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

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

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.