Selling a Houston Rental With Tenants In It
You don't have to get the tenants out to get out of the landlord business. We buy occupied houses, lease and all.
The tired-landlord math
Rentals stop making sense quietly. The rent stalls while taxes and insurance climb, every turnover eats a month and a repair budget, and the tenant who used to pay on the first now pays on the fifteenth, then not at all. At some point the honest question isn't how to fix the rental — it's whether you still want to be a landlord. If the answer is no, the house being occupied doesn't have to delay anything.
Why occupied houses are hard to sell the normal way
A retail listing wants showings, and showings want a cooperative tenant and a tidy house — you may have neither, and Texas law limits what you can demand of a tenant who's simply living out their lease. Most retail buyers want the house empty at closing, which puts you in the eviction or cash-for-keys business before you can even sell. We skip all of that: one scheduled visit, coordinated with the tenant like any other landlord entry, and no requirement that the house be vacant.
What happens to the lease
As a general rule the lease doesn't vanish when the house sells — the buyer steps into the landlord's shoes and the tenant's rights continue. That's fine with us; inheriting the tenancy is part of what we're buying. Bring whatever paperwork exists: the lease, the payment history, or an honest "it's month-to-month and nothing was ever written down," which is more common than you'd think. Deposits and prorated rent get handled on the settlement statement at closing, in the open.
Behind on rent, or mid-eviction?
Still talk to us. You don't need to finish an eviction — or start one — before selling; we can take the situation over as-is, and frankly the problem tenant becomes ours to resolve after closing, lawfully and at our expense. What we won't do is coach you on eviction strategy or anything else the Property Code governs; for that, talk to a landlord-tenant attorney. What we will do is stop the situation from costing you another month.
The house itself doesn't need anything either — tenant damage, deferred maintenance and all of it is priced in, the same as any as-is purchase.
Questions people in this situation ask
Do I have to evict the tenant before you'll buy?
No. We buy houses with the tenant in place — paying, not paying, on a lease or month-to-month. Whatever the occupancy situation is on closing day becomes ours to manage afterward. You don't spend another dollar or another month on it.
What about the security deposit?
It transfers with the property — the deposit follows the tenancy, not the old landlord. The title company accounts for it on the settlement statement at closing, along with any rent proration, so it's all itemized in writing rather than settled on a handshake.
There's no written lease. Is that a dealbreaker?
No, it's common. Tell us what the arrangement actually is — who lives there, what they pay, how long it's been going on. We'd rather have the true picture than a tidy one, and an informal tenancy is something we're fully prepared to work with.
Done being a landlord?
Tell us the address and the tenant situation, whatever it is.
Find out what we'd pay for your house
Tell us the address and a little about the property. There is no fee, no listing agreement and no obligation to accept anything we offer.