You’ve probably seen hoarder houses on TV and may even know someone who lives in one. But if you aren’t familiar with them, a hoarder house is a home that has been lived by a person with a hoarding disorder, which is a diagnosable mental disorder. Such homes are typically in very bad condition owing to all the accumulated junk and neglect. If you’ve acquired such a home, you may be wondering what you can do with it – whether you can sell it at all. To help you out, we offer these 3 tips to help you sell a hoarder house in Redlands.
1. Understand What You’re Getting Into
The first thing to do in order to sell a hoarder house in Redlands or anywhere else is to understand exactly what you’re getting into and what you are facing. So let’s first look at this hoarding phenomenon.
Hoarding involves a desire to accumulate a vast amount of things. The desire to accumulate is so strong in individuals afflicted with the disorder that they may experience extreme stress at just the suggestion of getting rid of their stuff. The result of hoarding is a person’s living in unsanitary and unsafe conditions – a home filled to capacity and with only narrow pathways through stacks of clutter.
The typical hoarder has lived in her home for many years and has performed no standard maintenance because there is just too much stuff in the way. So to sell a hoarder house on the open market and get the best price, you will have to clean it out and make extensive repairs and renovations. It’s a huge task and will take a substantial sum of money. The tasks you’ll be facing include . . .
- Clutter, dead animals, and biological waste to be removed
- Extreme cleaning often requiring heavy-duty cleaning equipment
- Decayed walls and floors
- Structural damage and decay
- Pest infestations
- Offensive odors permeating everything
It will be a huge undertaking that can turn into a full-time project. And there’s also the cost.
The national for mild hoarder cleanup for a 2,000-square-foot home is between $3,000 and $5,000, but in more extreme cases can run as high as $25,000. And then there’s the cost of repairs and renovations. It’s hard to give a figure for this because there’s no way of knowing exactly what you’ll need to do until all the junk is cleared out.
The point is you need to know what you’re facing if you intend to sell a hoarder house. To discover more and for expert guidance, you can consult a Redlands agent at (951) 232-9704.
2. Target Non-Traditional Buyers
If you want to sell a hoarder house and avoid the huge effort and expense of cleaning it up and fixing it up, you can target non-traditional buyers. These are usually cash buyers who will buy the house as-is. Their goal is to buy at as low a price as possible and then make a profit on the property by reselling it.
You won’t sell for as much this way, but you can get a quick sale. If cleaning up and repairing a hoarder house just seems too overwhelming, you might consider targeting and selling to a non-traditional buyer. The two main types of buyers here are investors and local home-buying companies.
Real estate investors are often looking to buy distressed properties like hoarder homes. They typically pay cash and are prepared to deal with the problems. Many times, even during the transaction process, you can choose what items you want to keep and then let the investor deal with all the rest.
Another option is sell a hoarder house to a local home-buying company, a species of real estate investor. Home-buying companies are businesses that buy homes in poor condition with the aim of making needed repairs and then flipping the homes. They will be interested in hoarder homes and also typically pay cash.
3. Hire an Agent With Relevant Experience
For the best sales price, you can also go the traditional route to sell a hoarder house. You will work with an agent who has relevant experience and who will then list the home on the MLS and other listing venues. This will, of course, be after you’ve taken care of the cleanup and all the repairs (at least the major portion anyway). You will get wider market exposure and have a better chance of finding a suitable buyer in order to sell at a high enough price to get a good return on the money invested.
The problem here, though, is that many agents just don’t specialize in hoarder homes. And you need an agent with the requisite experience and familiarity with the unique challenges involved in selling hoarder homes and the know-how to market them to potential buyers.
We have agents who can get the job done for you, who can bring to bear their experience and local-market knowledge to help you sell. If you’re looking to sell a hoarder house in Redlands, contact us today at (951) 232-9704.