They found an overpriced dump! Fingers crossed. 
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Paging @coralbrook ! She has a lot of experience with as is houses.
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Well, as long as it’s where they want to live and it’s fixable! It definitely seems like the main thing is to get something you can fix up to what you want it to be, and you’re definitely gonna pay too much in this neck of the woods.
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It’s common in my area for houses to be listed “as is”, especially if an estate sale. The market inventory is low and houses sell quickly if priced correctly.
I also echo interviewing three realtors.
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My DiL’s childhood home was sold “as is, in need of repair” at an auction. Realtors were reluctant to convince buyers to tackle the extensive work needed. House sold for about 60% of comparables.
Our kids bought homes in 2023 after prolonged searches and many disappointments. If the only problem is your home is dated, I agree that some new paint can work wonders – but where we are it is a ferocious battle to buy. They saw houses with missing walls, ceilings, etc being sold at +10% of ask. I can’t imagine that simply being dated will be much of a deterrent for first time buyers.
Inspection “for information only” does mean they can back out of the offer if they find anything major (like structural damage). But they can’t obligate you to fix anything.
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We are in suburban Chicago in an area with many tear downs. We sold our house directly to a builder. We did our homework first and it paid off.
By driving through the area and also from public records we compiled a list of builders and the prices that they paid for homes/lots over the previous year. We also got the lot size of those homes. We put this all in a spreadsheet and determined the high and low price per square lot foot that the buyers were paying.
From that info we determined what we thought would be a good price for our size lot. We 3 contacted builders who were active in the area and paying the most $ for similar sized lots to ours. One of those builders came the same day and a few days later we accepted his offer for the $ we were looking for.
Data was our friend.
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The inspection tells them what needs repair. No we would not do them but we did allow the contingency since they were traveling from out of town and it was a full price offer.
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For houses selling as-is, without inspection…. does it eliminate potential buyers who need to take a mortgage? I assume that banks still require inspection.
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My understanding of as is, is that the seller will not address any deficiencies. The buyers can still have an inspection, so they know what they will need to repair. Theoretically, yes, that could affect their mortgage depending on the appraisal value.
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A friend sold the house I managed as a rental a few years back, via a realtor. He put a sign up on the house, “coming soon.” A buyer got in touch with him, offered above asking price pending a walk through. Walk though was done, offer accepted and saved a zillion updates proposed by the realtor. As well as making the renter have the place ready for showings.
While working, I had no time to fix my previous house to be ready for realtor demands for showings. I told friends to spread the word, there was some interest over a few months and finally a buyer who did do an inspection which the place passed. I used an attorney, to save us both on realtor fees and it was relatively painless. I didn’t get top dollar, but my asking price was met (established by a realtor) and saved me hours of work. Any realtor will do a market assessment. This was pre pandemic.
In this current market, I would sell by owner, determine a fair asking price, have an attorney to advise you, show the house on a single Sunday, and set a date for bids. Hopefully some lucky young folks will very much appreciate the place as is and you’d avoid dealing with low ball offers from flippers.
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When we bought our house (1980s), mortgage inspections were very picky. For example, we heard if there were a bad roof mortgage rejected (ie not just appraisal lowered) unless seller fixed roof first. Perhaps this is only the case with low downpayments.
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Back when we had a mortgage, FHA and VA mortgages required a roof inspection and that the house was in livable condition with utilities on. Conventional mortgage did not care about anything other than loan to value ratio and insurability. So even if one could somehow get a loan, one can run into issues is insurance. Ours demanded we fix the roof which looked ugly but was good for 7-10 years per licensed roofers.
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When we sold my parents’ house in 2021, we first got it appraised so we knew what we were working with. Then we interviewed 3 brokers, and each gave us the price they would list at. It turned out that a 4th broker had a client that made us an offer before the house was put on the market. We felt comfortable accepting the offer as it was something like 10 -15% above the appraised value. The buyers were planning a gut renovation.
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Will we have to probate my mom’s will before we sell the house? How long does that take?
Last year we sold me grandfather’s condo that had been rented for the last 40 years. It was a wreck. But in a hot market. I went with a local realtor that specializes in the neighborhood. After a week on the market we had 8 offers all over asking. Definitely easier than I expected. In our area fixers and totally fixed up go fast. It is ones in the middle that stay on the market longer.
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My understanding is that it varies state to state. I had to wait for the end of probate when I sold my parents’ place in FL. It took about 3 months but it was fairly straight forward.
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It does vary by state. CO is pretty easy (I did not use lawyer for my mother’s estate, but no real estate.) I’m from NY and have heard it’s tough there… sometimes a year or two.
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Someone else has to have a legal authority to sign the house deed to the buyers if the owner is deceased. This would be a good question for the estate attorney handling your mother’s estate.
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Right, but if they walk away, they still lose the earnest money deposit.
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Yes, the buyers will lose $$ if the deposit is non-refundable (most as is sellers will not consider a refundable deposit). This is how this works in my neck of the woods.
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