It was a family property. The 3 bedrooms, 1 bath home that was nearly a thousand square feet on .59 acres nestled in Bridgewater Massachusetts. The father had passed away a couple of years ago and left it to his three children. The family had owned this Bridgewater house for so long that the children selling had grown up in the house!
Rather than sell the family house at the time of the father’s passing, they made an agreement with the daughter (Erin) of one of the siblings. They would rent the house to Erin for a discounted rent for one year. After that one year, she would buy the house from the siblings for the agreed upon amount.
The family’s issues grew over time with Erin not being able to purchase the house after one year and her beginning to fall behind on the rent for the family house. Fast forward 3 years from the initial agreement and it had become a difficult situation for the family. Erin fell 8 months behind on her rent. The extra time from when was originally agreed upon to sell the house and the delinquent rent started to create some hostility between the siblings and the family as a whole.
At this point, all of the siblings wanted to take their inheritance and begin to enjoy their golden years. But one sibling was a parent who obviously wanted what was best for their daughter. One sibling wanted to buy property up north while another wanted to use their chunk of the proceeds to stop working and retire so they can begin traveling more.
Additionally, the house had begun to fall in further disrepair. Father time was beginning to pay its toll on the house. More time would only create additional disrepair in the house and further decrease its value.
From our viewpoint as investors, this was a complete gut. All new windows, roof and what I would think is an adjustment of the roofline in order to make for larger rooms upstairs. And the septic system had not been looked at for well over 20 years! We estimated that this house needed well over $100,000 in improvements and that number balloons to $135,000 should it need a new septic system.
So why did the seller’s look to an investor to purchase the property.
The first is that the house was not anywhere close to what we would consider showing condition. The house was in major disrepair. But the second and ultimately bigger issue was that the daughter who was a tenant was not going to allow buyers tramping through her house. Needless to say, this was a difficult situation!
After learning about the situation, we all knew that we needed to walk on some eggshells. I suggested that we could go and view the exterior of the property and should Erin be there, then we would simply say that we worked with the insurance company and was there to view the condition for the house for the updated policy renewal.
And wouldn’t you know it, we pulled up to the house and Erin was out front… Sorting aluminum cans! Our cover as insurance agents worked great. We were able to view the exterior of the house and make an offer to the family without even seeing the interior of the property. You heard that right, we gave them an offer site unseen!
Having a third-party step in and buy the house allowed the family to move away from the tense situation that had come about with unpaid rent and the exceeding the agreement to buy the house by two years.
Our promise was that we would handle the eviction of Erin. This would all fall on our shoulders so this way they could all look each other in the eye during the Holiday Season.
It’s our job to find out of the box solutions to help people achieve their real estate goals and sometimes help people out of difficult situations. Many times these difficult situations are financial situations, but in this case it was a family situation. We buy houses in Bridgewater MA because we think it’s a great town that offers property owners a lot of value.
Selling the Bridgewater property fast to an all cash investor was the answer to this families problems. But it is important to know that selling to an ibuyer cash investor is not always the best solution.
If you own a house in Bridgewater that you can’t sell, need to sell Bridgewater house fast or need to sell the house in as-is condition full of debris, then we would love to help you. We can get you an offer within 24 hours and can close in as fast as 10 days.