Should I ask for a professional cleaning of a home I am buying? 

Sometimes in the terms, people can ask for a house to be professionally cleaned prior to possession.   You could say something like, “Seller will have the home professionally cleaned for a minimum of 12 hours”.  However, all houses are different, and some will require more time than others, and a level of cleanliness is hard to quantify.  Sometimes doing deep cleaning of appliances, floors, shower doors, etc, can take much more time. 

Some laws changed after COVID-19. Now it is possible if you can’t meet your Alberta or Lethbridge Real Estate Lawyer in person, you can sign remotely.

• You receive documents from the lawyer by email
• You print the documents
• Sign the documents through a Facetime, or Zoom meeting with your lawyer
• You courier the original documents back to your Alberta Lawyer. 

We have had many clients in the past few years sign for their purchases and sales this way.  Many of our remote buyers sign this way.  We have helped many buyers and sellers sign remotely and we can recommend a lawyer who can help you sign remotely as well. 

We may have Lethbridge in our name, but Team Viewlethbridge.com works all over Southern Alberta.   We have helped clients in many communities including 

Barons,  Barnwell, Bellevue, Bow Island, Carmangay, Calgary, Champion, Cardston, Medicine Hat, Coleman, Crowsnest Pass, Coaldale, Coalhurst, Cowley, Fort Macleod, Hill Spring, Little Bow Resort, Lomond, Moon River Estates, Nanton, Picture Butte, Red Deer, Stirling, Stavely, Taber, Vulcan and Warner

If you are looking to buy or sell in Southern Alberta, or make a move and maybe do both, contact us at teamviewlethbridge.com.  If we can’t help you we can connect you with a professional who can. 

We all know that good photos will help to sell a house.  For some people, it can make the difference between booking a viewing, or just moving on.  At Team Viewlethbridge.com, we take pride in having excellent photos, virtual tours, and when possible aerial photography as well. 

However, there are some cases where there is only an exterior photograph.  Or perhaps a small number of photographs, or photos that are not of the best quality.  There are a few reasons why. 

1. The house is tenant occupied:  The tenants have not given permission for photographs to be taken. 
2. It is a court-ordered sale:   That means that it is the court that is forcing the sale of the house, and not the person on title.  This could be because of a divorce, or because the people on title have not paid their mortgage for at least 6 months.  They may not give permission for photos to be used.
3. It is a foreclosure:  If it is a foreclosure, the inside of the home could be very messy, and the REALTOR® or the bank involved has decided against interior photos. 
4. The house is messy:  Occasionally someone will want their house listed before they have had a chance to clean up. 
5. Owner wants privacy:  The owner may not want their personal items online. 
6. Unmotivated REALTOR®: It could be that the realtor wants to do as little as possible, and may not want to invest their time or money in the listing.  When you hire a REALTOR®, make sure you ask if they take professional photos. 

Team Viewlethbridge.com does list quite a few foreclosures and court-ordered sales, so it is possible that some of our listings will not have as many photos as we would like.  If you see a listing that interests you, don’t hesitate to contact us, and we will let you know about the property. 

1) Give the tenants the first opportunity to buy the property. It’s possible that they are interested and have the funds to do so, and they will appreciate it if you ask.

2) Sell with the tenants there. This can be more difficult because we need to give the tenants 24 hours’ notice for any showings, and the tenants may want to stay. But at least you will be getting rent during that time. There may also be some people who are looking for a revenue property with tenants in it.

3) Sell when the tenants have left. This is much easier to do, however, you are not getting paid any rent during this period. However, the house will be more attractive to potential buyers and you will likely get a higher price for an empty house. 

If you want to sell your revenue property without tenants, be careful how you proceed and make you follow the Landlord Tenant Act of Alberta. You cannot give the tenants 90 days notice however, if they are on a month-to-month lease, until you have an accepted offer to purchase on your property, with all conditions removed.  You can also give your tenants 90 days notice if you or a family member wants to move into the property.  You are legally able to raise the rent though if the rent hasn’t been raised in the past 12 months. In Alberta, there is no limit on how much a landlord can increase the rent but a landlord can only increase the rent after a year has passed from either the start of the tenancy or when the last rent increase was made.

If there is a fixed-term lease, the lease needs to be honoured until its end date, by both the current owner, and any new owner, (leases stay with the property, not the owner of the property). 

If you have a fixed-term lease and would like the tenants to leave early, you can always negotiate with them to end the lease early, (for example you could offer them a month of free rent).   You could do something like sign a fixed-term two-month lease, at the cost of one month.  If that is the difference between making a sale or not making a sale, it could be worthwhile.  If you have had good tenants, you can offer to write them a letter of reference as well.

 If you want to fix up your home before a sale, it can sometimes be very difficult to do with tenants in it. 

Please check the landlord-tenant act for more details, and to verify the above information, as sometimes there are changes to the landlord-tenant act. 
https://www.alberta.ca/ending-a-tenancy.aspx
http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/pdf/RTA/_9RENT_INCREASES__.pdf

Many of the team members at viewlethbridge.com have revenue properties. We are happy to chat about the best way to proceed with selling. It really depends on the tenant situation, the rent you are getting, and your reasons for selling.

Do you have bad tenants?  Check here for reasons why a tenant can be evicted. 

https://www.landlordandtenant.org/notices/eviction-notice/

Normally when you list a house, you want the benefit of the MLS, where it is accessible to all agents, and people searching across Canada.  However, there may be some instances where an exclusive listing would be better temporarily. 

1. You have a few things that you would like to fix up. 
2. You would like to have the buyers screened more carefully for showings, in order to keep the showings to those ready to buy.  
3. You want more flexibility for your possession date.
4. Gives you the opportunity to put up a sign outside your house to drum up interest, (or conversely, you do not want it broadcast, and don’t want a sign). 
5. You have a rental property with great tenants, and you don’t want to scare them with a sign.