Let’s cover some things you need to think about if you’re considering buying a hoarder house.
Hey, it’s Nick with Sell my San Antonio House and we’ve all seen the shows you start to think oh, wow, okay, look at all that stuff. Well, if you’re an investor, maybe you’re thinking, hey, I could fix that house back up. If you haven’t done one, there are some things you need to think about.
One, we get it, it’s full of trash, right? It is always more than you think. It will be a couple of extra dumpsters or another few trips to the landfill. You need to factor that cost in there. It’s not like a normal dump. We’re three dumpsters into this house right here. And it absolutely has potential, but we’ve got at least a couple or three to go because of all the stuff that was stacked in here. So you need to factor that cost in. It’s going to be more than you think. So add that to the budget.
Now, as you’re also going through all that stuff, keep it in mind that once you get it all out, there are going to be bugs. There are going to be lots of bugs… There are definitely going to be roaches. And it’s not going to be one of those things where you can just do your normal spray like you’d spray in between some tenants coming out of a rental or something like that. You’re going to need to spray multiple times to make sure that whatever was here living, you take care of.
Also in my experience, I have never once had one that didn’t have rice, rice, rice, rats, or mice, or both, okay. Those are in here that hide under those things, the seller probably didn’t even know that they were here, but you’ll find it as you’re cleaning them out. And that’s something you’ve got to address because they’re not going to leave. They’re used to being here. They’re used to having the food, they’re used to getting to the water that’s in here. So you’ve got to also address that issue. And it might take you a little longer than you think because it’s not something you can just do in an afternoon in one swipe.
Along with all that, obviously, all your floors are going to have to go. Don’t think you’re going to save some floors. Maybe if there were some old hardwoods that were covered up, but they’ve been sitting on all this stuff and there’s been all this just dirt and grime. Anything else has probably got to go.
What else do you need to be concerned with? All right. If you guys can see behind me, this here’s the bathroom. Okay. This bathroom hasn’t been used in years and years. Why is it an issue? It’s an issue because plumbing is made to have water go through it. This plumbing’s not had any water go through it in years. So you want to try to find out, well, how long has it been since it was functional? Because when plumbing just sits there and doesn’t have any flow, it tends to deteriorate faster.
You got to factor some stuff in there because you can run into some big issues that you didn’t see as well. Also don’t even think about saving anything in the kitchen. Okay. The kitchen always has the most food in it, which means it has the most pests, it has the most animals, it has the most whatever’s in it. Okay. You’re not painting and cleaning up those cabinets. Everything has got to go. All right.
Now, should you be scared of a hoarder house? Not necessarily. You want to think about what’s your experience level? How comfortable are you in there? What you’ve got to factor in more for your budget, everything’s going to cost a little bit more and there’s going to be very little that you can salvage from inside the house especially if it’s been this way for a long time. I hope that helps. Think about it. If you got a hoarder house, if there’s anything we can do to help you, you got any questions? Give us a call (210) 201-6644 or reach out to the website sellmysanantoniohouse.com.