You’ve worked hard for many years to both purchase and maintain your family home. You’re proud of where you live, and things are getting better all the time. You have a job opportunity somewhere outside of San Antonio and you think you’re going to take it, so you and your spouse decide to put your house on the market. You’re getting some interest and things are progressing nicely until a major storm hits and your home is flooded. You have pretty extensive water damage to deal with.
Now what?
The first thing you should do is take a deep breath. After all, things could have been much worse. Selling a house with water damage can be difficult, but it’s far from impossible and it happens every day somewhere in the United States. Sell My San Antonio House has helped take homes off of people’s hands for years for fair, cash prices, and below we’d like to offer some insight into selling a house with water damage.
1. File an Insurance Claim
If you own a home, you most likely have homeowner’s insurance. You’ve been paying those premiums for years, so now it’s time to file a claim. You should do that immediately, so that you can record evidence of the damage and get that process started, as it’s going to take some time before the claims process is complete. Selling a house with water damage while a claim is being processed is not all that unusual, and you may need that coverage to pay for the damages.
2. Get Busy Cleaning
After you’ve taken photos and recorded videos of the damage, you should get right down to the business of cleaning up. Mold can set in quickly, meaning within 48 hours in some situations, so clear all the items that have gotten wet out of the house and place fans and dehumidifiers around the areas that got wet. The last thing you need is mold in the walls, as that’s going to create massive problems.
3. Get Estimates
If you’re going to be selling a house with water damage, you’ll need to decide whether or not to repair all the damage or not. You’ll likely need to do this as part of your insurance claim anyway, but gather estimates from professionals relating to the tasks that need to be done that you cannot handle yourself. This will help you make your decision on how to proceed.
4. Sell the Home As-Is
Selling a house with water damage can be stressful for obvious reasons, and it can lead to tempting thoughts such as, “Just slap a coat of paint on that wall and don’t say anything.” That would be a very bad idea. You’ll need to disclose the water damage, and a buyer is going to find out about it anyway during the inspection process. That could lead to massive problems on several levels, so simply sell the home as-is so that people understand the risks.
5. Let Us Help
Finally, if you want to avoid all of this hassle, you can simply contact Sell My San Antonio House. We buy homes on an as-is basis with cash, and we work quickly and fairly. Many of our homes have been trashed by previous owners/tenants. We also purchase homes that need significant repairs due to everything from foundation issues to fire damage. If you’d like to find out what you could get for your home from us, contact us today and we’ll come out and take a look. We’ll make a prompt offer to help you make your decision faster.
Informative read!