Selling a Hoarder Home

Let’s first take a look at some of the complications that accompany selling a hoarder home.

• First Impressions
  If you take a look at the homes on the market in just about any area, you’ll find pristine looking homes. Clean, nicely decorated, and free of clutter. Putting your home’s best foot forward is important when trying to attract potential buyers. Most buyers are looking for a home that they can visualize themselves living in. However, the home being filled with belongings, collectibles, or a combination of both can make this difficult. Not only may the appearance of the home discourage interest, but the clutter may also make it hard to fully view the space and the condition of the home.

  In today’s marketplace, most buyers use online platforms to view homes before making a trip to the property in person. This means that quality pictures are a great tool for attracting potential buyers to your home. Gathering these photos through the excessive clutter inside a hoarder home, however, will be very difficult. You either have to divulge the reality of the home’s interior, or you can only post photos of the outside of the house. In either case, the pictures are going to do very little to sell the home and will likely even deter possible buyers. To compete with the attractive appearance of other homes on the market you’ll need to clear the home of the clutter. After clearing out the physical belongings, you’ll likely also have to clean, paint and make necessary repairs to the home to get it camera ready.

• Hidden Risks and Damages
  Though you may be willing to roll up your sleeves (or open up your wallet) to get the home cleared out, the battle is only half won. Removing this clutter, especially in very severe hoarding cases, is likely to reveal a whole slew of new issues.
  • Pests
    To begin, that clutter is a perfect opportunity for pests to move into your home. This is especially the case if items like trash or food exist among the clutter. A pest problem means that there will potentially be dead bugs, pest droppings, stains, or even dead rodents hidden beneath the piles of stuff. Aside from the general unpleasantness of bugs or rodents in your home, the things they leave behind can be dangerous to human health. Rodent droppings can spread disease and the skin shedding of roaches can trigger allergies and asthma.
  • Damaged Flooring and Walls
    Mildew, mold, and spills may be hidden either beneath or behind clutter in a home. Mold and mildew will need to be removed as they can pose serious health risks if their spores are inhaled. Severe issues, however, may also require the replacing of parts of the home. In less serious cases it may just be the carpet, wallpaper, or drywall. If left unchecked, though, severe mold and mildew can also lead to structural compromises in the home. Structural issues will be very expensive to repair and may make the home ineligible for sale on the open market if the home is unsafe.
  • Blocked Pathways
    In large-scale hoarding situations, the clutter can reach a point where you physically cannot move throughout the house. These very extensive hoards pose two direct problems to selling a home. First, potential buyers won’t be able to travel safely through the home (if at all) to gauge their interest in the property. Buyers won’t purchase a home when they can’t even see all of it. The second issue is that homes that are being sold on the open market to a home buyer will in most cases require inspection. Most buyers that intent to occupy the home, will not buy it if they cannot inspect it; second, most buyers obtain financing to buy the house and the lender will not be able to complete an appraisal which is a requirement of every loan. If the home can’t be walked through, a home inspector and/or the appraiser will be unable to perform their job. The combination of these two factors will make it nearly impossible to secure a sale. As a result, clearing out the house to some degree will be necessary to sell on the open market.
• Overcoming Hoarding Itself
  Aside from the obvious physical challenges that must be overcome to sell a hoarder home, there are psychological issues that must be addressed as well. Though simply purchasing a large dumpster (or a few) and throwing everything away may seem like a viable option, many home owners will struggle with this. It can be especially difficult if the person who has collected these items does not see any issue with the home’s condition.

  First and foremost, it is important to remember that hoarding is nothing to be ashamed of. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has made it clear that hoarding is a psychological problem. Like any problems we face in our lives, though, the only way to overcome it is to recognize the issue and get help through counseling and therapy; but it is very difficult to do.

Once you realize that selling the home as it is on the open market is unlikely to be successful, you are essentially left with two options. The first is to clear the home out, either by yourself or with the assistance of professionals, make any necessary repairs and to put it on the open market. The second option is to sell your home in as-is condition. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both options!

