What to do if a relative has left you an unwanted property
Recently a client called our office with a dilemma. They had received property from a relative who had recently passed away.
The problem was that they lived on the West Coast of the US and the home was all the way in Metro Detroit. They had no desire to hold on to it, but didn’t want to give the property away for pennies.
This is a common scenario and one that’s surprisingly easy to remedy.
Instead of going through the hassle of hiring a realtor, putting the house on the market, having multiple showings, and then showing up to close, we were able to sell their home with no cost out of their pockets to a quick cash buyer.
Cash investors are perfect for these scenarios because they often have the local experience and market knowledge to handle an inherited property. They do it full time, so it’s just plug and play for them.
Local investors have the rehab crews, inspectors, agents and cash to purchase and close a property quickly, so depending on your needs, it may be best to skip the traditional sales route and opt for a faster solution when you have an unwanted property on your hands.
What Do You Need for a Quick Cash Sale of Your Inherited Property?
Whether the home came from a will, bequeath of an estate, or from an inheritance, many owners simply don’t want to deal with the inherited property tax implications, the capital gains issues, or even just the time and headache involved with the probate process.
To sell the property quickly for cash, you’ll need to have the deed to the property fully transferred over to you. Sometimes this means waiting for the completion of the time period required for probate.
Sometimes, you’ll have to wait for the full disposition of the assets as required by state law. However, having a cash buyer lined up and ready to go will facilitate a quick sale of the property.
Next, you’ll need a title company or title attorney that can help with the closing. Any reputable title company is familiar with closing these types of transactions, so there’s no need to worry there.
What you can avoid by having a cash buyer ready is the advertising, marketing, repairs or clean-out of the property. The buyer will handle all of that, which takes a lot of stress off of your plate in an already stressful situation.
How to Set a Price for a Quick Cash Sale of Probate or Inherited Property
There are many tools online that can help give owners a ballpark figure of a property’s value, but unfortunately, they are often inaccurate. To get the best estimate of what a property is worth, locate a local realtor (ideally in the same city or county) and ask for comps.
Comps is short for comparable sales and this is just a list of similar properties that have sold within the past 6 months, less than a mile away, and are similar in age, condition, and size as your property.
It is important to only compare similar properties or else you may get an overinflated value of the home and limit the ability to sell it quickly for cash.
The realtor will email a comps report so that you can see the following info:
- Sales prices of similar homes
- Construction
- Age
- Size
- Condition
In order to make a property attractive, you’ll want to sell at a reasonable discount from the estimated value. Cash buyers will often rehab and resell these properties, so they will need some room in the numbers to make the transaction work.
It is much easier and quicker sometimes to let an investor or quick cash buyer handle the headaches, details and management of property received in probate or through inheritance than trying to overcome a steep learning curve and do it yourself.
If you need help finding a quick cash buyer for your property, contact us using the form below, call 248.905.1531 or email: myrealestateteam1@gmail.com
Letitia Patterson is a licensed real estate associate broker and has worked in the mortgage and real estate industries for nearly 20 years. She has worked with investors in several countries from all around the world and specializes in both small and large real estate portfolios in the Metro Detroit market.