Selling a House That's Been Sitting Empty.

What an Empty House Actually Costs You

A vacant house is more than a monthly bill, though the bill is real enough: taxes, utilities you keep on so the pipes don't freeze, and insurance that runs higher on an empty house, if your carrier renews it at all. The harder part is what you can't budget for. An empty house draws problems. Copper stripped out of the walls, a slow leak nobody catches for months, a letter from the city about the weeds.

And it sits in the back of your mind, especially if it's a couple of hours from where you live now. You're on the hook for a house you can't see, hoping nothing's gone wrong since the last time you drove out to check on it.

I Take It However It Sits

You don't have to make a trip out there to get it ready for me. It doesn't need to be cleaned out, the utilities don't need to be back on, and you don't have to be there to let me in. I'll walk through, look at what's there, and make an offer on it exactly as it sits.

It doesn't matter why it's empty or how long it's been that way, and I won't ask you to account for how it got here. If you've moved away, we can do the whole thing without you coming back: the paperwork signs remotely, and we close on a date that works around you.

I've been in West Tennessee real estate since 2009. Ten years as an agent, and the last several buying houses myself in Jackson, Humboldt, and Medina. I know these towns, and I know how fast an empty one starts drawing attention. I also know how to get a house closed when its owner lives somewhere else now.

When It's Worth More to You Another Way

A cash sale isn't always the right call, and I'll be the first to say so when it isn't. If the house is in good enough shape that a quick listing would clear more than my offer, even after another few months of carrying it, that's worth knowing before you decide.

That's just how I work a property. I look at what's actually going on, lay out the options I see, all of them, and only then talk about whether my buying it makes sense for both of us. I wrote up that approach here: the way I work through your options before making an offer.

The Questions People Don't Ask Out Loud

A few things people wonder about a vacant house, but don't always ask.

What if it's in really bad shape after sitting this long? Then it's in bad shape, and I'll still look at it. Closed up for years, water damage, animals that got in, a roof that's been leaking the whole time. Honestly, I haven't found the bottom of it yet. I've very likely bought worse than whatever you're picturing.

It's still full of the last owner's things. Do I have to clear it out? No. Take anything you want to keep and leave the rest, the furniture, the junk in the garage, whatever's in the attic. Sorting and hauling it is part of what I take on when I buy the house. You don't have to deal with any of it.

There are back taxes and a couple of code fines on it. Does that kill the deal? Usually not. Unpaid taxes, a lien, fines from the city, those come out of the proceeds and clear through the title company as part of the sale. You don't have to pay anything off or sort it out before we talk. We find what's owed and handle it through closing.