’re getting ready to sell your home and you wonder, should I move out and vacate the property for the real estate market, or should I stay and not worry about it? Or let’s say you’re getting ready to sell your investment property with tenant inside. Should you wait until they leave to put it on the real estate market, or is it better to sell with a tenant inside? A lot of articles we write might have a 10% – 15% impact on selling a home, such as picking the right time of year to buy or sell. Even a 10% difference in being able to sell a home is huge. But occupancy, who...

What Sells Better: Vacant, Seller, or Tenant Occupied Homes? – 2019 Update

May 10, 2019

Any good real estate agent in Portland will tell you vacant homes sell best (staged or not), followed by seller occupied, and then in last place – tenant occupied homes. But the numbers are so drastic, especially from first to third place, it might surprise you. When you look at these numbers year over year it also gives key insight into the entire Portland real estate market as a whole. Process used: I’m researching this element of the Portland real estate market using data from our local MLS, the RMLS, looking at sold homes from 6 months ago to the writing of this article 5/9/19. My target area is the city of Portland proper and the homes I’m using are...

portland homes sell better vacant

What Sells Better: Vacant, Seller, or Tenant Occupied Homes? 2018 Update

April 23, 2018

As an experienced Portland real estate agent I can tell you that vacant properties (staged or not) sell better than any other status of residential homes in the Portland Metro area. This is followed by seller occupied homes, and dead last is tenant occupied homes. I’m going to give you the full Portland real estate market statistics in this article with some explanation. Numbers are from RMLS, Regional Multiple Listing Service, using all detached residential homes listed for sale in the last six month prior to 4-23-2018. Vacant Portland Homes In the last six months in the Portland real estate market, 2839 vacant homes were listed for sale. Of those, 2221 sold. This means 78% of these properties sold, and...

sell tenant occupied vacant home

What Sells Better: Vacant, Seller, or Tenant Occupied Homes?

April 17, 2017

If you asked any experienced real estate agent, they will most likely tell you that vacant homes sell the best, followed by seller occupied, and then tenant occupied. I also know from my own experience that this is generally true, but I couldn’t find any hard data. So I did the research myself! I ran the data in RMLS for all the Portland (city proper) detached homes that have been put up for sale in the last six months (prior to 4/14/2017). Vacant Portland Homes In the last six months in Portland, 2240 vacant homes were listed for sale. Of those 2240 vacant homes, 1842 actually sold. This gives us a 83% success rate and a 17% failure rate. 17%...