For your ease, we have provided a transcript of the Distressed Home Q&A Recording.
Hey, this is Evan with Simple Sale Central Florida. We’re back for another monthly Q&A. At Simple Sale Central Florida we work to bring transparency and accountability to distressed home sales. We work in Tampa Bay to Orlando, to the Space Coast. We work on problems like liens, probates, code violations, and title issues. We’ll buy your house or help you list it after fixing those issues. So, let’s go right into the questions.
1. My home is more trouble than it’s worth. How can I get rid of it?
I guess that must mean that there’s excessive repairs that need to be done on the property. In that situation it really depends on your timeline. Are you looking to sell the property in the next 15 to 30 days? Are you looking to sell in the next 30 to 60 days, or more?
If you do have some time, I’d suggest that you consult with someone to see what issues exist. If it’s just repairs, you could still list the property. It’s just going to take some time to sell. If it’s legal issues, then you’ll have to look into them and see how long it’ll take. For example, if it’s in probate, it may take 60 to 90 days. If it’s a lien, it could take no time or several months. It just depends.
Really your options are selling to a cash buyer or talking to a real estate agent or brokerage to possibly list it. At Simple Sale we buy properties, but in the right situation, we recommend listing the property with our brokerage.
Read More: How to Get Rid of a Distressed Property
2. I inherited a home with my brother and I want to sell, but he doesn’t. What can we do?
It really just depends on how severely he doesn’t want to sell the property. If he adamantly doesn’t want to sell but you have to, you can do what’s called a Partition Sale. Here, you’ll sell the property via the government and force the sale.
If it’s just going to require a little bit of mediation, then you can work with him on it. Hire an attorney to work with him on it. You can also sell out your interest in the property. That’s possible. We’ve done that before; buying out someone’s one half interest or whatever the situation is. That’s an option as well. You do have various options. You can buy out the interest, you can do a Partition Sale, or you can just mediate it.
3. What is a lien on a home?
A lien on a home typically means that there is a legal document that’s attached to a property’s title. It states that some entity is owed, typically money, for services rendered, code violations or taxes. Most of the time it’s monetary: you owe money for some reason. It doesn’t always have to do with your house. You could have IRS liens because of an issue with your income taxes. There’s various types of liens, but they’re always an attachment to a property.
Most buyers and investors will not buy a property with a lien unless that’s cleared up. At Simple Sale Central Florida, we do buy them depending on the situation, but you really limit the number of buyers willing to buy it. We typically recommend fixing that situation before you try to sell. Sometimes it’s not possible, but if at all possible you definitely need to try to sell it. A lot of times the proceeds from the sale will pay for the lien. There’s not really anything you have to do necessarily. When you sell a home with a lien, you’ll just pay for it out of the proceeds of the sale.
4. I just got a foreclosure notice on my home. What are my options?
If you just got a foreclosure notice, typically you have time. Sometimes three, six, nine, 12 months, before anything’s really going to happen, What I would do is find out if you have equity in the house. If you have equity, great. Do you want to stay in the house? Let’s say you do want to stay and you have equity, you’re really going to have to pay the loan up to date.
If you’re going to foreclosure, you’re probably not going to be able to refinance. No one will extend a loan to you if you’re late on your loan payments. Your other option is to, of course, sell the property, get some of that equity, and move on. But if you want to stay on the property it’s really about getting your payments up to date.
If you want to sell and you have equity, then it’s just a matter of going out and finding the best and the highest offer for it. If you’re in foreclosure and the property needs a lot of work, you’re not going to be able to go to a retail buyer. It limits your buyer pool, but you can still go out and try to find the highest offer possible to get the most equity possible. If you’re in foreclosure, it’s going to be tough for a retail buyer to buy it. It may be possible, but not always. A lot of times it needs to be a cash deal for it to get done.
If you don’t have equity in the property you can do what’s called a Short Sale. Let’s say you owe $200,000, and someone comes in and offers $180,000. You can submit that to the mortgage company and say, “Hey, we have an offer for $180,000. Will you take that?” If they say yes, then you sell the property and move on. That’s what’s called a Short Sale. You’re short of the money due on the note upon the sale. Those are some of the options you have.
When you get to that point in foreclosure you should consider your options and what’s best for you. Are you looking to stay? If you are, then you need to figure out your finances so you can stay in the property. You can talk with the mortgage company and ask for some kind of loan modification, but if you’re already in foreclosure, it’s a little late for that. There are always options out of your situation.
