More and more sellers are insisting on staying in their Orlando property after deal closes.
As an Orlando Realtor since 2005, I’ve seen it all. Some people need more time to find a new place while others just want to stay to finish out the school year. In some cases the sellers will make a deal with the new owners to continue renting the home indefinitely.
I say why not? As long as the buyer and the seller are able to come to a mutual agreement as far as rent and terms, then go for it. Although many of my buyers are retail home buyers who want nothing more than to move in their new house, we also work with a lot of investors who buy several homes a year through our company.
Some of these investors are strictly re-habbers that are interested in fixing the house up and selling it. These particular buyers never want the sellers to stay after the closing because they need to get in there and get to work. Obviously, you can’t have people living in a house while your remodeling it because it’s not livable. The other reason is that a lot of these investors need to close on one deal in order to re-invest in the next one.
However, there is another type of investor out there that is willing and able to accommodate sellers wanting to stay in the property provided that the terms are agreeable to both buyer and seller.
Buyers have had the advantage in Orlando real estate deals since 2006, when the market was flooded with properties and prices were still astronomical.
As Orlando Realty prices became more affordable, sales increased sharply, reducing the supply of available Orlando homes and ultimately giving sellers more power in negotiations.
Bidding wars have now returned for moderately priced homes, some real estate firms and analysts say that Orlando’s housing market has hit bottom. And others say more foreclosures could be on the horizon and will hurt prices.
In my opinion we’ve not only hit bottom but Orlando real estate is steadily increasing. Is it still a buyers market? Yes, I think so, but in desirable Orlando neighborhoods with not a lot of inventory, buyers are fighting to get the houses.
Sellers are Starting to Regain Control in the Orlando Real Estate Market
Sellers in Orlando realize that the market is starting to come around again and some homeowners use this as leverage to make a deal with the new buyer to stay in the house. At the end of the day, short sale or not, the Seller has all of the control as long as the property hasn’t gone through foreclosure. That means that they can refuse to sign the sales contract if they don’t get the deal that they want.
Most sellers prefer to leave the home on the day of closing or before. However, in my experience, post-occupancy clauses occur on about 10% of the deals closed by our office.
While buyers may feel they have no choice but to allow a seller to rent in order to get the deal done, they should be careful about agreeing to it. There should be a written agreement that includes a specific move-out date and the amount of money that will be held in escrow to be used if the seller-turned-renter damages the property.
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