The Scenario:
- An individual in serious need of a change
- Wanted to sell her Madison house quickly (or have an offer in hand shortly) so she could find a place closer to family in Sun Prairie
- Mold issues that would make it difficult to sell the house through traditional means
From the seller:
“From the first email to Dustin to the last signature at the closing, my experience with Wisconsin House Buyers was wonderful. I mainly dealt with Dustin and his father, John. Both were very prompt and professional when replying to my emails and answering my questions. They made me a very reasonable offer on my house and allowed me to finally be able leave a place that was draining me both financially and emotionally. They even offered to help me find a new place to live. I would not hesitate to recommend Wisconsin House Buyers.” Amy F., Madison, WI
See what all of our customers say about Wisconsin House Buyers here: View testimonials
In this installment of our Rehab Series…
We share the details of how we provided a means to sell their Madison house in as-is condition.
No repairs, no cleaning, no people trouncing through the house, and no commissions or other expensive hassles to deal with.
See the before and after pictures below.
We even disclose which contractors we used and some of the details from our eventual sale of the home.
Enjoy!
Project Recap
Location
The location of this home is near the I-39 and Thompson Ave intersection, in between Milwaukee St in Madison. We buy homes primarily in the city of Madison and surrounding communities throughout Dane County.
The house was in need of quite a lot of repair work and needed a refresh generally. So while there was the option to simply remediate the mold issue and then attempt to resell the property, the best outcome (and therefore highest offer to the seller) was to do a larger scale rehab and refresh of much of the property.
The home is a ranch style home with approximately 1,600 finished sq feet throughout including the basement.
Client Story
*Disclosure: We never publish full names or property addresses unless our client wishes to share those details. Privacy matters to us.
The seller of this Madison property told Dustin over the phone that she “desperately needed a change of scenery.” She explained that she was concerned about the mold issue in her bathroom and knew the roof was in pretty bad shape.
She wanted to sell as-is and avoid having to make repairs to these more significant issues. This roof and the bathroom remediation alone would cost something like $20k plus.
She was also very much looking forward to moving closer to her family in Sun Prairie but wanted to take a little time to find a good location for her near or in the same apartment building with her family.
So we resolved to setup an appointment and take a look at her house when she was done with work one day that week. We we able to put an offer together that day, she accepted the following day, and we were set to close in a couple of months.
Before Pictures
Problem Solved
The seller had several primary concerns:
- Wanted to close on her timeline
- Had stuff that she wanted to to leave behind and didn’t want to deal with cleaning
- Had some obvious repairs to make that traditional buyers (and their banks) would not be likely to overlook
Regarding the timeline issue, depending on what works best for the seller, Wisconsin House Buyers will make offers with closing dates anywhere from 5-7 days from the offer, or all the way out 3 months from the date of the offer. We provide maximum flexibility for our customers.
You can see from the pictures above that there was quite a bit of stuff leftover. Actually, these were pictures from prior to our offer but there was quite a bit left yet after we purchased. We were able to donate or dispose of all of the seller’s unwanted items after we purchased the home.
Finally, we insert a clause into our offers that says we are buying the house As-Is, meaning no repairs for the seller, period. We take care of all of the necessary repairs to the home after we purchase.
The reasons outlined above for selling to Wisconsin House Buyers are typical of why people choose to work with us.
The Property Story (Rehab needs)
This particular home is quite typical of many in this area of Madison.
This project wasn’t a “complete gut” job down to the studs but did require work on most aspects of the house.
We replaced the roof, put a new kitchen and bathrooms in, put new drywall, doors, trim, and other finishing items in as needed inside. Of course, you can’t do all of that without replacing all of the flooring and putting a fresh coat of paint on as well.
As with all of these larger jobs, once you get started we typically find something we didn’t expect. In this case, we ended up having to replace the soffit and facia on the exterior because the previous contractor hadn’t done this correctly.
Our entire rehab consisted of several dumpsters worth of items and old materials as well as a truckload of donations.
The 53714 zip code of Madison has been a spot where quite a few other property owners have reached out about selling their house as-is as well. For reference, as of the time of this writing, we are currently working on two additional projects in Madison alone. So we are very familiar with Madison and always looking for new projects in the city or Dane County
After Pictures
Final sale
As with any house, certain things go a long way. Certainly, buyers often compliment the clean looking bathroom and kitchen designs that we choose and this was the case this time around as well. Buyers typically prefer a place that doesn’t need much work and in this case, we largely repaired or replaced anything that needed an upgrade (from what we could see).
We did have multiple interested buyers on this property which was typical of the timeframe that we sold it in, the summer of 2021.
The sale generally went through without much in the way of hiccups, which can sometimes arise when inspections or financing related things come up. It’s always nice to get through the various home sale contingencies without a whole bunch of issues and back and forth between all of the parties involved.
Overall, we were happy with how everything turned out. We had a larger project on our hands and the seller achieved all of their objectives. We were able to keep our materials and labor costs in line and ultimately sell it for slightly more than we were hoping for. So it was a success from all sides.
You can see other project case studies over on our blog. There are already several there and we have a backlog of additional writeups coming.
If you want to learn more about us check out our company page. Or check out any of these helpful links if you’re interested in services.