shelbe, Author at Meli Homes : Meli Homes

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – December 17, 2021

Posted on December 20, 2021 by shelbe

For your ease, we have provided a transcript of the Q&A Recording.

Hey, this is Evan with Meli, home buyer, brokerage and consultant. We specialize in fixing title issues such as probate, liens, code violations, judgments, things of that nature. We’ll help you fix those issues, whether it be through making an offer on the property, brokering, or consulting.

We provide various services, so if you’re facing any of these issues, you can come to us. We can fix the probate issue and then either broker the house or make you an offer depending upon what your situation is. This is our monthly Q&A for the month of December. We’ll go through various questions that we have received and, let’s go ahead and get started.

1. What can Meli do for me?

Depending upon your situation, we can help you get through title issues or various issues with your house. Whether you’re looking to sell it or just fix the issues, we can be of help as a consultant, or as a broker or home buyer. We specialize in probates, title issues, disputes, judgments, liens, things of that nature. So if you have any of those types of situations, we can definitely help you.

2. What does it mean to sell a house to a cash homebuyer?

Simply put, it just means selling your house to an investor that’s going to pay in full for your property. Instead of selling a property to a retail buyer taking out a mortgage, you’re selling to an investor paying cash. The difference is that your property is going to have to be up to certain standards and conditions for the buyer of that property to be able to get a loan. Retail buyers will be unable to get a loan if the property is in a distressed situation. That’s really what it means, just selling to an investor that’s paying cash for your property, as-is, no contingencies.

Read More: What is a Cash Buyer in Property?

3. How can I sell my distressed house?

The easiest way is going online and looking for investors and homebuyers in your area that are actively buying properties. Then, find reputable companies with valid reviews. That will give you a good idea of the people you want to work with. Getting multiple offers from reputable companies is a good idea. Just because someone makes you an offer doesn’t mean they’re going to close. A lot of people make offers and they never close, and that’s a problem for the seller.

4. What’s the best way to sell a house that needs work?

Similar to the last question, the easiest way will be to look online and find the most reputable investors. Then, get offers from them and go with the most reputable offer combined with, hopefully, the highest purchase price. You’ll often find that the highest offer isn’t always a reputable investor. It’s likely someone that is actively trying to get properties under contract to try to resell them and if they close, great. But if they don’t close, they’ll just leave the seller hanging.

5. Is it possible to sell a house with a tax lien?

We’ve bought houses like that. It can be a problem. Most people won’t buy properties like that. We will buy properties with tax liens and code violation liens. It just depends on your situation. Tax liens are often paid before closing because they’re not that large, maybe $1,000 or up to $10,000 or $20,000. It’s not huge amounts, so a lot of times those will be paid at closing.

6. How does probate work when you’re selling a house?

It can vary from case to case. Let’s say you had a relative pass away and you inherited the property. You’re going to have to take that property through probate. You can go ahead and get the house under contract. An investor can put it under contract while you’re going through probate, and you can feel very confident that the house is going to sell. Then you can take it through the probate process.

But, there are also companies like Meli; we will actually help you through the probate process. We have attorneys that we use because we do dozens and dozens of probates. And we’ll actually take the house through the probate process with you. We’ll handle all the work with our attorneys and just have you sign various documents that need to be signed. Then, we’ll go under contract with you on the property, and whenever the judge approves the sale of the property, we’ll move forward with the sale.

Some buyers will help you with the probate, some won’t. Some will want you to go ahead and do it, then when you’re through the process, they’ll close. So, it just depends on the buyer.

7. Can you sell a house before probate?

Technically, no, because you don’t own the property yet. In probate, the municipality and a judge determine whether you and other potential heirs are the rightful owners of the house. There can be a lot of disputes with inherited property. Someone may think they own the house, but they don’t, which I’ve seen before. The judge will determine who owns the house, and once they do, you will rightfully be able to sell it.

If you wanted to “sell the property before probate,” you would do what’s called a Quick Claim deed. With this, you technically aren’t really selling the house, you’re selling your interest in it. Technically, you have no interest before the probate, but it can be done and it’s a way to do it. You still have to take it through probate, but you technically can sell it before probate by selling your interest. When the judge says, “You’re the owner of this property,” I’ve already bought your ownership of the property before that point, so I’m the rightful owner. But that’s a different way of doing it. We would only do that in really complicated situations, but it’s not something that we have done very often. Typically, just going through the probate process correctly is the best way to go.

8. Is selling a house with code violations possible?

Of course. We buy houses with code violations and code violation liens. It’s not that difficult to do. You essentially have to do what’s called a Hold Harmless. This essentially says, “I know there’s code violations on this house, but I’m going to close on it anyway.” Then, the title company and the title insurance will say, “We do not insure this item and the buyer is aware that this item is here, and he takes all the risk.” We’ll absolutely do that.

A lot of times similar to the tax liens, you can pay them before closing, but not always. We’ve closed on properties with hundreds of thousands in code violation liens and had to clear those up after the fact and it took six or eight months to fix it. But, that’s part of what we do.

9. Can I sell my house to avoid foreclosure?

In theory, yes, assuming that you can sell it for a price that is equal to or more than the foreclosure amount. Let’s say you have a mortgage for $100,000, and the house is worth $200,000. We would come to you and say, “We’ll buy for $200,000.” Then at closing, we would pay off that mortgage and you would walk away with the other hundred. So, it’d be $200,000 minus $100,000 and that would get you out of foreclosure.

But if it’s, let’s say, the exact opposite scenario, where your house is worth $100,000, but you have a loan for $200,000. Then you have what’s called a Short Sale, and the bank would have to approve it. It’s a long process and complicated, but it’s doable. That would take some time to understand what you’re going through to see if we can help you.

10. How can I resolve my home’s title issues?

I would recommend talking with an attorney and companies like Meli that have experience in title issues. We can walk you through what’s going on and see how difficult it is to figure out those title issues. In a lot of scenarios, we can fix them. Again, I recommend an attorney and speaking with a consultant of sorts, or a home buyer that’s experienced in title issues. Some homebuyers are, but not all of them are. That’s what we specialize in at Meli, so we could definitely help you with your situation.

Wrapping Up

As always, thank you very much for listening to our Q&A. Our number is 407 305-5008. You can also go to our website, MeliHomes.com and answer a couple of questions. We’ll reach out to you to see if your property or situation’s a good fit and see if we can help.

Just to reiterate, Meli is a homebuyer, brokerage, and consultant in Central Florida. We take care of title issues, probate, liens, code violations, things of that nature. Feel free to give us a call or visit us on our website. Thanks, guys.

This article is meant for informational purposes only and is not intended to be construed as financial, tax, legal, real estate, insurance, or investment advice. Meli encourages you to reach out to an advisor regarding your own situation. Please consult with your advisor when making legal or financial decisions.

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – November 12, 2021

Posted on November 15, 2021 by shelbe

For your ease, we have provided a transcript of the Q&A Recording.

Hey, this is Evan with Meli back for our monthly Q&A for November. We answer questions that we get from clients and various people that we talk to.

Meli is a home buyer, brokerage, and consultant focusing on Central Florida. We work with clients that may have properties that have title issues like liens, probates, judgments, code violations, things of that nature. That’s what our focus is. We’ll work to fix those issues and help you sell your property, either by making you an offer on the property or we will help you list the property. Let’s go ahead and get into our first few questions here.

1. What’s a cash home buyer?

Simply put, a cash home buyer is just an investor or investment company that buys properties as-is for cash. They don’t have financing contingencies, so they can buy properties that may have some issues. Maybe there are repairs that are needed, but they’ll still buy those properties without having to deal with the bank, meaning they’ll typically close faster. So, the terms are a little bit better. If you’re looking to sell your property quickly, then that could be a good option for you.

Read More: What is a Cash Buyer in Property?

2. What can I expect from selling my home to a cash home buyer?

When you’re selling a home to a cash home buyer, you can usually expect that they’ll be able to close faster. The terms will typically be better. They’re going to be able to buy the property, even if there are some issues. Maybe the property needs updating, it hasn’t been well-maintained, or it needs a new roof. The types of things that a bank typically won’t finance. They’ll be able to buy it outright, rather than a typical retail buyer that needs a mortgage.

