Should I Sell My Flat With the Tenants Still In It? (A Real Consultation)

If you own a flat with tenants in it and you want to sell, the advice you'll usually hear is to get them out first. Empty flat, clean photos, no awkward viewing arrangements.

I've now done around 800 free consultations with home sellers, and this comes up constantly with landlords. So here's a real one, with a seller who was about to give away roughly £70,000 to avoid the whole problem. I've changed some details to protect his privacy.

His question was whether to get the tenants out before he sold. Here's what we went through on the call, and where we landed.

An empty flat is easier to sell, but getting it empty is now riskier, slower and much harder to undo than it used to be. So most landlords without a deadline are safer selling with the tenants still in place. That only works if the tenants are on your side though, and that's arguably something worth paying for.

But the reasoning matters far more than the verdict, because it changes what you spend your money on.

If you want to cut straight to the chase, I've built a free quiz that finds the selling route that actually fits your property and your priorities. It takes about 60 seconds.

Hit the button below to get started:

1. Dan's situation, and what he was about to do

Dan (not his real name) rang round a few quick-sale companies one morning, then found our website and booked a call the same day.

Here's where he was:

• A two-bed flat in an outer-London suburb, and he's the only decision-maker. He'd bought it in 2017 for around £350,000 with a previous partner, and bought her out a few years later.
• Tenanted, and comfortably so. His tenants had been in for a couple of years, had just had a baby, and weren't going anywhere. The rent covered the mortgage and the bills with a little over.
• No deadline at all. He was selling to fund a wedding and some work on the home he shares with his fiancee, and told me he'd happily wait six months, or even a year, for the right price.
• One previous attempt. Launched at around £325,000, cut back after a few months, two offers, and he turned down one a little over £300,000 before taking it off the market.
• A crowded market. Well over a hundred similar flats within half a mile of his, plus a chunk of brand new build competing at show-home standard.
• A number from a quick-sale company that morning of around £230,000. He put the phone down on them, which was the right call.

He came to the call with a straight question: is there any way of selling this that doesn't involve going back to an estate agent? He'd done his own viewings last time and disliked the whole experience.

Before we can answer that, we have to be clear about what was actually going to move his price...

2. What was really going to decide his price

On a flat competing against dozens of near-identical ones, the price is decided by how many of the right buyers see it at its best. That makes viewing access and presentation the levers that matter, and in a tenanted property both of those belong to the tenants rather than the owner.

I use a simple frame for this. Homes sell on the best presentation, the best promotion and the best price. Presentation and promotion get the right buyers through the door seeing the place at its best, and price makes it the best deal once they're in.

Dan already had presentation on paper. His tenants had redecorated the flat themselves and by his own account it looked better than it had in the marketing photos last time.

But presentation only counts if buyers get through the door. And promotion was thin last time, because he'd used one agent in an area with well over a hundred competing flats.

Price was the third miss. He launched high, reduced later, and the sale stalled in exactly the way an overpriced launch usually does.

So two of the three Ps needed fixing, and the third was sitting in the hands of two people whose interests pointed the opposite way to his. As Dan put it himself on the call:

He was right, and that single sentence is what the whole plan ended up being built around. First, though, the routes he'd been considering...

3. The routes I'd steer him away from

Dan arrived with three ways of avoiding the estate-agent problem. On the call we went through why each of them costs a seller in his position a great deal of money.

Every fast route on his list was a way of buying speed, and speed was the one thing he already had plenty of. With no deadline and a rent covering the mortgage, each of them meant paying tens of thousands of pounds for a benefit he had no use for.

Here's the detailed breakdown of each one, starting with the one most landlords assume is just good practice...

3.1. Emptying the flat and selling it vacant

There's a genuine argument for this one, and for years it's exactly what I'd have recommended he do.

An empty flat is easier to sell, and for three real reasons:

1. You control the diary, so viewings happen when buyers want them rather than when somebody else is free.
2. You control how it looks, so nobody is judging the place by another household's washing up.
3. And there's no risk of the tenants digging their heels in at the end and costing you the sale after months of work.

So my default for a long time was simple. If you're serious about selling, get the property empty first, and then market it.

What's changed is the cost of getting there...

Since the Renters' Rights Act came in, moving a tenant on takes longer than it used to, and it's a great deal harder to undo. If the sale then falls through, you can't simply put a new tenant in and try again next year.

So the sums have moved. For a landlord with no deadline and a rent that's covering the mortgage, months of empty-flat costs and a decision you can't easily reverse is a lot to pay for an easier viewing diary.

And it cuts the other way too. Because selling tenanted is now the right answer far more often, getting your tenants onside matters more than it used to, not less. It's gone from a nice-to-have to being the thing the whole sale runs on.

There's one situation where I'd still think differently, and that's a seller with a hard deadline, or tenants who are keeping the property in awful condition. Neither applied here.

