PDX Renovations

Category: Uncategorized

  • 4 Mistakes Owners Make When Preparing a House For Sale

    Anyone who has sold a house in the past knows only too well that major expenses can be in order to make the house marketable, and/or to get a buyer to close on their offer. The house seems fine to the family that has lived there for years – but the offers show that home-buyers want you to replace your ancient-but-functioning water heater, and want price concessions to allow them to replace the carpet.

     

    You’ve gotten the pep-talk from your real estate agent about what makes one house stand out over another to a potential buyer. But here is where owners eager to sell often start to go wrong – they spend money to freshen and brighten their house – but not in the ways that interest buyers.

     

    • Owners anxious to make their property appealing can make the mistake of putting their own color preferences first. The owner might not realize that the sunshine yellow wall paint they love is a show-stopper for the home-shoppers who don’t want to live with it. The owner may despair over the recommended color neutrals, but that’s what sells homes.

     

    • Owners often to invest in things that buyers consider nice to have, but won’t pay more to have. Upgrades such as full-room sound systems are great! They may even help your property be a first choice and sell sooner. But home-buyers shopping your neighborhood may not be willing to actually pay extra for that, or for expensive decorator molding along the top of the walls.

     

    • Owners may spend gobs of money spiffing up one room but neglect the others, while buyers look for consistency throughout the house. Even minor disrepair throughout the property – chipped baseboards; floor cracks; peeling paint around the windows – will create a bigger impression on home-shoppers than one major upgrade in one room. Cute new kitchen cabinets with extra pull-outs will be canceled by ragged carpets and fading paint elsewhere, as far as home-shoppers are concerned.

     

    • Overly-personalized décor, creative furniture arrangements, too many photos and wall-hangings, may warm up a room with the owner’s personality, but it can put off the next person who is considering living there. Eclectic looks and furniture that doesn’t fit the space make the house look like a series of problems to someone considering making it their own.

     

    One person’s treasure is another’s trash, and that is never more true than in staging or decorating a house for sale. Accepting knowledgeable professional guidance is critical to preparing a home for sale in a way that truly brings in better offers, sooner.

     

     

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    Question or Prompt for Response – open ended, relevant

    Can you afford your best guess as to what it will cost to prepare a house you expect to inherit for sale?

     

    Call to Action

    Do you have a piece of property (house, lot, or land) you’d like to sell fast?  Fill out our Sell Fast Form and get a cash offer within one hour of us viewing the property. https://patient-liger-dev.10web.site/sell-house-quick/we-buy-homes-bring-us-a-deal/

     

  • Why Your Inherited House Will Become a Rental Nightmare

    Why Your Inherited House Will Become a Rental Nightmare

    Inherited House

    It’s understandable that having just inherited a house along with the financial and maintenance responsibilities, not to mention the emotions of losing a loved one, the new owner may wish to simply buy some time while sorting through the options. An owner may think that installing a tenant is the answer (at least temporarily) to the issues I described in my last blog post “4 Headaches of An Inherited House”.

     

    But the owner of an inherited house who has never managed a rental before may be in for a rude awakening! Consider these scenarios before putting yourself into a rental nightmare situation – a quick home sale might be a better choice.

     

    • A house new to the rental market, perhaps recently occupied by an aging or sick individual, may need major work to bring it up to code standards for a rental.

     

    • Screening applicants before the lease is signed will have you weighing the implications of the credit issues many individuals carry after years of a bad economy, not to mention a past divorce or foreclosure.

     

    • The laws are strict about landlord do’s and don’t’s. If your tenant turns out to be a disaster of late payments, failure to perform upkeep, and even calls from neighbors with noise complaints, you can’t just chuck ‘em out without going through the hoops according to the law.

     

    • What if they aren’t paying – or are paying late every month? If the house didn’t come with a mortgage on it, as a first-time landlord you may find yourself being too lenient – until they have built a rent backlog it is unlikely they can ever meet. Again, you must follow the legal requirements to take action on rent payment problems.

     

    • Renter phone calls reporting problems such as a lack of hot water or that the air-conditioning stopped working mean that you drop everything and deal with this as an emergency, along with a potentially major outlay of capital funds. It’s even worse if the renter procrastinates telling you about the new lake forming in the basement or the warping front steps. Renters are notorious for not reporting or delaying telling you about problems.

     

    Rentals require a source of backup funds to deal with unforeseen repairs, as well as considerable diligence, patience, and fortitude to deal with renters. If you are wishing for more time before final disposal, or you think it’s too expensive to get the house in shape to sell, a rental could actually make things worse rather than better. A quick home sale to a company like PDX Renovations, who are professionals with such issues, can often be a better long-term solution than renting.

     

     

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    Question or Prompt for Response – open-ended, relevant

    If you’ve been a landlord, what advice do you have for first-timers?

     

    Call to Action

    Get an all-cash offer on your rundown house within an hour of our viewing  – find out about PDX http://bit.ly/W4S55u #pdx

  • Why You Should Avoid Leaving Your Inherited House Vacant

    You may wish you had some time before you must deal with all the issues of a house you’ve inherited, including maintenance and repairs. More time to decide about selling or leasing; time to work out questions about the will and the estate. But vacant houses rapidly become problems not just for the owners, but for the community as well.

     

    • City governments, as well as the neighbors, look on houses sitting vacant and un-maintained for more than a few weeks as an escalating nuisance. Overgrown yards nurture destructive rodents that will bring trouble to neighboring properties. Empty houses attract vagrants and drug dealers, and even neighborhood children who stumble into mischief of injury.

     

    • Vacant houses can be stripped of everything from cabinets to plumbing by thieves. The damage can be so extensive that the structural integrity of the house is compromised.

     

    • Barely-maintained vacant homes quickly lose marketability for either sale or rental. No one wants to live in a home overrun with bugs, with gutters stuffed with debris and major work needed in the yard – not to mention interior damage. Poor conditions develop after only a short period of vacancy and escalate over time.

     

    • Insurance coverage issues can multiply as fast as the mice and squirrels taking residence in the attic. Insurance agencies are reluctant to cover vacant houses, knowing the risks of major claims only too well. When insurance can be obtained the premiums are frequently higher than usual.

     

    • When utilities have been switched off there are unique issues to switching them back on. The sudden surge of new water pressure can cause faucets to run and even find weak points in the plumbing. And what is a new rush of heating or air-conditioning blowing out of the vents? Have rodents been snacking on the wiring?

     

    • And finally, back to our first point about how local governments view vacant houses …  Some municipalities are diligent about community hygiene when it comes to structures. The city recognizes, even if the owner does not, that structural problems escalate and can create a hazard of both collapse and fire, as well as becoming a breeding nest for rodents, stray cats, undesirable plants and more. Condemnation and even destruction may follow. And the owner will get the bill for the bulldozers!

     

    Letting an inherited house sit vacant and poorly maintained allows all the negatives to grow. A fast sale is usually a better option for everyone concerned, for both short-term and long-term considerations.

     

     

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    Question or Prompt for Response – open ended, relevant

    Have you had a house with an extended vacancy – what were the largest problems?

     

    Call to Action

    Get an all-cash offer on your rundown house within an hour of our viewing  – find out about PDX http://bit.ly/W4S55u #pdx