In 2021 alone, there were over 1.3 million fires that caused thousands of deaths and injuries, as well as nearly $16 billion in property damage.
If your home has gone through a fire, however significant, it’s obviously a traumatic experience. Coming out of something like that with your health intact is lucky, but there’s still a lot to deal with regarding property damage. Home repairs after a fire can take months and cost many thousands of dollars.
In some scenarios, it might not be in your best interest to repair the home. You may not think selling a house with fire damage is possible, but there are buyers out there who will put the money down to take a fire-damaged home off your hands.
Today, we’re going to help you through this process with our guide to selling a home with fire damage. Your home value may have taken a hit with the fire, but keep reading and you’ll see that there’s a buyer who will still pay good money for it.
Restoring Your Home
The first decision you’ll be faced with is whether or not to restore the home before attempting to sell. If you don’t restore the home back from the fire damage, you’re going to limit your pool of potential buyers. That said, you’ll still have options, which we’ll discuss below.
Your repairs will depend on the severity of the fire damage. If it’s confined to one room and relatively benign, you may be able to have it repaired in a few weeks for a few thousand dollars. If it’s a bigger fire that took out large swaths of your home, it might not be worth restoring at all.
Fire and smoke damage restoration cost an average of $20,000. The reason it’s so expensive is that it’s not just fire and smoke damage you have to think about. There’s also water cleanup and the cleanup associated with fire extinguishers, as well as soot removal.
Looking At Your Insurance Policy
Before you hire anyone to do the restoration work, you should talk to your insurance provider. Hopefully, you’ve been paying for homeowners insurance, and that your policy covers fire damage. If you’ve got the right type of coverage, you may not have to pay anything out of pocket for repairs.
Dwelling coverage covers the costs associated with rebuilding the home, while personal property coverage pays for replacing your belongings. Liability coverage takes care of any damage to surrounding structures resulting from your house fire and loss of use coverage pays for your temporary lodgings.
The type and amount of insurance coverage that you have will play a major role in the decision to repair the home and sell it or sell it as-is.
Be Up Front With Buyers
Regardless of what you decide to do, it’s important to disclose all information to potential buyers. Even when you’ve had the home completely restored, it’s important to inform potential buyers about what happened with the fire.
Buyers always want to know about any potential issues with the home. A restored home may look the part, but the buyer’s insurer may have concerns about the structural integrity of a home after fire damage.
If the insurance company is scared away, the buyer may have trouble securing a mortgage for the home and your deal may fall through. The buyer will want to know why the fire happened as well. An electrical fire is more concerning to a buyer than one caused by human error.
Restoring the actual fire damage is just one part of the process. You also need to take the right measures to prevent the fire from happening again. This will be important information for a buyer.
Sell to a Cash Buyer
The path of least resistance after you’ve gone through a house fire is to sell the house as-is to a cash buyer. There are amazing cash buyers out there who offer fair prices for homes as-is. These buyers aren’t concerned with the state of the home and have the means to make most repairs themselves.
At ibuyhomes.com, we understand how difficult it can be after a traumatic event like this. We try to make it as easy as possible to sell your home so you can put the house fire and everything that came with it behind you. All you need to do is head over to our site and fill out a secure online form.
Once we’ve got preliminary information, we’ll contact you to get more information about your home. We’ll find out where it’s located, how old it is, the extent of the fire damage, and whether or not you’ve undergone any restoration efforts.
In as little as a few hours, we’ll send you a no-obligation cash offer for your home. If you don’t like the offer, you can simply let us know and get back to restoring your home. If you decide to accept, we can close on the home at your earliest convenience.
The benefits of selling a fire-damaged home as is are fairly obvious. We’ve already touched on how easy our process is, but it can also save you time and money to do it this way.
Even if your insurance policy covers all of the repairs, they’re going to take time. During that time, you may have to find alternative accommodations. When you are able to sell, it’s always more difficult to find a suitable buyer who is willing to pay market value for a fire-damaged home.
There are also realtors involved that take their cut. When you sell to a cash buyer, you deal directly with them and get to keep all of the money from your sale. Every dollar is important when you have to buy a new home.
Selling a House with Fire Damage Is Possible
As you can easily see, selling a house with fire damage isn’t just possible, it can be a simple and satisfying process. A good cash buyer will take the house as is, allowing you to make a quick sale and move on with your life post-fire.
To learn more about our process and to get your free cash offer, don’t hesitate to contact us ASAP.