3. What’s a distressed property?

A distressed property can be a property that hasn’t been maintained, or it could be a property with a title issue or is going through foreclosure. A property can be distressed but be well-maintained, so it could be a property that has a lien on it. Maybe the property is worth $300,000, but there’s $300,000 in liens on it, which ultimately means that the property isn’t worth anything until the liens are taken care of. So, a distressed property can be various things. It’s not just that the property hasn’t been well-maintained. It could be that the property hasn’t been taken care of from a fiscal standpoint. Maybe the title hasn’t been well taken care of.

4. Can I sell a house with a lien on it?

Yes, you can absolutely sell a house with a lien on it. The problem is that a lot of people won’t buy properties with liens. It depends on what’s going on with the lien. Maybe it’s a massive lien, maybe it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars. A lot of people won’t buy that. Many cash buyers and investors won’t buy that. But there are some that will, and we will. There are probably a few others that will, too, but it’s very rare that they’ll buy it.

It also depends on what it is. If it’s a very small lien, then you’ll probably take care of it before closing. You can definitely do that. Just get with a buyer and figure out what the situation is on the property. Maybe it isn’t that big of an issue, or maybe it is. You just have to find out. You can also talk with an attorney that could tell you how complicated the matter is going to be. But a lot of times investors understand this stuff just as well as most attorneys if they’ve been doing it a long time. So to answer the question, yes, you can absolutely sell a house with a lien on it.

5. Is it possible to sell a house before it goes to foreclosure?

Yes, it’s absolutely possible. Typically, you’re going to want to try to sell it. You’re not going to want to wait until the week before. At that point, it’s going to be very difficult to get the closing done in time. But if you have a little bit of time… 30 days or even maybe a couple of weeks, that should be adequate time for an investor to purchase the property. You could definitely sell it at that point. So to reiterate, it’s definitely possible to sell a house before it goes to foreclosure. The only complication is going to be if you’ve waited up until the last moment.

6. What can I do with a hoarder’s home I inherited?

I’ve seen many people try to clean the house out and end up getting very stressed about the whole situation. So then they try to sell it. I typically tell people to just sell it as-is unless they really want to get into trying to clear out the entire property if it’s a severe situation.

Most times it’s going to be a lot easier just to go ahead and sell it. In my experience, that’s the best way to do it. However, if you clean it out, you’re going to get a better offer on the property. It’s just a matter of how much work are you willing to put into it or spend on doing it? But if you’re okay with doing that, ultimately it will net you more money.

Read More: How to Sell a Hoarder’s House

7. How can I sell a house that needs repairs?

Typically, you can sell a house that needs repairs to cash buyers. You won’t usually be able to sell it to a retail buyer, unless they’re personally paying all cash. So in most scenarios, you can’t, but you can definitely sell it to an investor. There’s plenty of investors out there that will buy houses that need repairs. It’s not a problem at all.

Typically, you can just Google and find one. You’ll see them around on various forms of marketing, and if your property is in distress in any other ways, you’re probably getting called by all the cold callers. So, I’m sure it’s not very hard to find someone to sell your property to.

8. Can you sell a house in probate in Florida?

You can go on a contract with a buyer while the home is in probate. Then, as soon as the judge lets you know that the house is now awarded to the heirs, you can sell it. If you go under contract before the probate is finished, you can have everything ready to close as soon as it’s transferred.

If you’re in a hurry, the best way to do it is to find a buyer for it now. Then, when everything’s ready in the probate, assuming that you’re doing it yourself through an attorney, then you’d be ready to sell it. We and some other guys will actually do the probate for you. I would also recommend that. It would be less stress on you than if you handled the whole probate yourself. It can be more difficult because most people don’t deal with it very much. But people in the business, many of them have dealt with it several times. So it will be easier to allow them to do it.

9. Where do you operate?

So, we’re based in Orlando. We’ve bought houses throughout Central Florida. We bought houses on the West Coast of Florida, East Coast of Florida, various places. Currently, we’re focusing a lot on Central Florida and the Orange County area. That’s been a lot of our focus.

Read More: Where Do We Buy Homes in Florida?

10. Can you help me sell my home with title issues?

Yes, absolutely. So that’s what we focus on. Currently, we’re focused on mostly title issue properties. Things that may have disputes among family members, or are tied up in some type of legal issue. It can be probate or various things of that nature. We can definitely help you with any of those types of situations. It’s not a problem at all.

Wrapping Up

Any other questions? I don’t think we have any comments now. So, as always, I do appreciate it. You can give us a call at 407 305-5008, and you can always go to our website, MeliHomes.com, fill out a form, provide your contact information, and we will get with you as soon as possible and help figure out if we’re a good fit to work with one another.

And as always, Meli is a home buyer, brokerage, and consultant that focuses on title issues, liens, probates, judgments, and code violations working throughout Central Florida. Just reach out. Appreciate it.

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – October 22, 2021

Posted on October 25, 2021November 4, 2021 by shelbe

For your ease, we have provided a transcript of the Q&A Recording.

Hey, this is Evan with Meli. Meli is a home buyer, brokerage and consultant that focuses on working with people that have title issues, code violations, liens, judgments and things of that nature. We will work to solve whatever problems you have with your property that’s making it unable to be sold, and we’ll either buy the property from you or list the property, or do consulting just depending on your situation. Let’s go ahead and get into the Q&A.

1. What is a distressed property?

Everyone defines it differently. Some people would say a foreclosure is a distressed property. Others would say a property that needs a lot of repairs is a distressed property. We look at distressed properties that may have a lot of title issues, like foreclosure or liens. Our main focus could be a lien on the property that needs to be negotiated or isn’t going to go away. That’s how Meli looks at it as a company.

2. How can I sell a distressed property?

Depending on your situation, distressed properties are usually going to be bought by someone who is looking to purchase that property for cash. A retail buyer will typically not look to finance a distressed property. But, you can still list and sell a property in a lot of instances. But typically it’s still going to go to a cash buyer anyway. Rather than selling to a retail buyer, you’ll be selling to an investor.

3. What do you do at Meli?

We focus on working with people who have title issues. These include liens, judgments, probate, code violations, disputes between different parties, and things like that. We’ll work to solve those problems and then buy the property or help you get the property sold.

4. What are my options when selling my home with Meli?

So, you have a couple of different options. We can make you an offer on the property if we agree upon the price between both parties, then we will buy it. But if our offer is lower than what the seller wants, which can be very understandable, we can list that property for you and possibly net more money on it. We’ll fix the title issue, then sell your home to a retail buyer, who is going to pay a lot more than an investor will. Investors pay less because they are going to resell that property, and need to make money on it.

We need to be able to do both those things when someone comes to us with a title issue. Maybe you own a beautiful house, but it has a title issue. That’s very, very common. It has a lien or a judgment on it that just needs to be fixed, and then you should list the property. You don’t need to sell the property to an investor.

5. Are you a cash home buyer?

Yes, we are. But, we really focus on our niche of buying properties with title issues like liens, judgments, probate, code violations, things of that nature. That’s our focus, but we are a cash buyer and we definitely will buy properties for cash. It’s not always a title issue property, but that’s really what we focus on.

6. Is it possible to resolve my title issues?

Most title issues are resolvable. I would say 95% of all title issues are. Sometimes, though, the property isn’t worth it to resolve the title issue. That’s a potential problem. For example, let’s say there are 10 people on a title, the property is worth $50,000, and it’s going to cost $50,000 to fix the title issues. Then there’s no reason to even resolve it because no one’s going to make any money.

When this happens, many of those properties sell at the tax deed auction, and no one gets anything and it’s unfortunate. And you do see situations where you’re not going to make anything on it. If you fix it, you’ll probably lose money, so there’s no sense in doing that. But most of the time that’s not the case.

We’ve worked with people who thought their title issue was more expensive than it actually was. We ended up figuring out how to make a deal out of it by thinking outside the box. If you have a title issue, always check with multiple people and ask everyone’s opinions. Don’t just take the first opinion that you get if they’re telling you that it’s not possible.

7. Can I sell a house with a lien on it?

Yes, absolutely. We buy properties with liens on them. We’ll close with liens on them. A lot of times what we try to do is resolve those liens before we close, but that’s not always possible. And in those situations, we will still close.

