Category: Property Sales

How To Sell Your House With Code Violations?

Houses are covered by plenty of residential building codes. From requirements in fence height to ventilation, your old house may be violating one or two building codes set forth by your local authorities.   And let’s face it. Keeping up with residential building codes can get overwhelming and costly. Sometimes, the best solution is to sell the property. This can be more difficult than selling a perfectly compliant house — but it’s not impossible. 5 Tips When Selling a House With Code Violations If you are trying to sell a house with code violations, keeping these tips and best practices in mind can help you find a buyer and make a sale!  Set Your Expectations  Every seller is after getting the best price for their old houses, but don’t let yourself get blinded by all those high selling prices on listing sites. Because your house is old and has a couple of code violations, you need to set your expectations straight and understand that you may not be able to get the highest value for your property.    If you want to put the house on the market with a high asking price, you can opt to have some damages repaired and remedy the code violations. However, the expenses for this will come from your own pocket. It might be a good investment, however, considering that you can receive a higher offer for your newly repaired property.  Stage the House  Your buyers are going to judge their next potential home very seriously, so you want to make the property presentable. Even with damages and code violations, there are things you can do to make the house look worthy of a sale.    Some things you can do to make the property look more appealing are the following:  Highlight the best features of the house and leverage them as your main selling point. Clean up both the interior and exterior  Mow the lawn and get rid of weeds and debris  Move furniture around and position them in the best manner    No matter how damaged the property is, there are things you can do to make it look more appealing to your potential buyers. Your goal is to show your buyers that the house can really be something after the repairs or renovations have been made.  Find the Right Buyer  Let’s face it. Not everyone will want to buy a damaged house with code violations. But there are a select number of people who don’t look for perfect houses and instead want something that they can build or repair to make their own.    You need to find the right buyer — someone who is up for handling the repairs and is willing to pay a fair price for your piece of property. Finding the right audience to market your listing to will help you make a sale easier and much faster than just putting it in a market where it has to compete with perfectly good houses.  Disclose All Damages and Issues  Some sellers make the big mistake of hiding certain issues and violations when selling their properties. But you are required by law to make accurate and complete disclosures about the condition of the home you are selling. Not doing so will expose you to liability and even lawsuits.    Be transparent with your potential buyers and let them know all the damages present, the repairs that you made, documentation of all types of work done on the property, etc. Inspect the house and make a comprehensive list of everything your buyer should know so you don’t miss anything.    Being honest about damages and issues will not only protect you from future headaches but also makes you confident that you are selling legally and ethically.  You Don’t Need to Settle for Less  You might have the wrong impression that your house, just because it has code violations, is now worth nothing. But that’s not true! You can still get a fair value for the current condition of the property.    It’s important that you know how much your home is worth so that you can sell it at a price that is fair to both you and your potential buyers. After the renovations and repairs have been made, the house you are selling may have a lot of potential. So don’t give it away and settle for less just yet.  Skye Homes Can Help You Sell Your House With Code Violations  Selling a house with code violations is no doubt a difficult endeavor. We’re here so that you don’t have to go through the hassle. Skye Homes is an independent and direct buyer of houses in the Bay Area. We purchase your home as-is, without the need for you to do any repairs or renovations. We can offer you a no-obligation, all-cash offer within a few days and if you accept, we can close the sale.    Turn your house with code violations into liquidated assets. Get started with us today by requesting an offer or scheduling a free home analysis.  

