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So, my dad is 85, and we finally had to move him into an assisted care facility due to severe physical and cognitive issues. His house is 50 years old. He bought it when it was being constructed. And he never upgraded anything in it. So there are 1965 appliances in it (OK, new fridge, that's it). 1965 era windows. 1965 wallpaper. 1965 carpeting. Furniture that's been sealed with plastic covering since 1965. All 3 bathrooms need serious work including new fixtures. The central air unit is complete busted and needs to be replaced. Structurally it seems to be in good shape, but everything else needs to be replaced or refinished.
My brothers are and I are quarreling over how we should go about selling the house.
I want to sell it as is, my brothers think it will be better to fix it up and then sell it. (note that none of us have the time or knowledge to fix it up ourselves)
Houses in the neighborhood are going for around $225,000. It's a 2 story corner house, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, with a full basement, and a 2 car garage in a very popular suburban area of the north east of the USA. I know we won't get anywhere near that number with the house being in the condition that it is in, but due to the amount of fixing up it needs, I am doubting that we will recoup that much money from our time and investment in fixing it up?
Am I wrong in thinking this? And either way, does anyone have any advice on how to handle this type of situation? We need as much money as possible to pay for his long term care.
Give it a through cleaning, possibly paint interior and exterior (curb appeal), tidy up the landscaping. If there are broken steps or any safety issues fix those.
Defects must be disclosed; the advantage of not having your own inspection is that you do not know the condition of the house so you have nothing to disclose (owner has dementia), the advantage of the inspection is that buyers are better prepared to make an appropriate offer. Whomever buys it will hire an inspector so consider hiring your own and address any easy issues - that would be the limit of any fixing I would do. In our area (hot real estate market) sellers show the inspection.
You need to hire an agent who knows the neighborhood very well and can advise you.
Personally, I would NOT fix it up to sell it, but get the agent to show you comps of recently sold homes. If the entire neighborhood is that old and as popular as you say, it should not be that hard to find out what an unrenovated house should sell for.
You need to hire an agent who knows the neighborhood very well and can advise you.
Personally, I would NOT fix it up to sell it, but get the agent to show you comps of recently sold homes. If the entire neighborhood is that old and as popular as you say, it should not be that hard to find out what an unrenovated house should sell for.
great advice- call a local agent,,,have them assess the property,, ask their opinions on worth/value as is, and also if you fixed it up a bit
I would sell it the way it is. The cost to do a major renovation on a four bedroom,two story home will be quite a huge number. Have you and your brothers figure out what it would cost you ? Who would be paying for all that ? How would you pay for it ? Who would the the one running back and forth to check on the workmen everyday ?
When you got finished with your renovation you might find that it is not increasing the value of the home comparative to the cost incurred.
You might want to have a couple of general contractors come in and give you rough estimates on renovation costs. In the real world these situations always over run, so take those figures and and 10-15% to them.
Next have 2-3 real estate agents come in and give you figures for selling the way it is -- then another set of figures for selling remodeled.
Make a decision after all due diligence. Having a lot of financial figures in front of them , I think would keep your brothers happy. IMO it's just better to sell it "as is ".
Last edited by willow wind; 07-13-2014 at 05:43 PM..
Dump it. Spreading your time and family relationships thin just to make an extra 20k that won't even be your money is silly. I assume you put your dad in a facility that accepts Medicaid so that when his assets are depleted he will be on Medicaid's dime? Medicaid will only allow him a certain amount of personal $$ before they take everything he has left to cover their bills. So that extra money you made for him would end up taken by the government anyway.
(Assuming the house is not in a trust and your dad's not a millionaire.)
Sell it as-is. You should get it thoroughly cleaned and inspected, so you're aware of any major defects that might need to be corrected. Then contact a knowledgeable realtor in your area who can provide a comprehensive CMA so you can decide on a price to sell it at, realistically something 10-15% under market, at least, to reflect the condition and need to update. Whatever you were to put into the house, in terms of renovations, you most likely will not receive a dollar-for-dollar return on; as well, whatever renovations you put in might not be to the taste of some, or most, buyers so you could potentially be eliminating a significant segment of your buyer pool before you even hit the market.
Thanks for all of the replies everyone. Got some very good ideas from them and it helped solidify my thought process. I'm the only one who lives nearby so most of the work in monitoring any renovations would be me. So I'm going to contact a few realtors and see if I can find one who seems experienced in this type of thing.
We are trying to straighten out his finances as well, so there is a lot else going on.
My wife and I are also struggling just to deal with having to sort through and throw out 50 years of accumulated stuff. And he had a LOT of stuff. We do not have the ability to take off significant time from our jobs, nor do we have much extra cash to pay for renovations. So it's becoming increasingly clear we should sell it as is.
60s homes can be very attractive as is to many people.
So, without experience or time your brothers want to take .. well, there's that word 'time'...off to explore where and how to get estimates, exactly what even needs to be estimated, review the estimates and research who the contractors are and get their references. And stop by to check work being done daily. And meet muni inspectors. And perhaps take part in shopping to save more money. Shopping for new appliances and windows and light fixtures and flooring and carpet and really being careful to make sure everything matches.
They'll need to be sure windows and doors are secure so that there is no theft during renovations. And they'll need to time things. That's a hard part. You can't have the tile man scheduled for the bathroom just when the plumber is installing the commode. Sub contractors can be late or ill or there's bad weather, etc. Is someone going to tell several contractors where the utility turn offs are and hope they remember to tell their workmen. And hope the workmen remember. And that goes for all aspects. If there's a leak in the morning , can your brothers stop work and have the numbers to call the afternoon contractors to reshedule.
Or, they'll take time off from work for this.
It can be done. But it doesn't appear that you and your brothers purposed in your mind to save for and go out and purchase a 60s home where you knew what would be needed.
Just the nature of how one inherits a thing, no matter how well known about, is often a kind of surprise to deal with.
That said, we had experience and didn't mind this. I can direct water away from a house better than anyone that has ever attempted to do it on properties we bought. And I can do that and restore gardens and buried walkways and have the trees trimmed and stone paths restored and seal what needs it while other jobs are being done. Even then, we left for a few minutes, returned and the nice electrician's worker had stupidly just yanked off the doorbell escutcheon, breaking it. So what...it's old. Hey, it was Arts and Crafts original. So the company owner apologized profusely but the original was gone. It took a little while but we got a good replacement but still so many things can happen even when you are keeping a close eye on things.
Thanks for all of the replies everyone. Got some very good ideas from them and it helped solidify my thought process. I'm the only one who lives nearby so most of the work in monitoring any renovations would be me. So I'm going to contact a few realtors and see if I can find one who seems experienced in this type of thing.
We are trying to straighten out his finances as well, so there is a lot else going on.
My wife and I are also struggling just to deal with having to sort through and throw out 50 years of accumulated stuff. And he had a LOT of stuff. We do not have the ability to take off significant time from our jobs, nor do we have much extra cash to pay for renovations. So it's becoming increasingly clear we should sell it as is.
Have you considered using the services of an "estate sale" outfit ? They get paid by a % of proceeds. Most can clean out the house to the walls. You only need to put aside the items you want to keep.
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