Are you thinking about selling your short term rental property? You bought this home once upon a time, but the thought of selling may seems overwhelming, especially when you have guests booked out for a few months. You know you’re ready to sell, but unsure of where to start. No worries! We will lay it out to help you get started. See our checklist below, to help guide you through the process. 

Start Blocking your Booking Calendars 

If you’ve been renting out your home as a short term rental property, you will need to think about upcoming guests that have already booked. Become familiar with tenant’s rights in your state. They apply in Arizona. Start blocking your calendar as soon as you consider selling. Reservations can get in the way of showings and inspections, so it’s safer to have dates blocked than to cancel reservations. The more serious you are about selling, the more important it is to block your open dates ASAP!

Hire and Interview a Listing Agent 

You will need to make sure the agent you choose is familiar with and respects the short term rental industry.  Keep in mind not all agents are familiar with selling a vacation rental and may not be as considerate of guests renting your home. The last thing you want is an agent that doesn’t understand all that it can take to sell a short term rental property. Do your research! There are many agents out there that are ready and willing to work with short term rental properties. Looking for an agent that can value your short term rental? We can help you with that.

Decide on a listing price 

How do you know what your house should be listed at? Markets are always changing, which means home prices are changing. This is where having an agent will be beneficial to you, because they will make sure you are listing your home at the right price for the market as well as yourself. Your agent will have your best interest in mind when helping you sell your home.  They will look at a number of factors including, home prices around the area, total homes on the market, and average time spent on the market.  A good agent will address your expectations as a seller. 

Understand how long it might take to sell your home

Selling your home doesn’t happen overnight. Recently we’ve seen such an interesting market where homes aren’t staying on the market for very long, but in a balanced market homes typically take 30-90 days to sell. The market is forever changing. Being realistic with yourself will help you avoid major disappointment. 

Prepare the home

Part of selling your home is staging and preparing your home for prospective buyers. Whether that is maintenance, cleaning or staging the home, or other things that can be done to elevate the property. One of the benefits of selling a short term rental property is that it is likely already staged! When you’re ready for pictures and showings, make sure it’s cleaned up and empty for showings (which is pretty easy as long as your calendar is blocked – See Step 1). 

List the home

It’s time to put the house on the market! If you hired an agent this step is pretty much taken care of for you. Your agent will list your home on listing sites to get your home in front of buyers. Licensed agents are able to put your home on the MLS and push to popular sites and apps. They will make sure your home is showing to as many potential buyers as possible.

Market the home both online and offline 

You’ll want people to know your home is on the market somehow! You may want to have some open houses, put a sign out and do some online marketing as well. It’s important to communicate this to your agent. If you are wanting to do open houses, letting your listing agent know when the home will not be occupied can help them plan out showings and open houses. 

Settle on a Final offer and anticipate the cost of selling your home 

You’ve gone through all the steps and now you’ve gotten a few offers on your home. Now what? It’s time to decide on the best offer and acceptance. You’ll want to keep in mind the different costs that go into selling your home when accepting your offer. Your agent will go over fees and closing costs with you.

Keep Up to Date on Deadlines 

Make sure all paperwork and warranties are gathered and all documents are signed. The title and escrow agents will need signatures on certain dates and can be very important for the sell of your home. Their agent will need their disclosure statements, insurance claims history, and contractual agreements, among other things. Make sure you and your agent are responding quickly to requests, and that the buyer responds to yours. 

Closing deadline checklist!

Close on the sale 

Each state is different regarding when close of escrow actually happens. In Arizona, the transfer is official when it is recorded with the corresponding county assessor’s office. As soon as it is recorded, the title company will usually call the seller’s agent to let them know it’s official! Until this happens, the house still belongs to the seller. This means the seller is still responsible for any and all maintenance of the property.

Once everything has been recorded and the keys go into the hands of the new owner…congratulations! You just sold your short term rental property. 

Interested in selling your short term rental in Arizona? Contact us today and get connected with an agent that can help you through your home selling journey. STRM has over 15 years of experience buying and selling vacation rental and short term rental properties. We’re locally owned and operated, so we know the market top to bottom.