It is very possible to close with a lien on your property, but it will always be an investor buying it. The bank will not buy homes with liens. That means a retail buyer with a mortgage from a bank will not close on a home with a lien. An investor will, but not that many. A lot of investors would not close with a lien on the property because of the risks involved.

8. Is selling a house without probate possible?

It can be. It’s very, very complicated, title-wise. I would say, probably 99% of the time, it’s not really possible. If you sold the house, you would sell a house that you don’t actually own yet. Typically you have to sell it for much less than it’s worth if it’s not actually in your name. So, I would never recommend trying to sell it that way. And, there’s not really anyone that will buy it.

Meli would look at it. But more than likely, we wouldn’t buy it either because you’d be selling us a house that, by law, you don’t actually own yet. It’s a tough one. I would just have to look at the property and see what was going on to see if it made sense for us to try to buy it that way. And I know a lot of other buyers would feel the same way. It’d be tough.

We would be buying it for very cheap because it’s possible we would never even actually own the property, which is kind of crazy to think about. But someone else could come along that was part of the probate and say, “Hey, I didn’t sell you this house. So I own some of the house now,” and they can go into the courts. If they can prove that by law, then they usually would own part, or all of the house. And now we’ve bought a house that we don’t own. It’s very complicated, so almost all the time, it’s really not possible.

9. Can I sell my house with a violation?

Yes, you can absolutely sell a house with a violation. It does depend if it’s a violation that’s become a lien or not. If it hasn’t become a lien, then it’s typically pretty easy to fix, assuming the code violation isn’t huge. If it’s a huge violation, then that could be a real problem. But most of them are pretty simple to fix. Maybe it’s just cutting a tree down or bringing something up to code. But, if it’s a significant structural issue or electrical issue, it could get very expensive. In that case, people are going to be hesitant about buying it.

But for the most part, many violations are small, like you didn’t cut your grass or you need to move an abandoned vehicle. In those scenarios, there are pretty easy fixes, then you can sell the house.

10. Is it possible to sell a hoarder’s house?

Yes, absolutely. There’s a few people that will buy them, us included. We have in the past, and we would consider buying them in the future. I would say typically, those houses sell for cheaper just because of all the stuff that’s in it. Plus, you don’t know what the actual problems are until you get all the stuff out of the house. There can be a lot of risk, and those houses typically sell cheaper.

You would probably get more money if you take 10 grand and pay someone to clear the house out. But, at the same time, maybe you clear the house out, you find out that a wall is falling in or something. It’s tough, but it is definitely possible to sell it as-is. People will buy it, for sure.

Read More: How to Sell a Hoarder’s House

Wrapping Up

Are there any other questions? I’m not seeing any, so thanks again. You can always give us a call at 407 305-5008 or go to MeliHomes.com. You’ll answer a couple of questions and put in your information. Then, we’ll reach out to you to see if we’re a good fit and if we can help you through your situation.

Meli is a home buyer, brokerage, and consultant, focusing on liens, probate, judgments, and code violations. Please feel free to give us a call or reach out, and we’ll see if we can help. Thank you very much.

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – September 17, 2021

Posted on September 21, 2021September 21, 2021 by shelbe

For your ease, we have provided a transcript of the Q&A Recording.

Hey, this is Evan with Meli, back for our monthly Q&A. I just want to take a quick second to introduce Meli. Meli was formerly Simple Sale Central Florida. We ended up rebranding the company to the name Meli, short for “ameliorate,” which means to make something better.

So in our line of business, we find houses with title issues like probates, liens, code violations, things like that, and we work to fix the situation for the property. We also, of course, buy properties that have excessive repairs and things of that nature. But, now we’re really focusing on properties that have extreme title issues. A lot of the clients we work with are in that category, so we decided to just really market toward that set of people that are going through those types of situations. Examples like, they need a probate on a property, a lien negotiated, or things of that nature.

1. What are my options if I have a really difficult problem with my home?

If you have a difficult problem with your home, I suggest you consult an attorney and see what they think about your situation. You can also consult with home buying companies like Meli, for example. We deal with those situations. Other homebuyers probably also deal with a lot of these situations.

As far as your real options, I recommend you consult an attorney, or someone like us or another home buyer. Someone that’s experienced in handling situations where there is some kind of title issue on a property.

2. I tried to get a lien off my house but can’t figure it out. Can you help?

Of course, we can. We’ve negotiated, at this point, hundreds of liens on properties mounting in millions of dollars for clients. We’d just get on a call and discuss your scenario and really try to help understand what’s going on. If it’s a situation we think we can help you with, we would then look deeper into the records. We may see that lien filing, see exactly what they’re looking for, what they’re looking to get, and if it’s negotiable…

But we can definitely help. That’s exactly what we are looking for, is to work with clients that are going through those types of situations.

3. I’ve never heard of a probate before, what is that?

So, a probate is when you have a relative, let’s say, for example, a parent that passes away. In order for their assets and belongings to get conveyed to the heirs, whether that be children or whomever, you have to go through a process called probate.

This is essentially the legal way of showing that you have the right to inherit that deceased individual’s belongings, whatever that may be. Whether it be a house, cars, money, things of that nature, you would go through the legal process called probate. During that process, it will determine who is entitled to these items. Maybe you and your siblings, or whoever, are entitled to these. In some scenarios it will show that you are not entitled to those things.

The reason for that is to make sure that people aren’t trying to inherit assets that aren’t theirs. People try to maliciously take assets from a person, which I’ve seen before. I’ve seen people create a will or falsely say they inherited a house, when in fact it’s not legally theirs. Those types of things do happen. That’s why probate is important, is to make sure that whoever is supposed to inherit the house actually inherits it.

4. How can I sell a house if it’s inherited in probate?

What I would recommend is pretty simple. Even if it’s in probate, you can still sell it, you would just go under contract with a home buyer. And they would buy the property whenever the probate was through.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen people trying to do probates by themselves many times, and I’ve never seen it end well. But people try to do it because they think they’re saving money. Ultimately, they don’t understand the law well enough. They don’t file the right documents, and they end up with an unofficial probate that doesn’t convey the property correctly. In those snares, they have to go back and fix it, or they end up spending a lot more money on attorney’s fees to clear up the title issues that they’ve created.

So, to sell a house that’s in probate, hopefully you’ve got an attorney and you’re going through that process. Then, you’d sign a contract with someone that’s looking to buy the property and close on it. That’s really all there is to it. There’s not a huge process. Once that probate is finished, if it’s done properly, you would then just proceed to closing.

5. How should I start trying to fix the title issues on my home?

I would highly recommend that you reach out to an attorney. You could also reach out to a company like Meli, if not Meli. We’ll discuss the issue with you and see if it’s something that we can help you with. An attorney will be able to try to help you, too. They’re going to be able to get you through that process in most scenarios. But, they may have to have a retainer for their work, or maybe they can negotiate through a scenario, but by the time you pay them, it’s not worth it.

You have to think about if it’s really worth it. If the attorney can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars, then you should just consult the attorney. But if not, then someone like Meli can help fix those title issues, and we don’t do it for a fee upfront or anything of that nature, and just fix the scenario, whatever that scenario is. And then we would either buy the house from you or we would list it for you and broker it and get it sold.

6. How can I resolve a tax lien on my home?

Your options depend on what type of tax lien it is. If it’s a property tax lien, then you would have to just go pay it. If you owe $5,000, you would just go to the County and the municipality and pay it. As a note, property taxes are not negotiable. You cannot negotiate those down. Now if it’s an IRS lien, those are negotiable. Depending on your situation, you can go try to negotiate those down, and then ultimately come to a price for that lien that you would negotiate through.

So, you can negotiate the lien and sell the property simultaneously. It’ll take anywhere from 60-120 days to negotiate those liens with the IRS, and then you’ll have that negotiated payoff. Let’s say it was $100,000 and you negotiated down to $80,000. You can have that payoff ready for the closing.

Again, with the property tax lien, you can’t negotiate those. If you didn’t have the money, a lot of times people would just end up selling it. What you don’t want to do is wait till the last minute and try to sell it because that property is going to go to a Tax Deed sale. If you wait till the last minute, the sale may not go through fast enough. You just want to be very careful. If you’re within 30 days or less, you really need to move quickly. Make sure that you avoid that.

