How To Sell Your Fire Damaged House In Belleville
According to the National Fire Protection Association, an average of 358,500 homes experience a structural fire each year which causes 6.7 billion dollars in property damage. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance one of those 358,500 homes belong to you and you’re wondering, what do I do now? Here is a quick list of some of your options after a house fire and what to do next:
Contact your Homeowner’s Insurance Agent
It is important to contact your insurance company quickly so they can evaluate the extent of the damage. You are forced to have homeowner’s insurance for reasons just like this. Each policy is different, so make sure you talk to an insurance agent to maximize your insurance benefits. Not only will they pay out money for you to make repairs, in some cases they can cover the costs of temporary housing and food while you wait to make your house habitable again.
It is important that while you’re waiting for an insurance payout, inspections and repairs, you put up a fence around the property so that vandals don’t make a bad situation worse. Seriously, vandals look for damaged homes and will steal things like appliances or personal belongings that were left behind.
Get Your Home Inspected
This is an important procedure, especially if the fire seemed like it was not that big of a deal. Sometimes there is hidden damage which an inspector would be able to spot. Once you know just how bad the damage was, you can start reaching out to contractors to see how much they would charge to make the repairs. Hopefully, the money from your insurance company will cover these repairs.
Consider Selling Your Home
After a fire there are really only two options; make the repairs so you can move back in or sell the home. If the house fire has shaken your confidence in the home and you’ve decided to move elsewhere, you should consult a real estate agent to see what repairs to make and which you could skip in order to sell the home.
It is also incredibly important that you are honest with any potential home buyers and disclose the house fire to them. This may scare away some people, but others may just be more careful when having the house inspected to make sure there is not more damage than they are aware of or any health risks involved in purchasing the home. Provide the buyer with any documentation you have of the fire which includes the home inspection and insurance claims information. Truth is, you will have to disclose this information once you sell the house – that could be today or twenty years from now. So, make sure you keep copies of everything to prevent any problems down the road.
If you don’t want to make any house repairs and just want to get rid of the house, you can do that too. This is probably the easier and quicker option. Cardinal Creek Properties will buy homes in as-is condition. We can close quickly so you can move on. CCP isn’t afraid of fire damaged houses. Our team has bought several in the past. Although we typically deal with small kitchen fires and smoke damage, we love all houses and will find a way to bring them back to life. You can reach us at (314) 467-8137 to get this process started.