Selling a House With Foundation Issues

Selling a house is not a walk in the park. And it becomes even more difficult if the house in question is old and structural issues are apparent. Not many buyers would want to purchase a house with foundation issues to become their next home. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to sell your old house.   A house with foundation issues can still be worth putting into the real estate market. But to increase your chances of finding a buyer, you need to undertake the extra effort of identifying the structural issues, addressing them, and ultimately, being able to sell your old house.  What Causes Foundation Issues? Structural and foundation issues aren’t always apparent at first glance. Sometimes, you don’t even know you have structural problems until it’s too late. In order to determine if a house has foundation issues, it’s worth looking at possible causes.    There are three different forms of foundation issues, including cracking, shifting, and sloping. Each of these can be attributed to its own sets of triggers or causes. If any of the following are true in the house you’re looking to sell, you may have foundation issues that you need to address or disclose to potential buyers:  The area is prone to high levels of dryness or humidity  The house was poorly constructed The house is old and therefore prone to natural degradation The house has withstood severe storms and weather events The soil is of poor quality  The house has poor drainage systems  These situations can greatly contribute to the more rapid sloping, cracking, or shifting of the house’s foundation. If the home you are looking to sell has been exposed to any of the above, you should take a step back and identify foundation issues before putting it on the market.  How to Identify Foundation Issues While foundation issues can be difficult to pinpoint, there are certain tell-tale signs that you may be facing a potential structural problem. Paying attention to even the smallest details can help you identify foundation sloping, shifting, or cracking.  Cracked Walls or Leaning Chimney Foundation damages can be identified through leaning or cracked walls. Make an inspection and spot for curves, bulges, or cracks in the middle, top, bottom, as well as the outer wood or brick of your exteriors. If the walls are leaning, it’s a sign of a bigger, more serious foundational issue that needs to be addressed urgently.    A leaning chimney is also a cause for alarm, signifying that your foundation is not strong enough to hold the weight of the bricks or stone that make up your chimney. This can cause the entire wall to fall if unaddressed immediately.  Cracks in Doors, Walls, or Windows  Cracks on smaller-scale locations like doors and windows are easy to ignore, but they may point to serious structural issues when neglected for too long. Even movable structures can fall victim to damage to the house’s structural integrity.   Cracks on doors, walls, or windows can be signs of the shifting form of foundation damage. As the foundation shifts, so do the movable structures that it’s supposed to keep in place. What’s worse is that these cracks allow moisture and humidity to enter, which gives rise to mold problems that can further affect the structure of the house.    If you notice any of these in the house, you need to get it checked for foundational shifts immediately:  Cracks on the ceiling, especially along the crown molding that connects it to the walls  Cracks on movable structures, such as doors and windows  Bubbling of the wallpaper Cracking of paint on the walls  Functionality Issues with Drawers, Doors, or Windows  If you’ve ever been frustrated because drawers, doors, and windows won’t stay open or closed, it can be more than just a problem with the movable structure itself. In stark contrast, it can be a sign that the house’s foundation is shifting and is affecting the functionality of your movable structures.  Sloping Floors  Floors that slope down or push up in some areas are also signs of foundational issues — not to mention that they are hazards to the people living in the house. Although early signs of sloping floors may not be noticeable, you can spot them in simple issues like wobbly tables and furniture or tripping over areas because of the height variance. Should You Fix Your House with Foundation Issues Before Selling?  If you have identified foundational issues in the house, the question now is whether or not you have to fix them. Of course, the answer depends on your unique situation. However, you should know that there are buyers who are willing to purchase homes with foundation issues and take on the repairs and renovation efforts themselves. But of course, this would mean disclosing the structural issues and selling your house at a lower value.    If you do decide to repair the foundation of the house, you will be shouldering all the expenses for it. Homeowners’ insurance policies will more than likely refuse to accept claims for repairs. On average, it will cost you around $7,000 to $15,000 to completely repair the house’s foundation.  Eliminate the Hassle With Skye Homes While repairing the house before selling it can help you find buyers, a lot of homeowners don’t have the resources or time to get it done. Skye Homes can help in these situations. We are independent home buyers who can purchase your house with foundational issues directly from you — no middlemen, no commissions, and no hidden fees.    We can provide you with an all-cash offer and purchase your house as-is so that you don’t have to take on the burden of repairing its foundation. Schedule a home analysis or request an offer to get started.

