Some houses just need a second, third or fourth chance. Some houses are just old and while they provided years of shelter and memories for its previous owners it is at the end of its rope at least with the current owners. It is not an indictment or judgemental. Its just the way it is. Houses like these are rocked literally to the foundation as the owners can come up short, through no fault of their own, on being able to positively influence the houses survival as a viable asset. Most of all houses like these require a lot of money.
You know that, when no matter what you do and no matter how hard that you try, some houses require such extensive work that you need to deconstruct and rebuild it from one end to the other, one piece at a time, before anything meaningful is done. That is the time you say in frustration… Sell My House in Sacramento.
Sell My House in Sacramento
Imagine this scenario. You pull up to your house one day and look at the front window that has been painted shut long before you bought the house. You notice that the window sill looks like its broken because of a dark shadow or line you hadn’t noticed before. You walk up and you notice that the window trim next to that sill is pulled out from the wall so so attempt to push it back, and you hear a crack and it springs right back in your hand. You look down and you see the window sill that you came to inspect just pulled away from the window. Puzzled you attempt to push everything back and place but you notice that the wood is rotten and the front of the sill drops to the ground hitting your foot. After further inspection you notice that the lap siding is also rotting and the nails are no longer secured to anything. You look more closely and you can see into the house between the trim and the old window… you panic and think… oh crap, this can’t be good.
Let’s admit it, now you are really afraid. You start to examine the next window and the next and there seems to be a recurring theme, until you get to the back porch and notice that the ivy that was in the flowerbed below has made its way up the side of the house and behind the lap siding. You realize that the house and the landscape are joining as one.
You also realize that what you have uncovered is more than a weekend project, and the root cause may need more financial resources and handyman skills than you have available. The next question is who do you call? A home inspector? A general Contractor? The truth is both have their place and depending on their experience both have their limitations as well.
On the one hand a home inspector will be able to find the problems and spell them out. Whether or not they’ll be able to determine the root causes and correct them are a matter of experience and reality. The same with the general contractor. No one can tell you with 100% certainty what is wrong unless they can deconstruct the problem areas and inspect for that cause. Buckle up because the cost is always more than you think.
It’s at that time that most homeowners have a hard time seeing the potential in a house that will cost them tens of thousands of dollars to fix. Some houses have so much deferred maintenance that the only way to fix them is to completely vacate them and literally start on one end and work to the other. These houses need someone with a vision, financial resources and a desire to see the potential that most people just can’t.
Real Estate Agent vs. Real Estate Investor
In this video I walk through such a house and you will see first hand the challenges that owners of houses like these face. I know first hand what these homeowners face because I am a real estate investor and a general contractor and for the past 10 years I have specialized in buying distressed and ugly houses from homeowners that just wanted out. I specialize in evaluating deferred maintenance and house problems and I know that age is always a challenge and a contributing factor to a houses general condition.
After that much time and well over 100 families and houses, they all have one thing in common. They all first tried to call a real estate agent that was unable to deal with the house in a reasonable way. I mean conventional wisdom and all says that if you have a house and need to sell it call a real estate agent. The problem is that real estate agents dont buy houses. Real Estate Agents market houses and in today’s world for the average real estate agent, that is even debatable.
It really isn’t contempt, because there are some very good real estate agents out there, but in any profession that welcomes part timers as professionals, and where in order to get a license you can pass the test with less than 70% of the right answers … there has to be a better way. Maybe that is why we are seeing the discounted brokerages and the online sites that are employing real estate agents at half the price or even less? They seem to be eating their own.
But that’s not it either. My pet peeve is that the conventional wisdom is just wrong. Real estate agents dont belong in the middle of all real estate transactions. The fact is that they can’t bring more value to a house like this and the truth of the matter is that most real estate agents are not very good negotiators. I know, I have the conversations with them that you never hear. As a cash buyer there are very few that will stand up to me and I can assure you that they are NOT going to get you more money for your old and ugly house. They are going to get in the way… cost you more money in unnecessary commissions (as a middle man) and expose you to liabilities that you wouldn’t otherwise have if they were not there.
Did you know that if you sell your house for cash to a real estate investor and I waive inspections and contingencies, I am deemed experienced and no matter what you know or dont know about the house you will not be liable. Did you know that if I dont ask for the disclosures you are not required to create them?
Like I said I just think the conventional wisdom is wrong and we have all been conditioned by an industry to think real estate agent first whether or not there is a real need.
My name is Peter Westbrook and I am a real estate Investor in Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto. We Buy Houses in Any Condition and we pay cash. If you find yourself saying Sell My house in Sacramento, give me a call. I would like to talk to you about making you a fair all cash offer. In the meantime enjoy the video.