We’ve had situations where we paid for the taxes before closing to make sure that the property wasn’t sold, or wasn’t sold as a Tax Deed sale. There was a property; they owed about $6,000 tax liens. We went and paid them before the closing. So, we saved the property and ended up buying it a few days later.

7. What do I need to do to sell my house if it has code violations on it?

With code violations, it could be a couple of different things. It can be active violations, or it can be code violation liens. With an active violation you have a couple of different options. One, you can fix that situation. Let’s say it’s something simple like you haven’t mowed your grass, then you just mow the grass. Then, you could go to the code violation authority and code enforcement and tell them, “Hey, I mowed my grass. Please drop this.” And they’ll typically drop it. Maybe you may have to pay a small fine for that and then you’d be able to sell the property.

Now the other option: some people will buy the property with the code violation. Say it’s an active violation, or there’s a structural issue with the property and somehow, you’ve got a code violation. Some people will just buy it with the active code violation using what’s called a Hold Harmless. This holds them, essentially saying “I know that there’s a code violation on this property, I’m still going to close.”

With code violation liens, you’d fix the situation and then pay the lien. Code violation liens are unusual because it takes a while to get one. But, let’s say you hadn’t mowed your grass in a year, then you got it mowed. You could then go to the code enforcement and say, “I’ve now mowed the grass. I know I owe $15,000 in code violations. I’m going to pay those and settle.” In that scenario, you can do that, or a homebuyer that will close with the code violation lien. However, this is very uncommon for people to do. We do it. We’ll do it on properties, but a lot of buyers will not do it until those code violations are cleared up.

So, that’s ultimately, what you do is you either sell it as-is with a Hold Harmless, with the liens or with the violation, or you fix the situation and then sell it. So, it’s really up to you. You may make more money on the property if you clear up the violation. It just depends on what time and money you can put into fixing the situation.

8. Is it possible to sell a house with title issues?

Yes, it is very possible to sell a house with title issues. It depends on what kind of title issue it is. If it’s a probate, and there’s not a clear title, it’s going to be pretty difficult. A lot of people will not buy it. We would buy something like that, but most people would not.

If it’s something like a lien, like we just talked about, maybe someone would buy it. If you’re buying out a partial share of the property, then there are some buyers that would probably do something like that. So it is possible. You would just need to talk with a buyer and see what they’re comfortable with doing, and see if it’s a good fit.

9. How does a consultation with Meli work?

To get started, you can give us a call or you can reach out on the website, MeliHomes.com, and let us know what’s going on with your situation. We’ll take a few minutes and talk you through it and see if it’s something that we can work with you on. And if it is, we will.

We will either make you an offer on the house to buy it, list it, or just do a straight consultation. If we decide to work together on a consultation, we would look at the situation and charge you a fee depending on what exactly we need to do to fix it. If you agree, we’ll then perform those services for you. So, yeah, that’s essentially it.

10. How can you list my home if it has title issues?

Well, typically you don’t. A lot of people won’t. What we would ultimately do is we would fix the title issues for you, and then list it. Or we can list the property while it has title issues, then fix those title issues while we’re negotiating a sale of the property.

Let’s say it takes us 60 days to fix the title issues. During that time we will find a buyer for the property if we were to list it for you. That’s how we’ve done it in the past, and it’s worked out really well. We’ve done probates where we’re simultaneously getting through the probate, finding a buyer for you, and having that sale ready to go as soon as the probate is done.

Wrapping Up

As always, thank you very much for listening to this. I hope it was informative. You can give us a call at 407-338-4183. That will get you through to our phone answering service and they will take your information. Also, if you want to call, you can request Evan. That’s me. You can request Evan Shelley directly, and they will transfer you to me and that’ll get you right to my cell, if you want to go that route. Then, I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

You can also go to our website at MeliHomes.com, and answer a few questions, and that will help us determine what’s going on with your property. That’s it for our September Q&A with Meli Homebuyer, Brokerage, and Consultant. Feel free to reach out, we’ll try to help you as much as we can. Thank you.

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – August 27, 2021

Posted on August 30, 2021August 30, 2021 by shelbe

For your ease, we have provided a transcript of the Q&A Recording.

Hey, this is Evan with Meli, formerly Simple Sale Central Florida. In the last couple of months we’ve begun to rebrand from the name to Meli. We’re going to spend the first couple of minutes here discussing the difference between Meli and Simple Sale Central Florida, and why we transitioned to a different name. First off, this is the monthly Q&A for the month of August. We do these once a month and answer common questions from clients we’ve worked with.

So, there are a few reasons for our transition. First off, we believed that our branding wasn’t quite as strong. For various trademark reasons, we thought changing to a more original name was very important for the long-term for the company. We came up with the name Meli, which is short for “Ameliorate,” which means to make something better. We work hard to make a bad situation better. What we do is we take properties with liens, probates, distress, excessive repairs, and things of that nature, and make those situations better.

So, we thought Meli was a good name that represented something very important to what we do. In the next few questions, we’ll go over a little more about Meli and the transition.

1. I tried handling my probate and it got too tough. Can Meli help me?

I always recommend hiring an experienced attorney you trust, because they can help you through the probate process. I’ve seen people try to do it themselves, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone do it themselves successfully where everything works out. It can be a complicated process. You can try to educate yourself online, but there’s conflicting information and it may vary from municipality to municipality. So, you have to be very careful.

You can actually have a probate go through, but then you’re not able to sell the house. In this case, a judge may say that you have the rights to the house. However, when you try to sell it, the power company may say, “Well actually, this paper or that paper wasn’t filed. For those reasons, we’re not going to accept this because we think it’s a risk. The title company is not going to insure this policy.” This essentially means that you’re not going to be given a clear title. Then, you can’t sell the house to 99.9% of people because the title isn’t clear. In those situations we’ll get our attorney involved to help you through the probate and back on the right track.

I think the reason people try to do probates themselves is because they think they’re going to save $2000, $3000, $4000, but ultimately they still end up paying that money, wasting a lot of their time, and getting themselves into a difficult situation with the courts because things haven’t been filed properly. Then, the attorney has to go back, refile, and straighten everything up. Meli can definitely help you through that. We’ve fixed those types of situations before.

2. What is Meli?

So briefly, Meli is very similar to what Simple Sale Central Florida was, but there’s a few key changes. We’re now not only a homebuyer, but we’re also a brokerage and a consultant. Now we will help you with your situation, and we may possibly buy the house, help you with your situation and broker the house for you so you can get top dollar for it, or we can just help you with your situation. If it’s something that requires more than an initial phone consultation, then we would ask for compensation to help you through that situation, if you want to handle it yourself.

We’ve looked at previous deals that we worked on over the past couple of years. Some common issues we’ve worked with are probates, liens, code violations, and title issues. People in those situations are primarily the people that we end up working with. We used to advertise ourselves just strictly as a homebuyer, and we’d do some brokerage stuff as well. But now we’ve realized that we do a lot of home buying and brokering depending on the person’s situation. And, most of those people fall into one of these four categories almost every time. Yeah, the house may have excessive repairs, but a lot of times what comes with that is code violations, or a lien, probate, or something of that nature.

So, we’re really just trying to brand ourselves differently, in the sense that this is our niche, this is what we’re focusing on, and this is the type of people we can help out. Not to say we can’t help in other situations, but a lot of our situations fall under those categories.

3. What’s different about Meli?

I would say the real difference is that we have an extreme focus on those four or so categories: Liens, probates, code violations, and title issues. That’s our focus. And what we promise along with that is that we are very transparent and accountable. We can help someone through almost any situation. There are extreme situations I’ve seen, rarely, where we can’t help but, in almost all situations we can.

4. How can you help me?

If you fall into one of those situations, let’s say, for example, probate; we can help you through that probate. We can refer you to our attorney, and he will help you through your situation. At the same time, we can evaluate your home and make you an offer or market your home and get you maybe 10-30% more because your property isn’t in bad shape. It just has these legal difficulties that we have to get you through. Or, if you have a lien, code violation or some crazy title issue, we can begin working through them.

We’ll make you an offer at the same time, but you may possibly get a mortgage on the house. This means you can have a retail buyer buy the property and net 20% more money. Now, if it’s a situation where you have a lien and there’s a ton of repairs needed for the property, then we’re probably going to be your best fit for just buying the property outright as a homebuyer. We work to give you a lot of options and make sure that you get through your situation.