What Upgrades Increase Home Value? 19 High-ROI Improvements Buyers Love

What you do with your home has a direct impact on its value. Damage something and the value decreases, but improve something and the value can skyrocket, depending on the improvements you made. Especially in today’s day and age, renovation projects are in demand and everyone is looking to revamp their homes to achieve their desired aesthetic and functions.   With that, it’s also an opportunity for sellers to make upgrades and improvements on their properties to increase their value and get more interested buyers. The key is in knowing what improvements to make. Here are 19 upgrades and improvements that home buyers will love and help your property’s value skyrocket.  1. Add Energy-Efficient Appliances  The appliances that come with the property matter just as much as how the house looks in its entirety. You’ll want to include modern appliances like dishwashers, dryers, washing machines, and refrigerators with the sale. More so, make sure that they are energy-efficient, as this is a primary factor homebuyers consider.  2. Choose a Neutral Paint Color  Bold and striking wallpapers are out, and minimalist, neutral paint colors are in. Having a neutral exterior is like giving your potential buyers a blank slate to work with. It allows them to better imagine how to fit their belongings in the space and determine what improvements they want to make in their future home. Repaint your interiors with subtle colors like white, beige, hints of blue, or brown undertones.  3. Choose Steel for the Entry Door  You want to impress your potential buyers before they even walk into the house. And right now, buyers want to see steel on the entry doors. Statistics show that steel doors help recover 61% to 91% at resale. This can be owing to the benefits of steel, which include being low maintenance, energy-efficient, and has the capacity to block the outdoor cold.  4. Create a Walk-In Shower 77% of home buyers consider both a shower and tub as essential in a master bathroom. However, a substantial number of them also want to have a separate walk-in shower with the tub located in another area. Walk-in showers are the norm, and although it can cost you between $800 to $2,500, the value it can bring to your property makes the expense worth it. 5. Decorate the Exterior With Stone Veneer Stone veneer exteriors are luxurious-looking additions that will make the house look inviting from the outside, hence attracting potential buyers. While installing stone veneers can be expensive, 96% of the cost can be recovered after the sale.  6. Install a Smart Thermostat Home technologies have changed the game for homebuyers, and one of the smart home appliances they want to see is a programmable thermostat. This is owing to its ability to help homeowners save more energy and reduce the cost of electricity bills.  7. Open Up the Space Open spaces are the trend. Knocking out the walls that separate the kitchen, dining, and living room is bound to make the house look more appealing to potential buyers. It helps them imagine how they want to decorate the room and envision their life in the house. Plus, it also allows natural light to enter, adding visual appeal to your interiors.  8. Opt for Minor Remodeling Instead of Upscale Remodeling  You might be tempted to conduct a full-blown renovation in order to raise the value of your property as much as possible. But if you crunch the numbers, you’ll realize that minor remodeling efforts pay off more than upscale ones. Take a look at these findings:  Kitchen remodeling: minor remodeling recoups 77.6% of the spend at resale while upscale remodeling only recovers 58.6% of costs.  Bathroom remodeling: minor changes recoup 64% of the costs at resale while upscale overhauls only recover 56%.  Learn to limit your efforts to small changes, like replacing cabinet fronts, upgrading small fixtures, refinishing the flooring, etc.  9. Refinish Hardwood Flooring  More and more homeowners are having their floorings replaced with hardwood. The 2019 Remodeling Impact Report by the National Association of Realtors revealed that refinished hardwood flooring can recoup 100% of the cost after the sale. New wood flooring, on the other hand, can recover 106% of the spend.  10. Renovate the Basement  More and more people, especially high-income owners, are becoming more particular about the basement. Renovating the basement as you would the entire house adds a few extra square footage to your finished property. While an unfinished basement can add value up to $15,000 to $20,000, that value more than doubles with a renovated and finished basement.  11. Replace Kitchen and Bathroom Fixtures  Even the smallest improvements can make a world of difference. Handles, knobs, faucets, and other small fixtures can contribute a lot to the look of the kitchen and bathroom. Upgrading these to trending materials like stainless steel, brushed nickel, or bronze can make the house look modern and leave a big impact on potential buyers.  12. Replace the HVAC Installed technologies like HVACs are of primary concern to homebuyers. Most buyers ask about the HVAC systems, the brand, when it was installed, and any repairs made on it. Having a newly bought and installed HVAC is a good USP to boast about and allows you to recover 85% of its cost at resale.  13. Replace Old Toilets  New toilets have technologies and features that old toilets lack. And in these modern times, those matter to home buyers. Upgrade your toilets to low-flow fixtures that use up less water but have a more powerful flush. 14. Replace the Roof  The roof is often neglected when it comes to home improvement efforts. And frankly, not a lot of homebuyers are up for the challenge of redoing the roof themselves. Replacing your roof can recover 107% of the costs at resale, not to mention that a brand-new roof is going to attract more potential buyers.  15. Replace the Siding No corner must be left unchecked! Inspect the house’s siding and make sure that it’s in… Continue reading What Upgrades Increase Home Value? 19 High-ROI Improvements Buyers Love