3.2. Selling to a house-buying company

The £230,000 Dan was quoted sits somewhere around £70,000 below what this flat should sell for on the open market. That's the going rate for the speed these companies offer.

Genuine, well-funded house-buying companies pay somewhere around 80% of market value, and there's a real reason behind it rather than a con. I've broken the whole thing down in how much house-buying companies really pay.

They can suit sellers who value speed, certainty and convenience far more than price. But for most sellers, there are far better options. That includes for Dan, because the maximising the cash that came out of the sale at the end was the entire point of his sale.

He had time, and time is the thing these companies essentially charge all that money for.

Related: Cash House Buyers: The 11 Pros & Cons (My Honest Advice Before You Sell)

A house-buying company wasn't right for Dan. If you're weighing one up for your own sale though, the free quiz tells you in about 60 seconds whether one genuinely fits your situation. If it does, I'll introduce you to the company I know and trust on your results page. If it doesn't, I'll let you know what I'd suggest instead.

Click below to take the quiz:

3.3. Auction

Dan hadn't considered auction, and I raised it because agents suggest it to almost anyone who mentions wanting speed or certainty.

Selling at auction typically costs you 10% to 15% against what an estate agent would achieve. On a flat around his value, that's £30,000 to £45,000, which is a lot to pay for a quicker sale he didn't need.

The reason it costs that much is the buyer pool:

• Most buyers either can't or won't buy at auction, so fewer people are competing,
• And the ones who do show up are there specifically to find a bargain.

Auction does come into its own on a property that can't be mortgaged, or one that's really a development project, because investors are the only realistic buyers anyway.

An ordinary mortgageable flat like this one is the opposite, so the process shrinks the audience for no gain. I've set out both sides in my guide to the pros and cons of selling at auction.

3.4. The last check before the prescription

There's a check I run before saying anything about a flat in a crowded market, and it takes about two minutes.

Count the comparable homes for sale nearby in a broad price band around your own, then count how many have a sale agreed. For Dan it was around 80 comparable flats, with roughly one in five sale agreed.

We run that check all over the country and see anywhere from 10% to 50%. So one in five is on the low side, but it's nowhere near a frozen market. Buyers were transacting on his street at his sort of price, which is the strongest argument there is against giving away £70,000 to get out.

Finding more things that don't work doesn't sell the flat though, so here's what I actually suggested.

4. How I'd sell a tenanted flat for the best price

There's no clever single move here. What there is instead is a stack of small ones that each shift the odds, and the first is the one nobody expects.

1. Pay your tenants to be on your side.
   
   A heavy disclaimer first, because this is not the norm. Most estate agents will tell you it's a crazy idea, and so will most solicitors, and the regulations around tenancies make it fiddly. I can't give you legal or financial advice and this isn't it, so please run it past your own solicitor or agent first. There's a strong argument it works out really well, and there are ways it can go wrong too, so it's a tactic to use at your own risk and your own judgement. What follows is what we've learned handling this ourselves and for our clients, and it's the opposite of a lot of what you'll read online.
   
   Your tenants have more control over this sale than anyone else involved, including your agent. Properties that are easy to view get more viewings. If the tenant's only availability is "two weeks from now at 1 o'clock" and a buyer won't wait, they'll simply go and see all the other properties they've shortlisted instead.
   
   And legally, that access is theirs to give. A tenant has a right to quiet enjoyment of the property, which in plain English means neither you nor your agent can go in without their agreement. A viewings clause in the tenancy agreement doesn't override that, and the 24 hours' notice rule people quote is about inspections and repairs rather than sales viewings. So there's no lever here other than goodwill, which is exactly why I'd be willing to pay for it.
   
   What I'd offer. A one-off sum, in return for the flat staying presentable and viewings being easy, including while they're out if they're comfortable with that. On a flat like this one, something in the region of a month's rent, so £1,500 or £2,000, feels about right.
   
   How I'd structure it. Put it in writing as a short separate agreement rather than a change to the tenancy, and pay it on completion of the sale. I wouldn't do it as a rent reduction, because dropping the rent is a great deal easier than putting it back up again. And it has to be genuinely optional for them, an offer they're free to turn down, never anything that could read as pressure to leave.
   
   The honest case for doing it. The norm is to do none of this, so nobody is being reckless if they skip it, and it's possible the tenants would have been helpful anyway. But it could be the difference between selling and not selling, or the difference between selling at one price and £10,000 more. Based on my experience, it's a trade I'd take every time, especially if you fear your tenants are going to be tricky.
2. Send cleaners in before the photographer.
   A good set of pictures can be worth thousands, and in a market as crowded as Dan's was, it'll often decide whether a buyer clicks your listing at all. Paying for a morning of cleaning on behalf of your tenants feels odd... right up until you compare it with the cost of having an awful set of photos... which can knock thousands off your sale price, and add months extra to your timeline.
3. Market with two local agents rather than one.
   You pay a little more in fees, but in a competitive market it earns its keep three times over. You get two listings on the portals instead of one, two databases of registered buyers being worked for you, and two teams cross-selling the flat to people who've just viewed something similar.
   
