Sometimes it’s unavoidable. Perhaps your house just got away from you. Maybe a sinkhole suddenly appeared. Maybe you inherited a long-neglected house from a distant relative. Regardless of the situation, you could have a home that’s about to be condemned. What does that mean to you?
No One Can Live in a Condemned Home
When a property is condemned, the owner has to remediate the issues or no one can live within the home. The government will condemn a property if it’s been vacant for a long time, if it’s overrun by pests, if there are structural hazards, if the utilities are off, or if it’s otherwise determined to be uninhabitable by an inspector. Because there are some gray areas, there are some ways that a city condemnation can be overturned.
Fixing a Condemned Home
To be considered to be inhabitable, homes have to have running water, electricity, and often heating and cooling. They need hot water, and they need to be clean. The electrical wiring and plumbing must both be safe, and the property cannot have structural issues. Some of these problems are easier to fix than others.
You can get your home “un-condemned” by fixing the problems that the home has. Unfortunately, a property usually has quite a bit wrong with it before it ever reaches condemned status.
Consider the following scenario. Your property is condemned because of a significant pest infestation, along with it being vacant for two months. You can get a pest exterminator to get rid of the infestation and then petition for your property to be inspected again and for it to no longer be condemned. Now you can sell the property and live in it unhindered.
That’s easy.
But that’s not the likely scenario.
More likely, after being vacant for two months with pests, you will also find:
- That the pests have chewed through wood and caused structural damage.
- That they’ve eaten through wires and caused electrical damage.
- That they’ve burrowed into walls and need to be physically removed, even after extermination.
- That they’ve eaten holes in the attic, and caused massive leaks throughout the property.
Suddenly, a simple problem becomes far more extensive (and expensive) to fix.
When properties fall into disrepair, issues arise very quickly. A property that’s vacant for even a few months can experience serious issues, such as flooding, and with no one there to notice them, they slowly get worse. And even a property that doesn’t have extremely visible issues could have significant issues under the surface, such as mold that has to be remediated.
What Should You Do If Your House Is Condemned?
People with condemned houses can find themselves in a tremendous predicament. They may not have the money to fix the house, but most buyers aren’t going to want to purchase a condemned house. In fact, most buyers cannot.
Buyers who have mortgage lenders will not be allowed to purchase a condemned house. Mortgage servicers only want to see houses that can be moved into—they don’t want a liability, and they want to be able to sell the property easily in the event that they have to foreclose. This limits an individual to cash buyers only.
So, what should you do?
Go to a home buying service.
At Purple Mountain Holdings, we buy houses in cash — even houses that need work. We’re able to do this because of economies of scale — we have the workers and materials available to affordably make extensive repairs. We’ll pay you fair cash value for your property and fix it up ourselves, and you don’t need to do anything at all. For most homeowners, trying to fix the problems themselves will cost them more than they’ll get back in terms of a sales price.
Do you have a condemned home that you want to sell? Do you have a home on the way to being condemned? Contact us today to get a fair quote for your property.
