Distressed Home Q&A Recording – November 13th, 2020
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 our monthly Q&A where we answer some commonly asked questions from our clients that we work with throughout Central Florida.
Just to have a little introduction to Simple Sale, we buy distressed properties throughout Central Florida. We bring transparency and accountability to distressed home sales in an industry where there’s many predatory tactics, and we work with our clients to be transparent and accountable during the process. Simple Sale buys properties throughout Central Florida from Tampa to Titusville to Orlando and anywhere in between.
Let’s get going. We have 10 or so questions here to go through.
1. I inherited a house with my siblings but we can agree on what to do with it, what can we do?
We see these situations a lot, where there’s multiple siblings and they don’t know what to do with their property. Depending upon how serious the disagreement is, sometimes properties never get sold because siblings can’t agree. In some situations they do, and a lot of it is just communication between the siblings, and we can help facilitate a lot of that.
There are also legal actions you can take in order to sell a distressed property, but that’s not the preferred route. You would much rather just have a good dialog between the siblings and figure out what the issues differences are in order to get the distressed property sold.
If you do go the legal route, it’s usually a 6 or 12 month process where you essentially go to a judge and request that they sell the property for you. It does take time, 6-12 months, and can be costly with lawyers as well. Typically the easiest way is to just communicate with all the siblings and come to an agreement.
2. Can I sell my rental property as-is?
Yes, of course. Rental properties, with or without tenants, you can sell those properties with no problems. If it does have tenants then there’s usually going to be requests for leases, proof of rent being paid and things of that nature. You can absolutely sell your rental property as-is in its current condition to a cash buyer. That’s not an issue at all.
There would be an issue if you had a tenant that was not paying rent and refused to leave. The property becomes a lot less desirable, but in our experience you can still sell that property. We’ve bought properties like that. The risk that the buyer has to take will reduce the price of the property, so you won’t be able to sell the property for as much as if the property was vacant. You can still absolutely sell your rental property as-is.
3. Can I sell a condemned property?
You absolutely can sell condemned properties. We’ve bought many condemned properties, condemned due to code violations or code violations, unsafe living conditions. Typically things of that nature will lead to a property becoming condemned. You can sell it in that condition.
Typically, there’s going to be legal issues that you have to figure out that comes with it being condemned but there shouldn’t be an issue. It is probably less desirable for a buyer, but the fact that it is condemned doesn’t mean that you can’t sell it.
4. I’m in pre-foreclosure, but I don’t know what to do because of the moratorium. Do you have any advice?
If you are in pre-foreclosure and your mortgage is insured by the federal government, the moratorium (as of right now) ends for you at the end of this year. If you’re in that situation, I highly suggest you figure out how to (A) sell the property, or (B) get the mortgage current.
If you get the mortgage current, obviously you don’t have any more issues. If that isn’t an option then, you would definitely want to sell the property so the foreclosure doesn’t ruin your credit. Having a plan on when you want to get the property sold is imperative. As of November 13th, you have 45 or so days to get that property sold.
I would highly recommend figuring out a plan to sell it or become current on the mortgage. Once the moratorium is lifted, the bank will have the right to foreclose on the property. This will ruin your credit and you’ll lose your property. I would say, in a lot of situations, if you sell your property before that point you’re going to get a lot more money for it. Once a property goes to foreclosure auction you probably won’t get anything out of it depending on how much money is left on your mortgage. The biggest thing is figuring out if it’s possible for you to become current. If not, then figuring out a plan to sell it.
5. I feel like my house is taking over my life and I just don’t want to deal with it. Can you help me?
We do work with a lot of clients that have had a property for a long period of time. It’s become a burden to them and they just want to get rid of it. They want to get rid of the problems, I think. You don’t just see cases like that with houses. It’s their house, it’s their car, it’s whatever. If it becomes a constant problem, you would rather get rid of it than continue to deal with the issues.
Typically in those situations it’s just better to sell it and get rid of the stress, because it’s not worth the stress it’s putting on you. We can help you by purchasing the property or we can help you list that property and get it sold. It depends on your situation and your property.
We can absolutely help you with those situations and it’s not uncommon. It is quite common to see people who have gotten to that point with their property. It’s not anything unusual or anything to be embarrassed about for sure. We can absolutely help you, without a doubt.
