If it’s a potential site for a McMansion, contact some custom builders and try to sell directly to them. Someone I know did this in my area and got a better price than selling to a flipper. There are a lot of McMansions here and it’s easy to find builder names just by going up and down the streets and seeing who is doing the new construction.
Definitely try contacting builders directly.
Our area is a Ballard Box (a modern, boxy house) hotspot, and builders have been circling the 'hood for available houses to tear down. If your area is a new construction hotspot too, there might be some builders who would be happy to bypass the middleman.
I personally don’t like the McMansions, and I do like the neighbors, and would hate to see them lose their private backyard. The wood stove is in the house already and the question is do I remove it?
Two of my friends told me about older homes that were sold after both spouses had died. The families were advised to do zero upgrades… ie sell as-is. That way young buyers can get cheap price and do their own upgrades to own tastes. In one case that happened. In the other case a flipper bought it. In both cases, the families were satisfied with the outcome.
Oh, no! We’re not McMansion territory. This is mid-sized houses in a really old inner suburb area for people who can’t afford the better suburbs. It’s a bedroom community so people will buy to commute to NYC, but even our teardowns are modest. 
We used to live in a high end McMansion tear down capital suburb. I’d tracked the market for years and had been in touch with some developers. Our house was in a great location but was basically tearing itself down.
When the time came to sell, I drove around town to see who was building. I recontacted the previous developers and added some new ones. One guy with multiple properties under development and a national reputation told me he would give me $5000 over my best offer.
It was hard to track him down along the way, but eventually he did buy at $5000 over the next best offer and $20,000 over my acceptable price. All cash with inspections waived, and of course no commission. Plus he agreed to a rent free six month post possession contract. I was very happy with how it turned out. Several other developers were definitely low balling but I knew our market.
As follow up, I spoke with the person who offered X on the phone and said it seemed most companies don’t actually come through with X. He assured me they were different and agreed to come and see the house. Well after seeing the house, the offer became X-50k! Um, no thanks.
@colorado_mom We thought the same logic for our older home. Realtors have suggested otherwise. We’ve been told most buyers today don’t have the skills (or desire) to purchase older homes that need updates. Younger buyers don’t have the skills. Older buyers no longer have the desire. So the interested pool of buyers is much smaller, thus likely to take longer to sell. Of course it is also easier for a realtor to sell an updated home, so I’m not sure who benefits more.
However, I have seen some of the results of that logic. We have an older home in an odd neighborhood. The home is older cosmetically (and style), but very solid construction and quality. Interiors have an updated look, but all cabinets, floors, windows, etc. are vintage. New homes sell for 500’s. Totally upgraded homes (all new kitchens, baths, floors, plumbing, finishes, etc.) sell for 400’s. Older homes like ours only sell for upper 200’s or very low 300’s, and are typically on the market for a long time. Lots or tear downs only sell for mid 100’s. Hard to figure out what to do when we want to sell. We can upgrade ours, but to match the going 400 price range would have to put in at least 100. So ultimately we’re ahead by updating, but not much, and would have to live through a lot of mess, or temporarily move out.
I think we will end up putting about 30k worth of fixes and then list with a realtor.
@kjofkw That’s our issue. probably have to put in at least 100K and all the mess and stress, but might not get much more back. It would go for maybe 200K now, probably flipped or teardown, but don’t think we’d see much more than 300K with a vast amount of work. And I’d hate to put in that much and then find out we can’t get it back.
Did you mention a wood stove upthread? We have a wood stove, although it is not freestanding; it is an Jotul insert (fits into the existing fireplace opening).
We LOVE ours. It makes all the difference between having a drafty old house in the winter, and a warm cozy house in the winter.
Seems to me that people who love wood stoves, really, really love them.
This wood stove was loved by its owner and the pile of wood received the highest value in the personal property appraisal
An article explaining how “we buy houses” work (and rip off seniors!):
The “code violation” trick was actually tried on us last spring. No spring chickens here, I took care of the issue by communicating with the city as a preemptive strike. The market has cooled off, so I hope whoever was targeting us is lying low now.
Thanks for the link. We are going to list ‘as is’ in a week and see what happens.