Six months later, the tenants have asked us a second time about selling-- which we're happy to do. Landlording has been very very good to us over the years, but one home is more than enough for us to take care of.
Spouse and I have done several FSBO transactions, both selling and buying, and we're comfortable doing that again. From the tenant's comments it's possible that they're first-time home buyers. We get along well but we're looking for a good way to sell the place without making them feel that they're dealing with Mr. & Mrs. Snidely Whiplash.
Our first thought would be to go with the home's assessed value, which was last done in Dec 2007 for the fiscal year starting July 2008. The city's next batch of assessments will be mailed out in Dec 2008. I think the 2009 assessment will be 5-10% lower, but we're not trying to squeeze every penny out of this deal.
A second idea would be for us to hire an appraiser. We know the neighborhood's sales pretty well, and these 30-year-old homes are probably selling above assessment. Ours has new ceilings, new carpet, new interior & exterior paint, a new PVC street fence, an updated kitchen, a screened lanai, a whirlpool tub, a full attic, and a bigger floorplan on a bigger lot. All appliances included, a new gas stove/range & microwave oven, a 10-year-old water heater, and a water conditioner. The roof is 10 years old, heavy-duty cedar shakes with 30-40 years left. Great elementary school two blocks away, a shopping center a block away, a huge community park across the street. Not the best house in the neighborhood, but definitely in the top quartile.
An appraisal would give the tenants the choice of paying that price, or they could counter with their own appraiser. We'd probably settle on the average of the two, sign a contract, and turn it all over to the title company.
And of course we'd encourage the tenants to get a good home inspection. Heck, I'm curious to see how that turns out too.
The tenants have been in the place just over 18 months. He's retired military with what seems to be a good DoD civil-service job. His spouse just had their third kid (older kids are 3 & 5 years old) and I think they'd rather stay in the house and raise their family for a while than have to move again someday. From our beach-bum perspective they seem to have an awful lot of stuff. If we raised the rent, they'd probably choose to sell body parts rather than do another move. She also probably anticipates supplementing their income by running a home childcare business, something she hasn't been able to do as a tenant. And perhaps they sense an opportunity as Hawaii's mortgage rates & sales prices get softer.
Spouse and I are also willing to seller-finance up to 80% of the sale price. We'd offer a decent deal around NFCU's & PenFed's fixed 30-year loan, but without the origination fees & points. Because we want this deal to succeed, we'd probably try to structure the interest rate to make their P&I payment approximately equal to their current rent. They'd essentially lock in their current rent for 30 years while picking up property taxes and homeowner's expenses. Depending on how much they borrow, their interest rate could be 5.00-5.50%. That rate could be easily exceeded by long-term CDs over most of the next three decades, so maybe we want to rethink seller financing. But I'd hate to let such an easy sale get away because I'm pouty-faced about not beating CD rates. If we had to sell a vacant rental property then we'd easily spend a couple thousand in repairs & staging & marketing, and a buyer would probably be facing a 3-4% realtor's commission. I can forego a few thousand in interest to avoid those expenses.
Closing would depend on the financing but otherwise it'd be fairly quick. For tax reasons we'd prefer to close in 2009, but we wouldn't let it kill the deal.
I've done all the tax calculations for a straight sale (http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/renting-or-selling-the-rental-property-28264.html) but I'm not sure how taxes would work for a sale with seller financing. That could also kill our willingness to seller-finance-- clearly I'd hate to have to fork over tens of thousands of dollars to pay taxes while all the sale's proceeds are tied up in seller financing.
Anyone have a link to a tax site or an IRS pub where I can research taxes vs seller financing?
I understand the tax-deferral & mechanics of 1031s and of putting this money into another rental property or a TIC investment, but we're not interested. We'd rather cash out and put the after-tax profits into our ER portfolio's asset allocation.
Any other ideas, tips, or pitfalls?
Spouse and I have done several FSBO transactions, both selling and buying, and we're comfortable doing that again. From the tenant's comments it's possible that they're first-time home buyers. We get along well but we're looking for a good way to sell the place without making them feel that they're dealing with Mr. & Mrs. Snidely Whiplash.
Our first thought would be to go with the home's assessed value, which was last done in Dec 2007 for the fiscal year starting July 2008. The city's next batch of assessments will be mailed out in Dec 2008. I think the 2009 assessment will be 5-10% lower, but we're not trying to squeeze every penny out of this deal.
A second idea would be for us to hire an appraiser. We know the neighborhood's sales pretty well, and these 30-year-old homes are probably selling above assessment. Ours has new ceilings, new carpet, new interior & exterior paint, a new PVC street fence, an updated kitchen, a screened lanai, a whirlpool tub, a full attic, and a bigger floorplan on a bigger lot. All appliances included, a new gas stove/range & microwave oven, a 10-year-old water heater, and a water conditioner. The roof is 10 years old, heavy-duty cedar shakes with 30-40 years left. Great elementary school two blocks away, a shopping center a block away, a huge community park across the street. Not the best house in the neighborhood, but definitely in the top quartile.
An appraisal would give the tenants the choice of paying that price, or they could counter with their own appraiser. We'd probably settle on the average of the two, sign a contract, and turn it all over to the title company.
And of course we'd encourage the tenants to get a good home inspection. Heck, I'm curious to see how that turns out too.
The tenants have been in the place just over 18 months. He's retired military with what seems to be a good DoD civil-service job. His spouse just had their third kid (older kids are 3 & 5 years old) and I think they'd rather stay in the house and raise their family for a while than have to move again someday. From our beach-bum perspective they seem to have an awful lot of stuff. If we raised the rent, they'd probably choose to sell body parts rather than do another move. She also probably anticipates supplementing their income by running a home childcare business, something she hasn't been able to do as a tenant. And perhaps they sense an opportunity as Hawaii's mortgage rates & sales prices get softer.
Spouse and I are also willing to seller-finance up to 80% of the sale price. We'd offer a decent deal around NFCU's & PenFed's fixed 30-year loan, but without the origination fees & points. Because we want this deal to succeed, we'd probably try to structure the interest rate to make their P&I payment approximately equal to their current rent. They'd essentially lock in their current rent for 30 years while picking up property taxes and homeowner's expenses. Depending on how much they borrow, their interest rate could be 5.00-5.50%. That rate could be easily exceeded by long-term CDs over most of the next three decades, so maybe we want to rethink seller financing. But I'd hate to let such an easy sale get away because I'm pouty-faced about not beating CD rates. If we had to sell a vacant rental property then we'd easily spend a couple thousand in repairs & staging & marketing, and a buyer would probably be facing a 3-4% realtor's commission. I can forego a few thousand in interest to avoid those expenses.
Closing would depend on the financing but otherwise it'd be fairly quick. For tax reasons we'd prefer to close in 2009, but we wouldn't let it kill the deal.
I've done all the tax calculations for a straight sale (http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/renting-or-selling-the-rental-property-28264.html) but I'm not sure how taxes would work for a sale with seller financing. That could also kill our willingness to seller-finance-- clearly I'd hate to have to fork over tens of thousands of dollars to pay taxes while all the sale's proceeds are tied up in seller financing.
Anyone have a link to a tax site or an IRS pub where I can research taxes vs seller financing?
I understand the tax-deferral & mechanics of 1031s and of putting this money into another rental property or a TIC investment, but we're not interested. We'd rather cash out and put the after-tax profits into our ER portfolio's asset allocation.
Any other ideas, tips, or pitfalls?