5. How does Meli work?

When you want to reach out, you can go to our website, MeliHomes.com, and input your address. On the website, you can learn more about the company. After you input your address, you’ll put in your contact info; first name, last name, email, phone number. And that’s just to give us the ability to reach out to you. Then you’ll answer a few questions about your house. We’ll reach out within a few minutes to discuss your property with you and see what’s going on with it.

In that initial consultation, we’ll say, “Well, you know, this is what’s going on with your property. Let us consider it and then we’ll get back with you.” Or, “Okay. I understand what’s going on here. I think this would be the best route for you. We’ll fix the probate, list your property and we think you can get this amount for it. And we’d love to help you do that.” Something of that nature. So, we’ll just have that initial consultation.

And you can always call us directly. We have a phone number on our website, 407-338-4183, on our Facebook, LinkedIn, that you can reach out and call us and we can talk with you. We’ll figure out what your situation is and consider it. Then, we’ll suggest the best route for you, and what working with us would be like and how we can help.

6. Are there any charges for working with you?

No, there aren’t any charges. Typically we’ll start by having that initial phone consultation, and we can do that by email or text, too. Often, it’s much easier to speak over the phone and have that conversation to better understand what’s going on. In that call, we may make a recommendation or we’ll get back to you after we look into it further. There’s no charge for the initial consultation.

Now, if you want to just use us as a consultant, we would dedicate several hours to understanding your situation and helping you through it. In that case there would be a charge for the consultation. But initial calls are not anything that you would be charged for.

7. I found out I have a lien on my home. What is a lien?

Essentially, a lien is someone or a company that has put a legal claim on a property’s title. Most often, the property owner owes money to a person or entity and they want to guarantee they get paid. So, let’s say someone put a roof on your house for $8,000 and you didn’t pay them. They could put a lien on your property that basically says “You never paid us for the $8,000 roof.”

That lien would remain until you paid it off or wanted to sell the property. At that point, you would need to try to negotiate the lien or pay it in full. There’s a process you have to go through to get the lien paid and make sure everything is correct. That can take some time, but it hinders you from selling the property, because if you sell it for $100,000, and the roof is $8,000, you’re going to net $92,000 before you can sell that property free and clear.

8. How can I sell my house with a lien on it?

We’ve bought houses before that have current liens on them. We’ll take those liens in what’s called a Hold Harmless. This essentially states that we’re aware of the liens and title issues but still want to close on the property. We’d just need to evaluate your situation and see if that’s something that would work for us.

Most other buyers will not close with a lien on the property; I don’t know of any that do. But, we have in the past and will definitely consider any situations that may have a lien on the property.

9. Can I sell a house before probate?

Many times people don’t even know if they need a probate or not. However, selling a house before probate is technically possible. But, if you sell it before it goes through probate, you’re not selling it with a clear title. You’re just selling them your interest in the property. Let’s say you’re an heir. Before probate, no one has proved that you actually own the property yet. The judge has to determine that you’re one of the heirs or you’re the only heir. You’re essentially selling them your interest and then you still have to go prove that that is the case.

So it’s technically possible. I’ve never seen it, just because it’s so risky. If I purchase your property for $100,000 and buy your interest, it isn’t a clear title. I know there’s a probate that needs to be done. And then I say, “Okay, I own this property. Now I have to clear up this title.” I could approach the courts and tell them I own the property and we need to do a probate. Then I’ll pay my attorney to find and bring the correct documentation.

We may end up finding more heirs, more people involved that actually own the house that we didn’t know about. It could be a huge mess and I could lose all that money. So, selling the house before probate isn’t technically possible. For 99.99% of people you’re never going to be able to sell it.

But, what you should do is get the house into the probate process. Then, you can actually go under contract in the probate or before probate. Someone like Meli can help you pay for that probate, actually, and get you going. And as soon as a judge determines that these one, two, three, 10 people are the heirs, then you can close on the property and sell it.

10. Can you sell a house that’s not up to code?

You can definitely sell a house that’s not up to code, that has code violations, or stopped work orders. Anything of that nature. We’ve bought houses like that before. It can be a non-issue for a lot of buyers. Most buyers will buy a property that’s not up to code assuming it’s not some crazy situation, but it’s definitely not an issue to sell a house like that.

Wrapping Up

Okay, any other questions? I don’t think there’s any other questions. As always, thank you for listening in. We are now Meli. You can reach us at MeliHomes.com, and give us a call at 407-338-4183. When you call us, a member of our team will ask you a few questions and walk you through the process. That information will then be evaluated and we will let you know what steps we recommend you take. It’s a very simple process.

As always, thank you very much. We’re Meli, a homebuyer, brokerage, and consultant, focusing on liens, probates, code violations, and title issues. We’re here to help. Thanks, guys.

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – July 23rd, 2021

Posted on July 26, 2021August 4, 2021 by shelbe

Meli Homes was formerly known as Simple Sale Central Florida as mentioned in this video and transcript, but the information provided is still just as valuable! If you have any questions, please reach out to the team at Meli!

For your ease, we have provided a transcript of the Distressed Home Q&A Recording.

Hey, this is Evan with Simple Sale Central Florida back again for our monthly Q&A for the month of July. I just wanted to take a second to introduce the company. We buy distressed residential properties throughout Central Florida, including Tampa Bay to Orlando and the Space Coast, anywhere as far north as Ocala, even up to Gainesville and south, as far south as Poinciana or even further south.

We focus on distressed properties that have some form of issue, typically a title issue, a probate, liens, judgments, code violations, and things of that nature. And we work to bring transparency and accountability to distressed home sales. We take a difficult situation and really work hard to try to make it a stress-free situation for the client. Let’s go ahead and get started.

1. I just found out my home needs to go through probate. When can I sell it?

In the probate process, there’s various steps that you have to go through. Ultimately, when the judge tells you you can sell the property, you can, but you have to file for probate and go through those steps. This can take anywhere from 30-90 days, depending. When the judge says “Okay, everything’s clear. You can sell this property,” it will essentially be a paper that says that the heirs are the owners of this property, and they have the right to sell it.

You should have an attorney guiding you through the process. Don’t try to do it on your own. I guess it’s possible, but it’s extremely difficult for someone that’s not in that business.

2. Can I sell a house if it’s not up to code?

You’d typically only be able to sell a property that isn’t up to code to a cash buyer. That’s someone that’s going to come in and pay in full, typically an investor. If the property isn’t up to code, you’re not going to be able to get a mortgage through a bank. Your standard retail-type homebuyer wouldn’t be a buyer in that situation until it was brought up to code. You could also try to bring it up to code yourself. That’s always an option; you just have to get a contractor to figure out what the issues are and bring it up to code. If you don’t want to do that, then you’d ultimately sell it to an investor that will buy it without a mortgage.

You can absolutely sell a house that’s not up to code. We buy properties all the time that have various types of code issues: bad electrical, roof, plumbing. Anything like that we’ve bought, and other investors will buy as well.

3. What are distressed homes?

We define distressed homes as a property that has some form of an issue. It can be a title issue: probate, code violation, liens, judgments. It can be a foreclosure. That’s commonly how people describe distressed, is that it’s in foreclosure. We don’t necessarily handle a ton of foreclosures, but that’s commonly a way to describe a foreclosure property. A distressed property can also be a property that needs excessive repairs.

A distressed property doesn’t have to always appear distressed. It could be a property that has a bunch of liens on it. Maybe it’s a beautiful house, but it has tons of liens on it. In that scenario, we would define that as a distressed property.

Read More: What is a Distressed Property?

4. What kinds of companies buy distressed properties?

There are a lot of companies out there that will buy a distressed property if it needs excessive repairs. If the property just needs a full rehab, then there’s a lot of companies that will buy it. There’s a very big market out there. If it’s distressed because there’s some tough liens or judgments, or things like that, then there aren’t that many. It depends on what type of lien there is, but there aren’t nearly as many buyers.

Liens can present a lot of risk for the buyer. For example, you have $100,000 in liens on a property worth $100,000, let’s say you buy it for $50,000. You’re already under water on the property if you can’t negotiate those liens down. That’s the risk buyers end up taking. We commonly take that type of risk if we think it’s something we can pull off over time. We’ll do it, and a lot of other companies won’t.

