Sell your house for cash · Los Angeles
You don’t have to hand me a vacant house. I’ll take it occupied. You do not serve anything, file anything or have the conversation. Whoever is in there when we open escrow can still be in there when we close.
Every buyer you have spoken to wants it delivered vacant, which puts the eviction on you before you are allowed to sell. In Los Angeles that is not a two-week job.
So you keep collecting rent that no longer covers what the building costs you, on a property you decided to sell a year ago.
A few questions, on the form or the phone: the address, what shape it’s in, what’s going on. Maisha usually picks up. Her job is to get me to your kitchen table, not to talk you into anything.
Day 0 · a few questions
I walk it with Marco, who sells the houses I buy and sits in on every seller meeting. You get the comps, the repair estimate and all three numbers on the spot. Not a “let me run this by my team.”
All three numbers, at the table
You choose, I execute. Cash closes in about 17 days at a local title company. On path two the renovation starts and I handle every contractor, permit, photo and showing.
Cash closes in about 17 days
You have more options here than the three I offer, and most of them do not involve me. Here they are, including the ones that pay you more than I will. One thing first: tenant rights when a landlord sells property in Los Angeles are set by the ordinance covering that address, and they apply the same way whichever option you pick. That is a question for a landlord-tenant attorney, not a reason a sale cannot happen.
Nothing says you have to sell. If the rent still covers the loan, the tax, the insurance and the repairs, and the tenants are steady, holding a rental is a reasonable plan. In my experience the reason landlords sell is that one of those four stopped being true, not the property itself. Work out which one it is before you do anything, because if it is fixable you can keep the asset.
Sometimes the problem is not the building. It is being the person the tenant calls at eleven at night. A management company takes a share of the rent and takes that call instead. If what you actually want back is your evenings rather than your money, this costs far less than a sale and you keep the property.
On the open market a rental usually sells for more than any cash buyer will pay for it, and that includes me. That is the honest headline and I am not going to bury it. The complication is access and vacancy: showings need the tenants to cooperate, and a buyer who wants to live in the house normally wants it delivered empty, which puts the tenancy question back on your desk before you can sell. If the unit is already empty, or the tenant is moving anyway, list it. That is normally the biggest number.
The person already living there is the buyer nobody thinks of. If they have been in the place for years and can qualify for a loan, that sale skips the turnover, the showings and the vacant months entirely. It costs you nothing to ask them first, and I would rather you asked them before you called me.
An auction gives you a date and a public sale, and for an occupied property in Los Angeles County the room is mostly investors. Fees come off the top and the price is whatever turns up that day. It is a real option when a fixed date matters more to you than the figure, and it is not usually the highest figure.
Also a decision, and sometimes the right one. If the tenancy is quiet and the numbers still work, there is no reason to sell this quarter. Just make it a decision you took on purpose rather than one you arrived at by not answering the question for another year.
I pay less than a clean open-market listing would, and in exchange you never evict anyone, never deliver it vacant and never wait out a turnover, with the sale closing at a local title company in about 17 days. Leases, deposits and rent rolls move through escrow the normal way. That trade is worth it to some landlords and not to others, and if the listing is the better answer for your property I will tell you so on the call.
One number for the property as it sits, tenants included. This is the path most tired landlords take, because the alternative is months of process before you can even list.
What it costs you. Nothing. No commission, no repair credits, and no closing costs out of your pocket.
Harder here, and I will be straight about it: a finished listing usually needs the unit empty, which puts you back at the start. If the property is vacant or becoming vacant, it is worth a look.
What it costs you. My listing commission, and the renovation money comes back out of the sale proceeds at closing. Never out of your pocket.
Cash, funding or a listing, whichever the situation calls for. For when the house is not the actual problem.
What it costs you. Nothing up front. Whatever I advance, carry or pay for comes back out of the proceeds at closing, on terms you see before you sign.
Not to sell to me. That is the main reason landlords call: every other buyer wanted it delivered vacant.
The lease goes with the building, so a sale does not end it and the tenants keep the terms they already have. Beyond that, tenant rights when a landlord sells property in Los Angeles turn on the local ordinance covering that address, and reading it for you is a job for a landlord-tenant attorney, not for me. What I can promise is that nothing about the sale requires you to be the one who tells them to leave.
I have taken those too. Tell me what the situation actually is, including anything unpleasant, and I will tell you whether I can work with it.
They transfer to me at closing through escrow, credited against the purchase price. Standard, and escrow handles the accounting.
It can, because it changes what I am taking on. It does not stop the sale, and it does not mean you have to chase it first.
Start with the address
You’ll know all three numbers before I leave your kitchen. And if listing it the ordinary way is the better move for you, I’ll say so out loud.
Maisha or I answer these ourselves, usually the same day.
Or skip all this:
(323) 363-2731That’s my line. Maisha or I pick it up.
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Or skip all this:
(323) 363-2731That’s my line. Maisha or I pick it up.
