A Little Trick to Getting a Tentant in Place…..BEFORE Closing!

Although, my latest investment property came with an existing tenant, my student rental property did not.  Additionally, the closing date of the property was Jan 1^st…a tough time to be finding students in any town! 

This is a big fear for many investors….finding that “first tenant”.

How long will the property be vacant?

If it is vacant now, how long has it been that way?

How will I fill the property without owning it?

Luckily, there is a simple answer to improving your chances of renting the property BEFORE the sale even closes!

The simple trick is including a provision in the Agreement of Purchase and Sale which allows for access to the property before closing!  For my student rental, I had a 60 day closing.  This meant that I had access to the property for two whole months to show the property to prospective student tenants!   This little detail allowed my free access whenever I needed to set up a showing (conditional on informing the current owner) and I was able to land a group of co-op students looking for a 4 month term.  To top it off, they renewed for another year after the term was up!

The “conditions” of sale is an under-utilized section of the Agreement in my opinion.  You can put just about anything in here you want as long as the vendor agrees to it!

Does anyone else have any sneaky conditions that they have used in the past?