Read More: Can You Sell Your Home Before Foreclosure?
5. My mom passed and her home’s in probate. Can you help me?
We’ve handled many probate properties over the years. I’ve seen a lot of people try to teach themselves how to do the probate themselves, and it ends up being a bigger deal than it is. If you go to an experienced attorney, they should be able to take care of it for you. It’s worth it to hire an experienced attorney to do the probate proceedings for you. I wouldn’t try to do it yourself. It’s very difficult and costly. It will end up being very costly if you try to go about it all on your own. I’ve seen people try and they end up wasting a lot of money.
We can absolutely help, we have helped a lot of clients in probate cases. The complexity depends on the situation. It could be pretty simple, or it could be a little more complicated depending on how many heirs there are. It also depends on if there’s any equity in the property or any other situations with the house. So, it really is a case-by-case basis.
Read More: What to Expect When Selling a House in Probate
6. I just want to get out of my house and move on with my life. Can you help?
Yes, of course. So, in that situation it sounds like you want to sell the property relatively quickly. What we would do in that situation is make you a guaranteed cash offer for it. When you accept we’ll move forward with the process, typically taking 15 to 30 days total. It’s pretty straightforward.
If it’s time-sensitive, you’re really sacrificing money because you’re not going out and getting as many offers as possible. You want to move forward with someone that you know is going to close. Unfortunately in this industry, there’s a lot of people that say they’ll close then don’t for whatever reason. You really need to work with someone that you know is going to close on the property on time.
7. I can’t sell my house because it’s not up to code. What can I do?
One option is to hire a general contractor that would bring the property up to code. That’s always an alternative. How costly that could be depends on the seriousness of the situation. But then, your other option is to just sell the property as-is with the code violations. There’s plenty of people that will buy a property that’s not up to code, as-is.
It shouldn’t be too big of a deal depending on the severity of the situation. If you added an addition and it’s not up to code, that’s a pretty big deal. If it’s something more simple, it may not be a big deal or cost too much. So it depends on your situation. If you’re needing to sell your property, then you may have to sell it to a cash buyer. A cash buyer will buy a property that has code issues.
8. Do you buy homes with liens?
Yes, we do. A lot of the properties we buy have had or do have liens on them. Typically, we try to settle those liens before closing, but that’s not always the case. We’re very experienced in handling liens from tax liens, code violation liens, judgments, anything of that nature. We’re very experienced in working with them, and we can definitely help you through that situation.
And, just because you have liens doesn’t mean that you can’t list it on the market. It depends on what type of lien you have. If you have a lien that won’t be negotiated until closing, it’s usually very tough to list it on the market and get a good price. But if it’s something that can be paid off at or before closing, then it’s not a huge deal.
9. My home has a title issue that’s keeping me from working with a realtor. Please help!
Sometimes title issues can keep you from working with a realtor, or maybe they don’t want to deal with it or they’re not experienced with it. At Simple Sale Central Florida we are very experienced in those things. A lot of the listings that we do as agents have liens, code violations, probates, or title issues. We work through them during the sales process when we’re out trying to find the highest offer possible. We’re working through all those liens and issues that may come up.
We’ve listed several properties in probate, and as they’re being sold, we’re making sure that the probate and whatever other title issues are being taken care of before, or at closing. There’s no issue.
10. How does selling my house to you work?
So, typically, you can go to our website, SimpleSaleCentralFlorida.com, input your address and your information, and then answer a couple questions about your property and your situation. Then, within a few minutes we should reach out to you. It’s usually five minutes or so. So, be expecting a call. Someone will call and talk with you about your situation, and see if we’re a good fit.
The other alternative is to call our phone number: (407) 338-4183. Our customer services will ask you a few questions about your property, then a client specialist will reach out.
Wrapping Up
Any other questions? I don’t think I’ve seen anything. Thank you for taking the time to watch this video. You can always call us at (407) 338-4183 or visit our site, SimpleSaleCentralFlorida.com.
At Simple Sale Central Florida we work to bring transparency and accountability to distressed home sales. We buy properties, help list distressed properties, and we do whatever is best for each situation, in particular. We have tons of great reviews with our clients; we’re very client-centric and we work hard to have good experiences for people in stressful situations. I do appreciate it, and thank you.
