Cliff Barron from RE/MAX here, with my update for Milton and Georgetown. I'd like to change it up a little bit - I'm going to give you an update on how the market's doing and that sort of stuff, but before I get there, I'd like to talk about landlords. 

I have quite a few clients who are investors.  They bought properties through me 5, 10, even 15 years ago - and some of them have tripled, quadrupled even, in price.  I've had a few call me up recently saying, "I'm thinking of selling. What's the process? What do I do?"  There are rules you have to follow, if you're a landlord thinking of selling your property. First of all, if there are tenants in there, you can't just kick them out and sell the property. You can't do that. You can, technically, give them notice to leave, but if that happens, you have to personally live in the house.  It has to be you, or your immediate family. It can't be your brother, your sister, your cousin. It has to be you, your grandparents, or your kids that live in the house - for one year.  Then, after that one year, you're allowed to sell the property. 

Another important point as well - if there are tenants in the property, you can have a discussion with them about selling and hopefully everybody is on board. Then when it comes to showings, you have to show the property with 24 hours notice. You can't just let people come in. 

Also, as a landlord, you're not allowed to go in and take pictures of the unit and post them on the internet.  That's an infraction of their human rights. That's their personal stuff. So, basically, you can take exterior pictures only. That's it. So:  24 hours notice for showings (lockbox on the door as usual, if the tenants are okay with that), and then exterior pictures only, and it can be done. 

If there are tenants in the property, the buyer has to assume the tenants and then go through the eviction process, if they don't want to leave, so that's one thing to keep in mind. So, what usually happens is you sell the property and then you have a two or three month closing before it actually closes, you know, the gap between when the paperwork is agreed upon, and then actually closes - two to three months. And as soon as you've signed the agreement of purchase and sale, that's when you start the eviction process to get the tenants out if they're not amicable with leaving. 

So, if you have any questions about this, let me know, because I have some great resources for landlords and tenants. I've got a great paralegal I work with, and she can help you out with any questions you've got. I'm going to follow up next week with another tidbit about "Cash for Keys". That's something that's coming up, since it's pretty popular right now. 

When it comes to real estate, in Milton and Georgetown, it's still active, still busy.  It wasn't a typical July. Typical July is usually slow, but this year it's not crazy busy like it was back in March and April. I'm finding showings are less, you know, it's easier for me to get in and make an appointment now. You know, there used to be 60, 70, 80 showings on a property, and now there's 20, 25, which is still a huge number.  Going back, like if I had a listing five years ago, with 20 to 25 showings in the first five days, I'd be over the moon. But now everybody's like, where are all the people? That's still a lot of people. And when it comes to offers, I'm seeing, typically, if it's priced low, you'll still get the over asking thing going on, but it's basically priced lower and still within market value.  I'm finding right now there are maybe two or three offers on properties.  The most I've been involved in lately is seven offers on a property in Georgetown.  Most of the time, though it's two or three. So, the days are gone of 20 or 30 offers, like I was in before. It was just a heartbreaking situation. They're gone - hopefully for good!

Hopefully, some of the information I gave you helps you out.  If you have any questions, just shoot me a text or give me a call! Take care