Solving Problems And Selling A Difficult To Sell House

Instead of going over what to do in a bad situation, I figured we’d give you one we’ve dealt with and how we have helped the client. Every situation is different and may require creative thinking to solve your problems, but we like to help people and ensure their issues get resolved when they sell their house to us. The people’s names were changed for this, but the situation is described just as it occurred.

Selling a house that's tough to sell Chicago

Need Help To Sell A Tough To Sell House

Angela’s friend contacted us about the situation Angela was in. That is correct. Our initial contact wasn’t with the owner of the property but her friend, who thought she could help Angela. Angela needed help terribly and knew she couldn’t contact an agent. The friend’s name isn’t necessary because she disappears after our initial conversation. She filled out the form below and told us about the situation as if it were her house. So we spoke on the phone, and she answered the questions with her limited knowledge about the situation as best as she could. Eventually, she informed us that we needed to talk to Angela. So we did.

Angela filled in some details. So her story goes like this. She has 2 children, one 8 and one 5. She left her husband about 2 years prior and let him have the house in the divorce. So she got her own place for her and her 2 kids. Sometimes, this occurs, and both names are still left on the loan of the house, even though both names are no longer on the deed. If this sounds like something you’re unsure of, you can read more about what to do in divorce here.

So, after a while, her now ex-husband stopped making payments on the loan. He also moved in “a friend” to help him with the bills. She eventually got notified of the missed payments by receiving a preforeclosure notice. During one of the court appearances, the judge found out about this and ordered that she be placed on the deed to sell the property if she wanted. She had not been in the house for almost two years after moving out, so she didn’t know the property’s condition. The “friend” who was moved in also had a dog and was not paying any utility bills. Also, she was now receiving notices from the village of ordinance violations. And to top it off, her husband had been sentenced to prison time and would be in prison for a while.

Recap Of Situation Making It Difficult To Sell My House

checklist of problems with selling a difficult to sell house Chicago

So, for those keeping track, that’s someone who owns property that has tons of damage, is in preforeclosure, has a squatter or “bad tenant,” behind utility bills, ordinance violations, and has a husband on deed that she eventually had to get a resolution for, who also has no interest in keeping the property. Nor did she have the money to fix it and sell it herself. If this sounds like your situation, a company like SILT Real Estate and Investments, LLC can help solve your problems. Just fill out this short form, and we’ll be in touch to discover the unique problems you need solved.

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The good news is that she had plenty of equity in the house. The bad news was that she didn’t know the condition was worse than she thought because she had not seen the property. We worked with the squatter to see the property. When we met with the squatter at the property, we found out that Tom and Diane were on a fixed income. It was one of the reasons why they decided to move in and pay rent for a bedroom with Angela’s ex-husband. While we’re assessing the building and looking around, we’re also looking for a way to help Tom and Diane so they would leave the residence. Tom briefly mentions that he has an aunt he hasn’t talked to in a few months but who lives in Florida, but he believes she would be supportive, and he and his significant other could try and move in with her. 

The first thing we do is try to get the property under contract so that we have the right to do some of the things we need to do. After evaluating the property, we see that more than all of her equity would be eaten up by the missed payments and the repairs needed for the house. We explained to Angela that, unfortunately, as a cash purchase, it doesn’t work unless it’s a short sale. This could mean that she still has to pay taxes on the difference, and she could be left with a judgment on her record for that difference. She says she doesn’t want that, so we know that we must develop a creative solution to fix all the problems with the property, including Tom and Diane still living in the property. 

options for selling a tough to sell house Chicago

Creating A Resolution For A Tough To Sell House

So we came up with a way to take over the payments momentarily, catch up on what she had in arrears, fix up the property, help Tom and Diane find a new place to live, and fix her credit. Oh, and just one other thing. She initially wanted to walk away with $30,000 for the property.  With a short sale, she could end up worse than that. That would have been well over a $30,000 swing to her non-existing savings for selling the property. With the creative structure, we could have given her $7,000 in her pocket.

saying no to a solution for can't sell tough house Chicago

We’ve presented the offer, and Angela was excited about it. She would like her attorney to look over the contract first. Now, this is our mistake. We know attorneys never want to do creative deals. It’s not something they understand. We sent it to the attorney, who told her not to sign it. She could make more for the property by selling it through a real estate agent. We even attempted to follow up with him to show him our numbers and explain why this was the best we could do for her. We never got to discuss the contract again. 

If The First Time Doesn’t Work…

We did follow up with Angela periodically. Even with Tom and Diane still in the house and looking for a place to live, we continued to help them look. As winter came and the gas was shut off just beforehand, Tom and Diane gave significant consideration to moving to Florida, and they asked me to help them do that by buying tires for their vehicle and paying for a couple of fill-ups to get them there. I told them I would gladly help them if I bought the property. Until I could make some profit to cover that, I could only help them by finding a new apartment.

finally able to sell my tough to sell house Chicago

As winter got colder, and with no heat, a pipe burst inside one of the walls of the house. The broken pipe made the home uninhabitable. Tom asked me if I would fix it since Angela wasn’t. At this point, I reached out to Angela and offered her the short sale option again. She had little choice this time, as even the creative solution was off the table because of the broken pipe. We ended up closing on the short sale and giving Tom and Diane about $500 to move to Florida. Angela no longer owns the property, and her credit is improving with the foreclosure off of her record.

No matter your story’s twists and turns, there is always a solution to your problem. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to fix some of these issues. It takes creativity and a team of people to devise a solution to your problems. If you think you can’t sell your house, we can help. Just fill out the short form below, and we’ll contact you as soon as possible to find out how we can help solve your problems. Or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call us at (708) 415-3801 or contact us.

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