How To Avoid Running Into Mortgage Trouble As A Landlord

You may think it’s only the tenant who has a hard time making the payment, but as a real estate investor or landlord, there may be times when it’s hard to pay the mortgage on your end as well.   Here are some things you can do to avoid facing difficulty with your mortgage each month. Keep your properties full. While it may sound overly simplified, this is the most obvious method for ensuring you’ve got rent money coming in each month to cover your property mortgage payments. Don’t allow yourself to get slack on advertising for new tenants. And don’t put off screening applicants or filling your properties because you get busy or overworked. Recognize filling your vacancies as a major aspect of your REI business success and deal with it quickly and efficiently every time.   Do your best to find quality tenants. While you want to keep your properties full, finding good quality tenants is key. By “good” it means they pay their rent on time, keep the property maintained and don’t abuse the lease. By using background and credit checks, you can find the best tenants available and thereby do what’s possible to keep your rental fees coming in regularly, which will help you pay the mortgage when it comes due.   Look for long-term tenants. Don’t assume that quality tenants will necessarily be long-term ones. Some good renters may know they can’t stay over a few months at most. They may be students or working a temporary job. They may just be living in an area waiting to move or retire somewhere else. Whatever the situation, opt for long-term renters when the choice is available. Doing so will make filling a vacancy at least a more infrequent possibility.   Keep the property well maintained. If you want good tenants, long-term tenants and tenants who pay their rent on time, do your part to keep them. Deal with maintenance issues quickly. Make repairs as necessary. Upgrade appliances or at least ensure the ones you provide are in good working order. Respond to your tenants’ calls quickly, or if you can’t be sure they know you’ll be unavailable for awhile.   Being a good landlord will go a long in way in developing lasting relationships with your tenants, which will in turn, help you keep them in your property longer. Often a tenant and landlord relationship can turn an average tenant into a great one simply because they want to keep that relationship intact.   Even in a good economy, it’s important to do all you can to avoid facing the difficulty of paying the mortgage. That applies just as much to an REI professional as it does to the average renter. These simple tips can help as you work to develop lasting, long-term, rent paying tenants to keep your properties bringing in the income you need every month.  

How do I sell my house without an agent?

Don’t pay $50,000 in commission to sell this house!

Although we do work with Realtors, sometimes it’s best to avoid paying someone to be in the middle.   After all, paying 5-6% of the sale of a property in a commission is a lot of money. In certain situations, brokers and their real estate agents can be very useful and earn their commission. Not always.   There are a few ways to avoid paying high commissions. First, there’s a tricky custom that you’ve gotta know about. In most sales, roughly half of the commission you pay as the seller goes to pay for the buyer’s broker.   Doesn’t make much sense, right? Why should you pay for the agent on the other side of the table? Truthfully, it defies logic – it’s just what’s typically done. You can use that to your advantage in a few ways. First, factor in the commissions paid when you’re looking at the comparable sales. If the properties similar to yours sold for prices that included commissions, take that into account.   Don’t underprice your property – be aware that a savvy buyer may expect to take a discount too. If you’re doing the work of one agent, you can expect to save that money.   Sometimes, buyers who aren’t represented by an agent won’t remember to negotiate the buyer’s side commission out of the price for themselves, so don’t remind them if you don’t want to pay them. Just don’t be surprised if it comes up during the negotiation.   You may want to consider offering 2.5% to buyer’s agents who will bring their clients to show your property. Sure, it’s a lot of money. If you’re pricing your property including that commission, you can always negotiate a better deal for a purchaser who comes without an agent.   On the other hand, if you don’t leave room for the buyer’s agent’s commission, you’ll be excluding most of the buyers in the market in the Bay Area.   Over 90% of transactions happen through the MLS – that’s the Multiple Listing Service. It’s the main database that all the brokers use to access information for their clients on the houses, condos, land and investment properties for sale, along with data on the sold prices.   Once upon a time, you had to pay a full commission to get your property on the MLS. Now, in the Bay Area, there are a few brokers who will charge you a fee just to list your property on the MLS. Often, you spend a few hundred bucks and you only pay commission if the sale closes.   Compared to the cost of a newspaper ad, the MLS is a cheap way to market your property to a very wide audience.   All the major real estate search sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, etc. get data from the MLS. Chances are good that when you submit your listing to the MLS, information on your property will end up on most of the major sites within a few days.   Each of those sites sells ads. They’ve got packages that let you pay to enhance your listing, feature it at the top of the search, and a lot of other bells and whistles that might or might not get an interested buyer to buy your property.   Advertising is a gamble. Sometimes open houses can be a great way to sell property, and sometimes they’re a waste of time. Same with newspaper ads, craigslist postings, fancy signs – sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t.   To effectively sell your property on your own, you have to market it well. Putting up fliers and signs around your neighborhood can generate some calls, and there’s a lot of free websites where you can post information. But often just putting up flyers and an open house isn’t enough if your house doesn’t appeal to the average home buyer.   In theory, real estate agents charge big commissions because they have to spend a lot of money up front to advertise your property. By advertising lots of properties at once, they expect to get more phone calls – and obviously, they’ll make good profits by selling lots of houses.   Certain properties might require thousands of dollars in advertising expenses before the right buyer happens to see the ad and call.   If you want to avoid paying any commissions, you can also sell your house to investors like us for CASH We fair prices for properties – and we can close fast (in as little as 3-5 days if you need to).   Sometimes we’ll purchase the Bay Area houses, fix them up, then rent them out… sometimes we’ll fix them up and sell them to other people looking for great homes in the area, and a lot of other reasons, too – but we love to hear from people like you who are thinking of selling anywhere in California.   We close fast and pay cash in as little as just 3-5 days. Other times, depending on what a seller’s needs are, we may rent it back to them for a month or so. Give us a call now at or fill out the short form over here.   Sell My House Without An Agent- I’m Ready for My Offer

