Hoarding is an impulsive instinct and mental disorder that makes someone keep items despite their value or usefulness. The underlying cause for your family member’s hoarding may be environmental, mental illness, or medical issues. Hoarding disorders make it difficult for a home to be clean and are difficult situations.
It’s tough when you have a hoarder in your life. It might be that you inherited a hoarder’s house, or you’re responsible for it somehow. That’s a challenging situation, and the right solution may be to sell the home.
Knowing how to handle hoarders that are homeowners is vital in working your way through this trying time. To assist you in handling the demanding situation, we’ll provide you with practical steps to take and possible solutions.
In this article, we’ll discuss the following:
- Why you need to sell a hoarder house
- Cleaning costs when selling a hoarder’s house
- How to find buyers for your hoarder house
- Things to take into consideration before selling a hoarder’s house
- How to sell a hoarder’s house fast
Let’s dive in and find out why you need to sell a hoarder’s house.
Why you need to sell a hoarder house
You might need to sell the home because clean-up is a dangerous, expensive, and time-intensive process.
It’s dangerous because there are usually no laws, rules, or regulations that govern a hoarder’s actions. There is no way for you to know what is happening to the home and the potential dangers hidden among the clutter.
There could be any number of health and safety dangers lurking in the home. Typically, a hoarder’s home is cluttered and dirty. The dirtiness of the house is unsanitary and may manifest as:
- Bacteria
- Dirt
- Debris
- Mildew
- Mold
- Parasites
House cleaning is expensive because of the potential biohazards, insects, and diseases. In the worst cases, the level of filth and diseases may kill you. To ensure your safety, you must hire a professional cleaning company or purchase protective equipment. Either option is costly.
Cleaning a hoarder’s house can be a nasty and gross job. If you have a hoarder’s home that is causing you issues, contact We Buy Houses For Cash, find out how we buy houses, and help people much like yourself. Our real estate professionals provide some of the easiest solutions to sell your house “As-Is” and be done with the whole mess.
If you choose to clean the house and get it ready for sale, then keep reading for our tips and tactics that you should follow to prepare the home for sale.
Cleaning costs when selling a hoarder’s house
Cleaning costs when selling a hoarding house are the first expense you’ll encounter. Typically, this will be among the costliest things you’ll encounter when navigating a hoarding situation. Generally, you can expect to pay between $200 to more than $6,000 to clean a hoarder’s home.
The cleaning costs associated with a hoarder’s house arise from its messiness and level of clutter. You may need to hire a professional crew to come to clean the house over days or weeks. In the most extreme cases, the hoarder’s home may be beyond the abilities of a professional cleaning company.
Here are some typical costs you may encounter when cleaning a hoarder’s home:
- Biohazard (animal feces, human feces, or death scene): $3,000 to $5,000
- Decluttering, junk removal, and dumpster rental (1 week): $300 to $530 per week
- Deep clean: $200 to $400
There are other cleaning costs that you may encounter. As you clean a house, you or a professional cleaning crew need to attend to the following:
- Biological hazards
- Dead animals
- Pests
- Rot
Each cleaning service may not be too expensive, but the cost to clean out a loved one’s hoarder home becomes sizable as they compound.
How to find buyers for your hoarder house
Before you can even think about finding prospective buyers for the home, you’ll likely need to clean, redecorate, stage, and market the house. I suggest checking out some of the best home improvement TV shows for ideas.
Remember, people want to imagine themselves in the home; they want an emotional connection. A cluttered, filthy house filled with personal items prevents buyers from making that connection. As a result, you will probably need help to sell the home.
Step one is cleaning the house. As discussed in previous sections, you may want to hire a professional or buy personal protective gear and clean the home yourself. Either option will be costly and time-consuming.
Step two is to perform repairs. Once you clean the house and dispose of the junk and clutter, you can assess the situation. You’ll likely find that the hoarder’s home is in disrepair. So, you’ll need to find out what’s broken and in need of repair.
The core issue is that the repairs may not be apparent. You’ll have to hire someone to inspect the property so that you’ll know the depth and breadth of the repair situation. An inspection by a certified home inspector is usually your best bet; after all, a home buyer will have an inspector on deck.
With a hoarding situation, you may find that completing a repair uncovers more issues that need repair. For instance, you may remove a rotten piece of flooring and discover black mold caused by water intrusion. That repair will be costly but ultimately necessary if you want to attract buyers.
Step three is modernizing the house. In most cases, the hoarder’s house has so much junk and clutter that you won’t even be able to enter. That home may have been accumulating stuff over the years. The sheer volume of items prevents appreciable repairs, renovations, or upgrades.
Most likely, the HVAC system will be in shambles, the paint will be peeling, and the fixtures will be outdated. There could even be fire damage to the property.
Step four is marketing. You have to market to sell because selling your home is a numbers game. The more eyes you get on the house, the greater the likelihood you’ll sell the home. Marketing allows you to pull in potential buyers.
Marketing costs money. You’ll need to pay a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to list your home. That’ll make your home show up on sites like Zillow and Trulia. You need to pay to get your house on the MLS to find buyers.
Step five is staging the home. We presuppose that you’ve done your best to clean the mess, get the dank and stank smell out of the air, and put the house in the best light.
Staging the home helps you get more eyes on the home and potentially make a sale. Staging the best aspects is especially important for a hoarder’s home because the house will probably be distressed. It’ll be crucial for you to highlight the positive aspects of the home so that you can maximize your profits.
No matter the situation, you’ll have a bunch of things to consider before selling a hoarder’s house. Finally, even if you sell the home, you must contend with expensive closing costs as part of the transaction.
Things to take into consideration before selling a hoarder’s house
You might have inherited a property from someone dying. That tugs at the heartstrings, but the person loved you enough to leave their property to you. As soon as you inherit the property, it’s your obligation. You may decide that the best option is to sell the home.
Your primary concern might be whether you want to sell the home for the maximum money or sell it quickly. Your answer dictates the next step.
Suppose you want to sell the property “AS-IS,” that means a buyer purchases the home and does not expect the seller to make repairs or offer credits towards the purchase price. It might be that selling your house to a cash buyer enables you to sidestep the hassle and pain of fixing the property.
How to sell a hoarder’s house fast
You need to know how to sell a hoarder’s house fast, and the answer is usually a cash offer. You might be feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number and cost of fixing up your hoarder house.
To sell a hoarder’s home, you’ll need to:
- Clean
- Repair
- Update
- Market
- Stage
- Find buyers
There is no way to avoid this situation. You’ll need to devote money, sweat equity, and time to sell your home.
There might be better choices than going through the cleaning process, and a cash offer will work best for you. You can sell the hoarder house and get a cash offer. In virtually all cases, selling your home to a cash-for-houses company will be the absolute fastest way for you to sell a distressed hoarder’s home.
Conclusion
Hoarding is a complex mental illness to deal with. Often, a hoarder’s house will be dirty, inconvenient, and unsafe.
In most cases, you’ll want to sell a hoarder’s house fast when it becomes your responsibility. Selling the home is usually the right decision because the cleaning costs are prohibitive.
Finding buyers might be difficult, and you must:
- Clean
- Repair
- Modernize
- Market
- Stage
It might be best to skip all that hassle and talk to a company offering cash for your hoarder home.
Save yourself energy, money, and time by getting a no-obligation fair cash offer today!