(209)481-7780
Video Transcription
Peter Westbrook: Hello, everyone. Peter Westbrook here with Westbrook Real Estate Investments. I’m standing out in front of a house that I’ve purchased. The reason I’m here today is I want to do a video and talk to people that have houses that are in desperate need of repair. You can take a look at this one and know that someone said Sell my House in Sacramento. It’s got a new roof that it needs, it needs more than just paint. There are places that have dry rot around the windows, these windows need to be replaced. They’re at least 30 years old. And there’s so much more that needs to be done.
When you look at a house like this, this is not a house that you can put on the market with a real estate agent and say just sell it. A real estate agent is going to come out and pick out all of the obvious things that need to be done and make a lot of recommendations. Some of the things aren’t going to be required that they tell you to do, and other things will be. But when you look at this in total, this is not a house where you can just do cosmetic changes to affect the price of the house. Unless you know what you are doing you’re going to be spending a lot of money without increasing its value at all.
I’m going to back up here, and you can take a look at that roof there. The roof needs to be replaced. It’s got a full basement, the foundation is good on it, and yet there’s still cracks in the ceilings and that needs to be addressed and completed but from the inside out. That requires removing plaster and applying sheetrock and taping and texturing. You can’t just fill those cracks with putty and move on. You need to do some substantial work on a house like this to prevent the cracks from showing up again. Unless you have worked on older homes, it’s virtually impossible to make little repairs that are meaningful.
If a realtor were to look at this house, they’d tell you, “Wow, you’ve got to put $60 to $70,000 into the house.” In perspective, if what you have is a house like this and the top of the market in this neighborhood, it is worth $170,000 and you’re putting 70,000 into it, what are you going to get out of it? And what is the risk in return? Are you going to be able to recoup that expense after it is all said and done? A better question is are you going to be able to make the right choices so that you can and still be reasonably sure that you won’t have ongoing liability.
This house is so typical of many houses that homeowners find themselves attached to. It is also the kind of house that most homeowners dont know quite what to do with.
I’m going to walk in and I’m going to show what else needs to be done in this house. I mean, there’s a lot. First of all, you can’t just pull paneling off the wall and call it a day and paint. What you need to do is re-texture. Second thing is, look at these tiled ceilings. These tiled ceiling need to be removed and restored to what they were… not in the sense it needs to be the same, but underneath that tile is a finish a texture that needs to be applied. It takes time and money. We’ve got an add-on room over here that was probably done without permits. You try to sell a house without permitted work, and all of a sudden, those are things that get caught right away by inspectors. Retail home buyers shy away from those. Banks shy away from those.
But it’s more than just that, it’s then, you walk through and here’s the kitchen and the dining room. And of course, it needs to be trashed out as well. There’s a lot of things that have been left behind. We’ve got a wall heater, so there’s no central heating here. We’ve got cabinets, and this kitchen is dated, obviously. You can see by the style of the cabinets itself. The sink, and all of this needs to be redone and removed. Somebody looking for a house today that’s going to paying top of market is going to want to see brand new cabinets, granite countertops, new appliances, stainless steel, preferably.
Then we’ll go through and you’re going to see the bathroom. The bathroom isn’t bad, but it still needs to be redone. And the shower stall is probably very good. We’ve got bedrooms, again, with tiled ceilings throughout, and you can see that they’re buckling here. We’ve got a bathroom on this side. I’m going to show you this bathroom here. This needs to be completely redone. And let’s see where the mirror’s deteriorated. The old toilet that’s here. And then the floor’s buckling over here. We’ve got a bathtub, the hand shower surrounding need to be done. These little cabinets, you’re going to see them here. This needs to be redone.
And so when you look at a house like this, it needs so much work, how can you possibly … cracks in the walls. How can you … like the cabinets over here, they probably need to be removed and the closet next door to this room. But how can you justify doing that? Hire a contractor, you’re going to pay 30% to 40% more than I do. And so what I’m going to recommend you do is pick up the phone and call a We Buy Houses company Sacramento, or somebody that pays cash for houses.
My name is Peter Westbrook, with Westbrook Real Estate Investments. I buy houses in Stockton, Sacramento, Modesto and Manteca. And if you have house like this that needs repair, that you just don’t want to put another dime into, but you want get as much as you possibly can of your equity out of it, then give me a call. My number is 209 481 7780.
I’ll sit down with you, and we’ll come up with a price that works for both of us, and that’s how it works. That’s the reason for this video. Please give me a call or visit my website at www.ibuyhousesstockton.com or www.webuyhousessacramento.org And either way, I look forward to talking to you. Thanks for watching.