   Only around 30% of our own sales come from Rightmove. The other 70% come from agents picking up the phone to their database, which matters even more in London, where the market is fragmented and harder to search.
4. Get the launch price right the first time.
   This is the biggest single lever, and it's the one that went wrong for Dan last time. Overpricing doesn't make you more money, it just costs you time. Underpricing does cost you money though, so the jeopardy runs both ways. So the answer is a realistic figure arrived at from evidence, rather than from hope or from pessimism.
   
   Agents don't want to give you that figure, because overvaluing is how they win the instruction and lock in the contract. So push them for the comparable evidence behind the number, and treat a valuation with nothing underneath it as a sales pitch.
   
   Rightmove's July 2026 analysis shows homes that sell without ever needing a reduction find a buyer in around 36 days. Homes that need one sit for around 127 days. That's why an accurate valuation is so important if you want to sell your home quickly, and for a decent price.
5. Consider handing the viewings back to the agents.
   Dan conducted his own viewings last time and I understand exactly why. He sells for a living and he knows the flat better than the estate agent's unenthusiastic office junior ever will.
   
   The catch is the frame. When an owner shows someone round, I've often seen buyers experience it as "a tour of somebody else's home", when what you need is the buyer imagining it as theirs. I've seen owner-led viewings go wrong over and over again for that reason alone.
6. Instruct a solicitor before you list, not after.
   Get the forms filled in and sitting with them, so the day you agree a sale everything goes straight out. Most agents would tell you to wait for a buyer, and waiting is how the first fortnight disappears into paperwork while the buyer's enthusiasm quietly drains away.
   
   On a leasehold flat the management pack and the searches are the slow parts, and six weeks for the pack isn't unusual. Ordering them early costs a few hundred pounds you may have to spend again if the information expires, which is a very different order of money to the routes we'd just ruled out.

Every one of those is a small edge. But stacked together on a flat that's competing with dozens of near-identical ones, they can start being the difference between being the one that sells and being the one buyers scroll past.

This plan is only the part of a sale you can see, though. A lot of the outcome comes down to the hundred smaller problems that crop up mid-sale, including the ones a seller doesn't yet know they'll hit. Handling all of that is what our accelerated sale service does, for people who'd rather have the whole thing run for them by my team and I.

5. Where Dan got to

He didn't take the £230,000, and he isn't emptying the flat. Here's the plan:

1. He's going back to the open market...
2. With two local agents...
3. And a realistic launch price backed by evidence.
4. He'll have a solicitor lined up before the listing goes live,
5. And he's having the conversation with his tenants about making the whole thing easy for them too.

The three routes he arrived with would have cost him somewhere between £30,000 and £70,000 for speed he had no use for. The plan costs him perhaps a couple of thousand pounds (in the form of the goodwill gesture to his tenants), and a bit of patience.

That's the trade many landlords in his position could be making, but almost nobody spells it out.

If you're somewhere near the same decision, the quiz takes about 60 seconds and tells you which route actually fits your property and your priorities. If a fast sale genuinely is right for you, I'll point you to the option I'd trust from your results page. If it isn't, I'll tell you what I'd do instead.

Thanks for reading, and hit the button below to get started:

Frequently asked questions

1

Can you sell a flat with tenants still living in it?

Tenants make it harder rather than impossible. They control viewing arrangements and presentation, and whether the move-out runs smoothly at the end, so they have more say over your price and your chances of completing than anyone else involved. That's why it can pay to incentivise them to help, or to move them out and sell vacant instead.

2

Is it better to sell a tenanted flat empty or with the tenants in place?

An empty flat is genuinely easier to sell, with better viewing access, better presentation, and no risk of the tenants blocking the move-out at the end. Getting there is now slower and harder to reverse though, so for a landlord without a deadline, selling with co-operative tenants in place is usually the better trade.

3

Should I pay my tenants to help with viewings?

A tenant's right to quiet enjoyment means access for viewings is theirs to give, so goodwill is the only real lever a landlord has. A one-off sum of around a month's rent, agreed in writing, made clear it's optional, and paid on completion of the sale can buy the goodwill and align your interests. It isn't the norm, and this isn't legal advice.

4

How much would a house-buying company pay for a tenanted flat?

Most of them won't buy one at all. Their model is to buy and resell quickly, and a sitting tenant limits that resale to only investors, who pay the lowest prices of anyone. Where a company will look at it, you'd usually have to wait for the tenant to move out before they'd complete anyway. More on their pricing in how much house-buying companies really pay.

5

Should I use two estate agents to sell a flat in a crowded market?

Two agents give you two portal listings, two databases of registered buyers, and two teams cross-selling the flat. The extra fee is usually around half a percent. It earns its keep most where dozens of similar properties are competing, because the whole aim there is being seen by every possible buyer.