• • Cleaning up for the Open Market
    If you choose to clean the home up, you’ll first need to figure out if you’re going to take on the task by yourself or if you’re going to hire professionals. Clearing the home on your own is cheaper and will also allow you to personally search through the items thoroughly. Some residents may not like the idea of a company sifting through their personal items for them, especially if you plan to make separate piles for items to keep, donate, and throw away. Alternatively, you may just plan to throw everything away. If this is the case, you can just rent a few roll-off dumpsters and start tossing the items. Making this decision will likely depend on how large the collection is, how quickly the situation must be dealt with, and the level of attachment to the accumulated items. Very large accumulations may take too much time or require too much physical labor for you to take care of on your own.
    • DIY
      If you do decide to tackle the task on your own, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
      • Safety First – As we mentioned earlier, hoarder homes are prone to pests and mold/mildew. Considering this, you should take care to wear masks and gloves while clearing the home to protect your own health.
      • Time Investment – Another factor to consider is the time it will take you to get the home cleaned out. Depending on the scale of the accumulation, this can be an extremely time-consuming endeavor. Many homeowners may find themselves either unable or unwilling to sacrifice a lot of time clearing the home on their own. If it is a large-scale project, also keep in mind the extra weeks or months that you will be paying taxes, insurance, maintenance, and utility costs on the property. After you add up the financial and time costs, you may find it’s cheaper to get the job over and done with quickly by professionals.
    • Professional Clean-up
      Although hiring professionals to clear out and clean the home will cost you more money out of pocket, it will also save you a huge amount of time and effort. The necessity of hiring professionals will depend on the scale of the accumulated items. Small clutters can likely be cleared out in about a day on your own. Assuming you have a large-scale collection of items though, the project can take days, weeks, or even months depending on how much time you can allocate to tackling the mess in any given day or week. A professional company will be able to get the home cleared out in a matter of days no matter how large of an issue you may be dealing with. A professional cleaning company will also do a very thorough cleaning job on the cleared out home for a few hundred dollars, saving you a lot of time and effort.

Once you’ve cleared the home, you’ll likely still have some work ahead of you before the home is considered “market ready” and can be sold. The unfortunate reality of selling a hoarder home on the open market is that dealing with the very prominent issues in the home is usually only the tip of the iceberg. Once the hoard has been dealt with, any unknown damages in the home, as well as, the standard preparations for a market sale must then be dealt with; essentially doubling the effort required by sellers.

It is almost always advisable that you do at least some minor repairs and remodeling to any home before trying to sell it. Things like repainting, repairing any damaged mechanical systems (HVAC, plumbing, etc.), and staging the home are a few examples of minor touches that can really improve your chances of making a sale and reduce the time that your home will sit on the market. The removal of all of those items may also reveal cosmetic damages like scrapes, dings, and stains on the walls or floors. Fixing cosmetic issues like these before the sale isn’t an absolute necessity but will certainly improve your home’s appeal. Any issues with mold/mildew or any pest infestations will also likely need to be addressed and corrected before taking the home to market.

After the home is prepared, you will need to enlist a real estate agent to list and market your home for you. You’ll work with the agent to organize open houses and viewings of the home. Although you will have to pay the real estate agent, they are motivated to present your home well. This means that you are sure to get their full efforts because the more money your home sells for, the more money they make as well.

The alternative option is to sell your home in as-is condition to a cash investor. This selling approach offers several benefits over traditional market sales. For starters, we will take the home exactly as it is, with all accumulated items and all. This means:

• No renting dumpsters for several hundred dollars each
• No need to break a sweat or the bank on clearing the home out
• No need to have the home cleaned
• No need to make any minor or major repairs to the home
• No need to prep the home for market or host open houses

By avoiding all of the necessary clean up and market prep, you can save on your out of pocket costs, time, and your efforts. You can leave behind any unwanted belongings and take any of the items you wish to salvage from the home with you when you leave.

We can also work the selling process around the timeframe that works best for you. When selling on the open market, you may wait many months before the right buyer comes along. The average sales time clocks in at around 3-6 months. However, any delays in the clean-up and market preparations will likely cause it to take even longer. When selling to us, we will be able to make you a cash offer after only viewing the property once or twice. Once we have arrived at the home and made an offer, we can close in as few as 7 days if you’re in a rush to sell! If you would rather take your time to sort through the items in the home, we can wait as long as you’d like. We are here to make the selling process as easy as possible for you.

A direct sale also means that there is no need to hire a real estate agent, saving you approximately 6-7% of commission expenses. We even cover all closing costs and fees, allowing you to maximize your profits from the sale! We’re willing to take on all of the efforts and costs involved in selling your home so that you don’t have to.

We understand that selling a hoarder home can be a very difficult process, but you don’t have to do it alone. Our goal is to make the process fast, easy, and profitable for you. Please reach out to us for a confidential conversation to determine if we can help you!