5. Is it possible to sell a home with a lien on it?

It is possible to sell a house with a lien. It really just depends. If the lien is small and not complicated, it would probably be solved or paid off at closing. For things that are complicated and expensive, it’s going to be hard to sell the house. Simple Sale Central Florida will buy it, but a lot of companies won’t. You’re very limited on buyers because of risks that can come with buying these properties, but it is possible.

If it’s a simple lien then it probably shouldn’t be a big deal for most buyers. What you can find is that they may not actually understand how to solve some of the issues. This can make it complicated to close because the buyer doesn’t know that their title company doesn’t understand liens very well. And so you can get strung along for a long period of time while you’re waiting for the buyer and the title company to try to figure out the lien situation.

I would say you’d want to work with someone that’s experienced, focused, and really specializes in these things.

6. Can I sell my house before it’s foreclosed?

Yes, of course. You can really sell it up to the day before closing actually. I don’t think we’ve ever bought one just before closing, but it is possible. In those scenarios, though, you have to sell it for cash to someone that knows what they’re doing and understands the timelines associated. Someone that’s organized and knows the foreclosure date, and stays focused on getting it done before that day or, yeah, you’re going to end up getting foreclosed on.

You can definitely do it, just make sure that you’re working with someone that’s credible and able to get it done. If you work with someone that’s unfocused and doesn’t understand the situation, you could get into trouble.

7. Is it possible to sell my home in probate in Florida?

Yes, it is. What people sometimes don’t understand is you can go on a contract to sell the property before the probate is over.

We’ve had properties under contract months before the probate was finished. As soon as the judge gave the new heirs permission to own and sell the property, we’d close on it. You don’t have to wait until the judge says that you own the property. You can actually sell it before then in the sense that you can have a buyer waiting and as soon as you get the probate approved, then you can sell and move on.

8. I have an IRS tax lien on my home. Can you help me?

Yes, of course. We actually just finished helping out a couple with their IRS tax lien situation. I think everyone was reasonably happy with the results, as much as you can be in that situation. They were able to walk away and were forgiven some of their tax liens and they were able to move on. They were in a situation where they were hindered by it, and through some hard work by a trusted attorney and the sellers, we were able to get through it, have a successful closing, and allow them to move on unburdened by those tax liens.

We definitely can help you do that. We are experienced in handling homes with all kinds of liens and shouldn’t have any issues helping you. I would love to hear about what’s going on.

9. What are the benefits of working with a cash home buyer?

Cash home buyers can buy properties that have code issues, title issues, or any property quickly. A cash buyer isn’t going to be able to pay as much as a retail buyer because retail buyers are mortgaging property, but the cash buyer is going to be able to provide you with the ability to sell property that wouldn’t be able to be sold to a retail buyer. They’re also more convenient and fast. They’ll be able to purchase it quickly.

Read More: Why Work With a Cash Home Buyer?

10. I have a home in Winter Park that I need to sell fast. Can you help?

Yes, of course, we buy properties in Winter Park, Orlando, Maitland, Altamonte Springs, anywhere around that area. We’re very interested in purchasing properties, and we can do it very quickly, within a week or two, if needed. Whatever your situation may be, we can try to expedite any process, any lien, probate, whatever.

We can handle legal issues, probates, code violations, liens, title issues, and things of that nature. We’re as experienced and specialized as anyone else in the space, and we’re very confident that we can handle your situation as well.

Wrapping Up

Okay, so any other questions? I don’t see anything in the comments, so I’m going to go ahead and close this out. As always, I really appreciate it. I really appreciate people that watch this and hopefully some of these questions help you get answers to your situation.

We buy distressed properties from Tampa Bay and Bradenton, to Orlando to the Space Coast, Brevard County. We buy distressed properties in all those locations. We’re very experienced in buying them in those locations and we can definitely help you out with your situation. Just give us a call at (407) 338-4183 or you can go through our website, SimpleSaleCentralFlorida.com and fill out your information and we will be able to assist you. So, feel free to reach out any time. All right guys. Thank you.

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – June 25th, 2021

Posted on June 28, 2021August 4, 2021 by shelbe

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.

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.

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.

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.

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – May 21st, 2021

Posted on May 25, 2021August 4, 2021 by shelbe

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 again this month for our May Q&A where we go over questions that are commonly asked by our clients. Simple Sale buys distressed properties throughout Central Florida. That includes Tampa Bay, St. Pete, Pinellas all the way to the Bradenton area. Then going east, Orlando, even up north, up to Ocala, down to Kissimmee. We also buy on the Space Coast, so Brevard County and areas around Brevard.

The mission of the company is to bring transparency and accountability to distressed home sales. What that means is we work very hard to help our clients out of their situation. We try to help them get the best solution even if it isn’t us. It may be going another direction, but we strive to help out our clients. So, with that introduction, why don’t we go on into the questions?

1. What does “distressed” mean?

A distressed property can mean a lot of different things. A lot of people just think that it’s a foreclosure, but we don’t term it that way. It could mean excessive repairs, liens, code violations, or other forms of legal issues. It could be excessive repairs or a foreclosure.

Whenever there’s a situation where the seller is struggling to maintain the property or take care of a legal issue, we come in and help them. It really just means any type of situation where it’s uncommonly difficult to resolve. We work to try to resolve these problems for our clients.

Read More: What is a Distressed Property?

2. I started making repairs on my house, but didn’t finish them. Can I still sell my house if it needs repairs?

Of course. We buy properties like that all the time. Maybe the person started a rehab and needed to move; started a rehab and it became more costly than anticipated. That’s not an issue at all. We would gladly take a look at the property and see if it’s something we can work on.

It definitely can still be sold. It will take a certain type of buyer. There are buyers out there that will buy a property that needs repairs, but not everyone will. Your standard iBuyers and things of that nature, they won’t if the repairs are excessive. But you can definitely sell the property. You just have to find the right buyers that want to take care of it.

3. Can I sell my house if it’s not up to code?

Yes, you can. It’s kind of like the last question. If the property isn’t up to code, you won’t be able to sell to your traditional retail buyer through financing. You’re going to have to sell to someone who can pay cash for the property and take the liability for those code violations. Typically, it will be an investor that would buy the property, fix the issues, and resell the property.

But you can definitely sell it. It’s just going to be a particular type of buyer that’s going to be looking to buy a property like that. You have to talk with someone who is experienced in purchasing code violations. It also depends on how far you are into the code violation. Are there already liens on the property and things of that nature?

Simple Sale Central Florida is one of the few companies that will actually close on a property with existing liens. We’ve taken on that risk in the past and we’ll continue to do so on projects that we think are worth it.

4. My house is in very bad condition. Can I still sell it?

Of course. Excessive repairs fall under what we term “distressed.” Just because your home’s in very bad condition doesn’t mean you can’t sell. You can definitely sell. You just need to find the right kind of buyer that can deal with excessive rehabs and things like that. You can definitely still sell. It’s not really a problem at all.

It really depends, but most investors would try it. It depends on if the house is an older wood-frame house or if it’s newer, possibly a less aged blockhouse, but it still has a lot of issues. You know, you’re going to vary on what buyers are going to want to take the risk.

5. Any tips for selling a house that needs work?

I see this a lot where people kind of take time to do things to distressed properties that don’t really raise the value. They may try to clean some walls or something like that and honestly, those types of things are going to be a waste of time. Better options are fixing serious issues like the roof or AC.

Fixing anything costly is going to be your best way to get the most bang for your buck. I would try to take care of the bigger issues. Putting a brand new AC or roof on the property. Even if the interior isn’t that great, those types of things will help raise the value of the property.

Updating a bathroom or the kitchen… a lot of those things would help, but you really need to make sure you know what you’re doing. Make sure that if you hire someone, you trust them and they know what they’re doing. I often see people stressed because they chose a bad general contractor or an unlicensed contractor that did the work and didn’t do a very good job, and didn’t actually help the value of the house very much. You just have to be very careful.

6. Can I sell a house with a lien on it?

Yes, you can sell a house with a lien on it. There aren’t that many people that will buy it. We WILL buy the property, but for the most part a lot of investors will not buy the property with liens unless they’re re-negotiated before the close, and it all depends on how big the liens are.