6. Do you charge any fees for handling my property’s problems?
No, we don’t. In a lot of scenarios we end up helping the person with their situation and we don’t end up working together for whatever reason. The person may just want to figure out what their situation even is. We’ll help them figure it out and we may not end up working together. Our goal is bringing transparency and accountability to distressed home sales. If we can help someone, we’re continuing the mission of the company and that’s OK with us.
We don’t charge any fees. We give that sort of consulting and specialist information away for free. In a lot of scenarios, those people may not work with us but some of them do. It’s just part of the mission of the company. Fees you’d typically expect when selling your home yourself include legal advice from lawyers or property repairs. In terms of legal issues like liens, figuring out what the real situation is, we can help you through that with no fees at all.
7. I live in another state, can I sell you a house I own without having to go there?
We have definitely dealt with situations where the person is out of state. Most times they’ll mail us a key and we’ll go look at the property and see if it’s something we can help with. That’s really the easiest way to do it.
We’ve talked with people and based on what they told us, we’ve given them an estimated offer. If we’re on the same page, we’ll sign a contract, they’ll mail us a key and we will work to move forward and close on the property. So no, you absolutely do not have to be in the state. You don’t even have to show up for closings. It can all be done remotely. You absolutely don’t have to go there; it can all be done remotely.
8. I want to sell my home in Fort Lauderdale, can you still help me?
We would definitely consider looking at the property. We are currently just focusing on Central Florida, but we would look at it and we can help you with your situation and still possibly buy the property. It would really just depend on your situation in particular but we would definitely consider it, but it’s not our core area at the moment. We also can help you list the property as well and possibly help you work with someone in the Fort Lauderdale area that might be more convenient.
9. Are there any problems you can’t work with?
There are very few problems that we can’t work with. In most situations, we can figure out the problem. I would say most of the time the reason we don’t work with people is because there’s an emotional or a price issue.
As far as legal problems or problems with the property, there are very few situations we haven’t been able to figure out. We’ve found people that couldn’t be found that needed to sign a deed. We’ve worked through probates with 7 heirs, some of which didn’t know each other and we found them.
We can figure out most problems with a house or the legal issues. Oftentimes the problem is that the person doesn’t know if they want to sell or not, or they want a price that’s just not attainable and that’s OK, that’s their choice. That’s just what we’ve noticed over time. Any issues we can tackle from a legal standpoint, we almost always figure them out.
10. How fast can you buy my home?
We actually had a question from a guy on our team, Dontae: “How long would it take to close on a property once the contract is signed?” From the point of signing the contract, in our experience it’s 30 days or less. I would say 89% of the time it’s 30 days or less, and many times it’s around 21 days. But almost always it’s 30 days or less.
If we haven’t closed in 30 days, there’s a legal issue we’re trying to figure out and we’re at the mercy of the municipality, whatever county or city that it may be in. We’re ordering documents, we’re working with lawyers to figure out the issue. But if it’s something a simple transaction where there aren’t legal issues there’s no reason we go more than 3 weeks really in almost any situation. 30 days or less is 89% of the time. If you appear to have small legal issues or no legal issues, you can expect to close in 30 days or less.
OK, that was the last question. I think we just answered Dontae’s question there. “How long would it take to close on a property once the contract is signed?” It’s going to be 30 days or less a lot of times, around that 3 week mark is pretty common. Yes, you’re welcome, Dontae. Glad you came on. So if there’s not any other questions, we’re going to go ahead and close this one out. This is our November Q&A.
Wrapping Up
As always, we buy properties throughout Central Florida. Orlando, Titusville, Tampa, so Brevard County, Orange County Pinellas County, Hillsborough County Ocala, Kissimmee. We really – anywhere in Central Florida we consider. Not to mention the Gainesville area, we also look there.
If you have a property in one of those areas we can absolutely take a look and see if we’re a good fit. If we are, then it’s what we call 3 Simple Steps. We’ll talk about the property with you online, then we’ll talk about the property with you either via phone or email, we’ll get information from you, we’ll give you an estimated offer. That’s the first step.
If we are on the same page with price for the estimated offer and we’re in the ballpark, we’ll come and do a walk-through of the property, typically within 24 hours, and make sure that the property is in the condition that we discussed and then from there. That’s the second step and the third step would be making the offer and getting closed.
Just 3 Simple Steps. We like to keep it as simple as possible and if you have any questions at all, feel free to go to our website, simplesalecentralflorida.com. You can call us at 407-338-4183.
That’s it for this month and we’ll catch you next month. Thanks everybody!
