November 28, 2022
In January of this year (2022) we wrote a short blog titled “How To Prepare Your Investment Property For Sale”. Here is a link to that original article How To Prepare Your Investment Property For Sale. We thought it would be beneficial to add an update to this original blog that does not totally revise it but instead adds just one additional but very important item for facilities that are not owner managed. Do you tell the manager the property is for sale?
Storage and Park owners that have a manager on site that handles the daily operations of the property for them often times do not want to make the managers aware the property is for sale or even under contract. The reasoning is understandable as the owner does not want the manager to exit, leaving them scrambling to handle the transaction, find a replacement and manage the daily operations of the property. However, as I have advised owners previously who have been under this belief and fear, it is actually best to get the manager involved as early as possible in the sales process and to incentivize them to stay on at least until the closing occurs.
Having your manager involved from day one will help you alleviate the task of collecting reports, answering questions and covertly trying to give the buyer access to the property for due diligence under the guise of stories like the buyer is simply with “The Insurance Company”. If the manager has been doing their job well, sometimes the buyer may even want to retain the manager instead of bringing in their own. Also, sometimes these deals do not close, thus a manager that leaves early may have left for no reason if they feared being let go once it closed.
One other point I would make in favor of including the manager in the deal is trust. Trust is a very important aspect of any relationship. You trust the manager to manage your multi-million-dollar asset and to be truthful with you in all situations. Why would you want to deceive them and potentially harm the longevity of the relationship if the deal does not close by going behind their back.
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