Every year, more than 358,000 houses suffer from fire damage in the United States alone. There are many different degrees of fire damage, and some may be mild, while others may almost destroy an entire house. Whatever the case, you might be wondering what you should know about selling a house with fire damage.
Can you sell fire-damaged house, or is it a lost cause? The answer will mainly depend on the extent of the damage. Besides that, it will depend on a variety of other factors, such as whether you want to do repairs on the house before you sell it, whether you want to sell it as-is, and so on.
Can I sell my fire-damaged house? Should I sell my fire-damaged house? These are all good questions and you can learn about the answers below.
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Selling a House With Fire Damage: How Bad Is the Fire Damage?
Considering the extent of the fire damage in your home is an important thing to consider. After all, it won’t really be possible to sell a house that has completely burned down (although you may be able to sell the land it was built upon). If the fire damage is very severe, it might be difficult to sell your house, especially as-is.
This is because, of course, potential homebuyers won’t be able to do much with a house that has been mostly destroyed by a fire. On the other hand, if the fire damage was not all that severe, it will most likely be easier to sell the house. However, this may also depend on other factors such as the location of the fire damage, the extent of the damage, and so on.
For example, if there was only a very minor fire that happened to scorch the walls of one room, this wouldn’t cause much damage to the house itself. As a result, it would be easier to repair the home if a homebuyer decided to buy the property. It also wouldn’t be too expensive to repair.
On the contrary, fire damage that spread to other rooms and destroyed walls, floors, and ceilings would take a lot of time, effort, and money to repair. In some cases, the whole structure may even need to be knocked down and replaced, which of course, would cost even more money.
In some cases, fire damage may also spread to the external parts of the house, such as the roof, siding, or vegetation. This will only complicate things and make the home even harder to repair and harder to sell to potential homebuyers. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that a badly damaged house will be impossible to sell.
Besides the degree of fire damage, you also need to consider a few other factors that might come into play when trying to sell such a house.
When To Sell a Fire-Damaged House
If your house has recently been ravaged by a fire, you might be wondering when you should take the leap and try to sell the property. When you sell your house will depend on a variety of factors since certain times may be better than others, depending on the damage and what kind of resources you have at hand.
The big thing to consider is to make sure that the house isn’t a hazard. This may require an inspection. This, of course, is very important because there could be liability problems involved if the house is a danger to you or potential buyers.
Besides that, you also need to think about how soon you want to move out. If you feel that you need to stay in the house for a bit longer to gather your things and get everything together, then you should take your time. But if you want to move out right away, then you should think about the fastest way to put your home up for sale so you can move on to your new home.
Once you come up with a plan for the immediate future of you and your home, everything will be much clearer for you. It will also make it easier to figure out when your home will be up for sale and how fast (or slow) it might sell.
Sell With Repairs or As-Is
The big question you need to ask yourself is whether you want to sell your house after repairing most or all of the fire damage or whether you want to sell your house as-is. If you decide to sell your house as-is, this means that you will put your house up for sale without doing any repairs on it.
This can influence the success of your home’s sale, depending on the severity of the fire damage. For example, if your house has been severely damaged by a fire and is far from ready to live in, you might have some trouble selling the house as-is.
This is because a homebuyer would need to go to the trouble of doing all the repairs and paying for them in addition to the price of the property. This, of course, can deter certain homebuyers from buying your home. This, however, may not be such a problem if your home only has some minor fire damage.
Selling such a house as-is likely won’t be such a problem because any repairs that may be required wouldn’t be very extensive or expensive. But what about repairing the house before selling it? This might seem like a counterintuitive thing to do.
What You Need to Know
After all, why would you put money into a house that you are only going to sell? In a way, you can think of these repairs as a sort of financial investment for your property. By repairing the fire damage, your house will have a better chance of selling because the homebuyer won’t have to pay for the repairs themselves.
The repairs will also likely increase the value of your home. On the other hand, fire damage will obviously decrease the value of your home. Keep in mind that you don’t have to repair all the fire damage in the house if you don’t want to or if you don’t have the financial means to do so.
Instead, you may only decide to repair part of the fire damage. Even if you do this, it can help the house sell faster and it will keep the house’s value from plummeting too much. Of course, the choice to repair the house or sell it as-is will depend on what you want and what is feasible for you.
Both decisions have their benefits and downsides. One option is not necessarily better than the other, but you may prefer one option for your property based on what is available to you at the moment or what you believe is best for your property and your finances.
How To Sell the Fire-Damaged House
You might be wondering how you should go about selling a fire-damaged house.
While it can be difficult, it certainly isn’t impossible as long as you have the right resources at hand.
Sell With a Realtor
Selling a house with a realtor is one of the most straightforward ways you can go about this process. The last thing you should do is try to sell a fire-damaged house on your own. If you try to do that, you likely won’t be able to get the price you want for it.
More than that, you will have to deal with all the complicated matters on your own such as documenting the fire damage, disclosing the information about the damage, and so on. When you hire a realtor to help you, the realtor will do most of this for you.
So, the realtor will do most of the heavy lifting while you can focus on other important matters concerning the sale of your home. Besides that, a realtor will know how to make your house look as attractive as possible to potential buyers. Even if large portions of the home have been damaged and haven’t been repaired, a good realtor can still highlight the upsides to the house.
This is essential when trying to sell a damaged house. After all, while you do need to disclose the damage and its extent, you still shouldn’t undersell your home. It might still have plenty of good things about it.
It might have plenty of land, a good roof, a good foundation, plenty of square footage, and so on. Whatever the case, a realtor is an expert at analyzing a piece of property and figuring out how to highlight the benefits as much as possible. The Process
Then, the realtor can add those benefits to the home’s listing, and hopefully, you’ll have some homebuyers that are interested. Of course, the main hurdle will be the fire damage. Your house might be a great find except for that damage.
However, don’t be discouraged if no one takes any interest in your house right away. There are some homebuyers who won’t mind buying a house that has been damaged by fire before. They might prefer to repair the damage themselves or they may find the property to be an interesting project to work on.
Whatever the case, there is always some buyer that will be interested in a fire-damaged house. Again, repairing extensive damage will help speed the process along. Even if you only do some repairs here and there, it will help the process more than you expect.
The main thing is to make sure the property looks good before your realtor lists it. If the house looks like it’s in shambles, it will look immediately unattractive to most potential buyers. But if the house looks like it can be repaired and has some promise, then the house will likely get plenty of attention.
Keep that in mind when considering the extent of the damage and how fast you want to sell your house. If you want to sell it as fast as possible, you will likely want to make some repairs, even if they are minor. That way, the house will look better up-front and the damage won’t scare away potential buyers right away.
Sell at an Auction
If you don’t feel like selling your home with the help of a realtor or if that method doesn’t seem to be working, you can always try selling your house at an auction. This will be a good option if you are having trouble selling your house with the help of a realtor.
This may happen if the fire damage is quite extensive and destroyed much of the house. Selling your house at an auction may not allow you to get the price that you want for the house. Even so, it is pretty much a sure way to get at least some money from the property and for it to sell relatively fast.
This is a perfect option if you care more about parting with the property than you do about how much money you will get for the property.
Try Selling It With iBuyer.com
If the damage to your house is not too extensive, selling a house with fire damage to iBuyer.com would be a great option. This company can help you determine the value of your home after the damage and how much it might be worth if you make repairs (or not). It will also help you sell your property much faster due to how effective it is and how much experience the brand has at selling houses at good prices.