In the past, we closed on a property with $360,000 in liens, and the house was worth maybe $200,000 or $175,000. It needed a ton of work, but we closed on that property and took the risk. It took a long time to negotiate the liens. Those are the types of things that we do take the risk on and will take a look at; we would definitely be interested.

7. Are there benefits to selling my home to a cash home buyer?

Kind of reiterating some of the things I’ve already said, there are definitely benefits. If you have a distressed issue, but can still put it on the open market, typically that will be better. We always consider that option with our clients. We have a brokerage and will list the property for them. 99% of the time they’re going to net more money out on the open market if they can sell to a retail buyer. It’s possible you’ll just get a higher cash offer by putting it out on the market.

But, there’s certain things that have to be done. Listing a property with a bunch of liens on it is not going to work. The benefits of selling to most cash-only buyers is that you’ll have far less showings. It’s going to be a faster close. And less stress, than if you put it on the market. There’s a high probability you get more money, but you’re possibly going to do more showings. It’s going to take longer.

It really depends on your situation. For about half of our clients looking for a cash offer on their distressed property, we end up listing it just because it’s a better outcome for them. We make a commission on the sale, so we’re fine with it. We do have to make money on our transactions to continue doing more transactions and helping people.

There can be benefits depending on your situation. Sometimes it’s a disadvantage, but it really just depends on your situation if you need to sell to a cash-only buyer.

Read More: What is a Cash Home Buyer?

8. Can I sell my home before foreclosure?

Yes, you definitely can. We don’t work with a ton of foreclosures, but we’ve bought them before being foreclosed on a few times. You can definitely sell your house. It’s not an issue. The only issues are going to be you need someone and make sure they’re going to close. It can’t be someone just wanting to come in and get a mortgage on the property. They’re not going to be able to buy it.

Probably the most important thing is making sure whoever you work with is actually going to close on the property. You don’t want to go 30 days thinking you’re closing, heading into foreclosure, and then not close. I’ve seen that recently.

We’ve worked with clients and someone’s offered them the deal of a lifetime offer on their house. If you only have 30 days until foreclosure, you’d better make sure they’re going to close. Unfortunately, that’s how it goes. So, yeah, to answer the question, you absolutely can sell a home before a foreclosure.

9. I’m trying to sell my home, but it’s in probate. Is there anything I can do?

Well, you definitely need a probate attorney to get through that process. Don’t try to do it alone. There’s too many laws, too many complications. I would definitely hire a trusted probate attorney.

If you get a probate attorney at random, just make sure they have great reviews and a good reputation. Some of them can be so busy that they don’t do a very good job. They have so many other things going on. Make sure you work with a law firm that has a great reputation, and will get you through the process as quickly as possible. Sometimes it can take quite a while, several months.

That’s my biggest recommendation: don’t try to do it yourself. Don’t even try to start doing it yourself. Go to an attorney, find a good, trusted attorney. That’s what we do. We typically work with the same one or two attorneys all the time. They do a great job, and I know they’ll take care of the clients that we work with.

10. Is there anything I might not know about selling a house as-is?

It really depends on the as-is condition. What I see, probably most often, is when someone wants to sell their house as-is, and let’s say it needs $40,000 of work. Sellers often don’t understand the discount they’re going to have to take on their house for someone to buy it.

Unless the person that’s buying it is going to be living there, it has to be resold. To buy a property, resell it and make money, there is a discount that has to be put in. There’s so many costs associated for the rehab, for the holding costs of the property, which is taxes, insurance. It is closing costs, which is 2%. It’s commissions to agents, which is anywhere from 3% for one agent or 5-6% for two agents. All these things add up.

In order for companies like us to make money, we do have to buy that property for probably less than what you think it’s worth. But it’s not that we’re getting greedy or anything of that nature. We understand the costs associated. There are many people that have bought and sold one house or two houses. But in order to stay in this business, there’s a lot of risk in buying a house. There’s a lot of unknowns. There’s things that can go wrong.

So, we have to buy the property at a price to make sure that we can buy and sell a lot of these and help a lot of people with their situation. We are open to being transparent about exactly what something is going to cost and exactly how much we’re going to make on the deal if everything goes according to plan. But it doesn’t always go according to plan, either. Sometimes we don’t make anything.

People don’t talk about that side of the business where you buy a house at what you think is an acceptable price, and you don’t make anything. Some people outside the business are convinced that you’re always making a ton of money. That’s not always the case. But we continue to do it because we are very realistic, patient and we try to do the right thing.

Wrapping Up

So, I think that is it for the questions. I’ll check the comments. I don’t see any comments. But as always, thanks for watching this. If you’re watching it live or later, I do appreciate it.

If you want to get in touch with us call us at (407)338-4183. That’ll get you to us. You can tell us about your property that you’re looking to sell. And you can also go to our website, SimpleSaleCentralFlorida.com. I do appreciate it. Thank you. Bye.

Distressed Home Q&A Recording – March 19th, 2021

Posted on March 23, 2021August 4, 2021 by shelbe

For your ease, we have provided a transcript of the Distressed Home Q&A Recording.

Hey, it’s Evan with Simple Sale Central Florida; we are back for our March Distressed Home Q&A. We come on once a month to answer any questions that come up throughout the month that we get from clients.

Simple Sale buys, sells, and lists distressed properties throughout Central Florida from Tampa Bay to Orlando to the Space Coast. We specialize in working with properties that have legal issues, excessive repairs, problems of any sort with a property. If someone needs to sell quickly, that’s what we specialize in.

Let’s go ahead and get right into the questions we have:

1. How can I sell a house that needs repairs?

Typically a property that needs a lot of repairs done will have to be a cash sale. Otherwise, you’ll have to make the necessary repairs. Then you can sell that property on the MLS, on the open market with an agent. If you’re unable to make those repairs, your best bet is to sell the property to a cash buyer who can sell the property as-is.

Read More: How to Sell a House that Needs Repairs

2. Is it possible to sell a house in probate?

It is possible. It’s possible to go under contract on a house that’s in probate, but the probate will have to be resolved before the property is closed on. The personal representative or the executor of the estate can sell property, put it under contract to sell. Once the court gives permission to sell that property, then the buyer can close on it and the seller can sell it.

Typically that will take a document from the courts, the title company will require the document from the courts to be able to sell that property. But it is very possible to sell a house that is in probate, as soon as the court allows you to.

3. Can I sell my house to avoid foreclosure?

Yes, you definitely can sell your property to avoid foreclosure. That’s one of the ways that you can avoid it. Obviously, you can try to renegotiate your mortgage, lower your payments, things of that nature.

You also can sell it in order to avoid the foreclosure and pay off the mortgage that is owed. That will allow you to get out of the foreclosure process which will end up saving your credit. And, more than likely, giving you more financial peace of mind if you’re behind on your mortgage payments.

Read More: Can You Sell Your House Before Foreclosure?

4. Can I sell my house as-is, fast?

You can very much sell your property as-is quickly. Typically if you are selling it as-is, you’re going to be selling it to a cash buyer. That cash buyer, in most situations, will be able to close quickly on your property in the current condition. Once you go under contract on it they should be able to close on it quickly, 30 days or less.

There really shouldn’t be a reason for it to take more than 30 days. I think most of the closings that Simple Sale does is within 3-4 weeks. There’s really no reason for it to take longer than that.

5. Is there anything particularly difficult about selling your house as-is?

I think the only difficulty is really finding someone who will actually buy the property as-is and isn’t just making you an offer and holding you up in a contract. It’s just going to be finding the right home buyer that’s reputable and accountable, and they’re able to close on your property quickly.

Selling it as-is, assuming there is something wrong with it, to someone who is trying to obtain financing from a bank is going to be very difficult. Typically a bank is not going to finance a property if it needs a new roof, new AC. If there’s excessive repairs needed on the inside, a bank isn’t going to approve it. It’s more than likely going to require a cash buyer to be able to buy that property.

The difficulty is it reduces the number of buyers because it’s limited to cash buyers if there’s something wrong with the property.