I’m Behind on My Mortgage! How Can I Stop Foreclosure?

Foreclosure notifications arriving at your ?house If you’re behind on payments, here’s how you can stop the proceedings. Buying a house is one of the biggest milestones one can ever make in their lifetime. It’s a dream that almost everyone wants to achieve at some point. However, it can quickly turn into a nightmare once you fail to keep up with your mortgage payments. Nothing is worse than investing so much money and memories on something, only to find out in the end that it will be taken away from you.   If you are falling behind on your house mortgage payments due to financial reasons, the best thing that you can do is to step back and assess your options. Sure, facing a looming foreclosure is a scary reality, but there are still ways to stop it right on its tracks.   One of the best ways to get out of a looming foreclosure is to sell your house as quickly as possible. You can still safely sell your house up until the foreclosure is completed. Typically, foreclosures take years to complete, however, others can happen as fast as five months. Your goal is to sell your home before your lender company takes action against you.   “I have no money to hire a real estate agent.” Traditionally, you have to hire a real estate agent to help you sell your house. Your house will be listed to the open market and once the sale has been closed, a small percentage will go to your agent’s commission. The problem here lies when your home sells for less than the amount you owe. You will end up losing both your house and all your remaining savings if you go with the traditional sale route. In addition, selling your house with a help of an agent can take a lot of time. Remember, the goal is to stop your foreclosure by selling your house as quickly as possible. “How can I sell my house fast?” You probably have seen “We buy houses in cash,” “We buy houses fast,” or “Sell your house fast for cash,” signs around your town or perhaps while surfing the Internet. Investors or quick sale companies offer to buy your house in cash, albeit usually at a discount from the total market value of your property. Unlike real estate agents, they don’t charge commissions, and best of all, they are able to close sales as early as seven days. Falling behind your monthly mortgage payments can be very devastating. Unfortunately, stressing over the thought of your foreclosure won’t make your situation any better. If you find yourself facing an imminent foreclosure, always remember that there is a way to stop it from happening. You just have to act on it quickly because if you don’t, then you are guaranteed to make your situation worse. The good thing is that you don’t have to go through this ordeal alone. We can offer to buy your house in cash and help you move on from your foreclosure nightmare. To read more about how to sell your house fast, go here. More than just buying houses, we can also work with you to modify your loan or do a short sale. It just depends on what your goals are. Give us a call at 877-210-6460 or fill up the form below to get started.

Skye Homes

Sell to Us! Get Up to $3,000 in Moving Costs

Learn More
X