6. How can I get rid of a distressed property?

The best way to go about it is to find a company that is reputable, has great reviews online and a recognizable brand. They will be able to lead you in the right direction based on what’s going on with your property. Whether it’s something legal or an excessive repair issue, then it’s going to be your best bet to work with a cash buyer.

Someone who’s reputable that has worked with many people in a similar situation and is very experienced. They’ll be able to educate you on what the process is going to look like to give you peace of mind. Really, the best way is to work with a reputable home buyer that will buy your property for cash.

7. Is it safe to work with a cash home buyer?

Yes, it’s definitely safe to work with a cash home buyer! As I already said earlier, the main recommendation is that you work with a company with reviews online. You should be able to find reputable reviews over a period of time that shows that they’ve been in business and they’ve worked with multiple people and they’ve had good interactions with their clients.

That’s going to be the best way for you to protect yourself. There are some cash buyers that will do things to try to get more money. They will try to give you less money for your property for whatever reason. That may be, a day or two before closing, asking for what they call credits, a reduction in the purchase price by a few thousand dollars, or something of that nature.

Typically with these companies, if they have a brand name at all, it will be relatively easy to see online that they don’t have great reviews and they don’t have good experiences with their clients. Typically their reviews will prove that.

Read More: What is a Cash Home Buyer?

8. Is there anything specific to selling a home as-is in Florida compared to other states?

I don’t necessarily think so. I think it’s all pretty similar. Maybe some of the documentation is different, maybe a little bit of the title processing is different, but for the most part everything is going to be very similar. Obviously different areas have different styles of homes, different types of homes built with different materials. For the most part from just a seller’s standpoint, what they’re going to have to deal with will be pretty similar to most anywhere else.

We’ve worked on deals outside the state of Florida that haven’t been particularly different than anywhere else, so I wouldn’t say that there’s anything specific to selling a home as-is compared to anywhere else really.

9. What types of situations do you specialize in?

We specialize in working with properties with legal issues. A lot of times it’s going to be some form of probate or lien issue. Maybe a property that has an heir that has passed away and there’s multiple heirs. Then we work with those heirs, settle out any differences that they may have. We then negotiate with them to make sure everyone’s happy with the situation and ready to move forward.

We are also very experienced working in settling code violation liens. We actually do buy those properties with the liens on them and renegotiate them. If you have code violation liens or things of that nature, that’s not that’s not an issue. Also if someone’s looking to sell property with excessive repairs, that’s definitely something that we are very used to dealing with. Properties that have holes in roofs, things of that nature. It really doesn’t bother us.

Liens, judgments, legal issues, probates, anything out of the ordinary… We’ve worked on it before so we are very used to working with that. It’s really not an issue at all. Also foreclosure, we work with a few foreclosures though it’s not a big part of what we do. On occasion someone is selling in a foreclosure situation and we will work with them as well.

10. I need to sell my house fast in Winter Park, can you help me?

Yes, of course. We buy properties in Winter Park, Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, anywhere throughout that area, Casselberry, Orange County as a whole we focus on. We can buy properties quickly in any of those locations, and we can definitely help you out.

Wrapping Up

Any other questions? In the comments I don’t see any questions. So we’ll go ahead and close it out.

You can always give us a call, 407-338-4183 or visit our website, simplesalecentralflorida.com. At Simple Sale we specialize in buying distressed properties throughout Central Florida. Tampa Bay, Orlando area to the Space Coast. Our mission is to bring transparency and accountability to distressed home sales and we try to do that through every transaction that we work with. Feel free to give us a call and we would love to try to help you out!

That is it for this month. We will be back next month to answer some more questions. Please feel free to reach out to us, go to the website and fill out the form, or give us a call directly and we can talk with you immediately. Thanks! Bye.

Here’s What to Know When Selling a Distressed Property

Posted on March 9, 2021September 23, 2021 by shelbe

Many of us find ourselves in a situation where we need to sell a distressed property as fast as possible, whether it’s to release some funds or take some unwanted responsibility off our plates. Buying and selling a property can be a stressful experience, which is why there are companies that buy distressed properties. Our guide to things you should consider when you’re selling your distressed property will help you achieve your sale.

What is Considered a Distressed Property?

When you hear the term “distressed property,” you may think it refers to the physical condition of a building. While physically neglected homes are one type of distressed property, the term also refers to properties caught up in legal disputes or whose owners have financial difficulties. Some of the principal reasons a property might become distressed are:

Properties can be left in disrepair due to natural disasters or neglected because of the owner’s economic problems. If the homeowner cannot pay for repairs, they may need to sell the property quickly.
The homeowner has died, and the property is stuck in probate.
Due to financial instability, the homeowner cannot pay their mortgage and may wish to sell quickly to avoid foreclosure.
If an owner has been fined because the property is not to code, they may need to sell it as a distressed property.
If a property market is slow and a homeowner needs to move quickly, they may decide to sell their house as a distressed property.

The Benefits of Selling to Companies That Buy Distressed Properties

Buying and selling homes is an emotional experience. It can get even more fraught when people are forced to sell under unexpected circumstances. Some homeowners find the idea of selling their house as a distressed property sad or shameful, but that’s not true. There are considerable benefits to selling a property in this way, for instance:

Speed and simplicity: Buying and selling property is often one of the most stressful experiences of people’s lives, and sometimes that experience takes months or even years. Selling your distressed property as-is to companies that buy distressed properties is a fast, straightforward alternative.
No need to renovate: If you are the owner of a property that’s in poor condition, for example, if you’ve inherited a relative’s home, you may not have the resources to renovate. Selling it as a distressed property allows you to avoid this mammoth task. Plus, you may walk away with cash in your pocket.
Avoid foreclosure: If you find yourself unable to make your mortgage payments, the bank may repossess your home. Selling your distressed property quickly can ensure you avoid this. This may also give you money to pay off some debts and protect your credit rating.

Tips for Getting the Best Sale

Every homeowner that’s selling their property wants to sell for a good price to honest buyers. Depending on the housing market, that can be a challenging task. Following these simple tips can help you get the sale you want.

Make some improvements: One of the best ways to achieve a higher offer on your home is to do some renovation. Depending on your time and budget, you may fix large structural issues or merely give your house a face-lift with a fresh coat of paint. Balance how much value the work will add to your property with how much money and time it will take.
Present it well: You’re much more likely to attract distressed property buyers if your home is clean, uncluttered, and inviting. If the outside or inside of your property is messy and unkempt, potential buyers will be left with a poor impression. Staging your home well is vital.
Set a fair asking price: Do your research and don’t ask for more than the property is worth.
Honesty is the best policy: Be upfront with your buyers about any issues with the house, whether they are structural, financial, or legal. This prevents buyers from dropping out at the last minute or taking legal action against you in the future.
Keep thorough written records: Remember verbal agreements aren’t binding and are challenging to prove in court.

For more tips on preparing your home for a sale, read Our top 5 strategies to help you sell your distressed house.

How to Sell a Distressed Property

When it comes to selling a distressed property, you have three choices: sell with a real estate agent, list it yourself, or work with a cash home buyer.

Real estate agents are most people’s first port of call when selling a home, and that’s understandable as it comes with a lot of benefits. Realtors have lots of experience and come with many contacts of potential buyers. They do most of the work for you, from advertising to organizing open houses. However, the housing market is fickle, and it can take months to sell in this way. Additionally, you will have to pay your agent a commission fee.

Selling your property yourself avoids real estate agent fees, and many homeowners like knowing that they are in charge of how, when, and to whom they sell. However, this method involves a tremendous amount of work. To do it successfully, you will need a lot of time and knowledge about your state’s real estate laws.

If you want to avoid the stress of listing your own property, avoid commission fees, and achieve a fast sale, selling to a cash home buyer could be the right choice for you. Companies that buy distressed properties, such as Meli, can often complete the sale, buying in cash, within just 30 days. They will buy your property as-is, so there’s no need to try and convince them with house selling tactics. It’s a simple and effective method.

Companies That Buy Distressed Properties

If you decide that selling your property in Central Florida as-is is the best solution for you, go to Meli. Just as the name suggests, the process is surprisingly simple. You could close on your house within 30 days of initial contact. We offer a fair price, handle all the fees, and can be flexible with your moving-out date.

For more information about selling a distressed property, contact Meli Homes today at (407) 338-4183.

Image Credits

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