Is there such a thing as an unsellable house? There’s a wealth of information available on preparing and staging a house to sell, but what about situations where the house can’t be properly prepared or fixed up to sell? I work a lot with short sales and pre-foreclosures, and in many of these situations the houses aren’t in great condition. Often times the seller has no motivation to fix up or clean up the house.
One house I recently sold was no exception. It was in foreclosure and we had to sell it quickly. The house was only 13 years old and needed new flooring, interior paint, and some landscaping work, but it looked much worse. The owner had multiple large dogs that were allowed to go in and out as they pleased and the house smelled like a wet dog. Nearly every room in the house had boxes, clothing, and other personal belongings stacked floor to ceiling, and some of these rooms were so cluttered that it wasn’t even possible to get inside the room.
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In the listing, I requested that agents contact me prior to showing so I could warn them of what they were walking into and help set the proper expectations. I could see the potential of this house, but most buyers and their agents could not. Some buyers turned around and walked out as soon as they opened the front door.
Critical Feedback
I always request feedback from agents that show my listings. I received several scathing comments about this house from other agents: “Get it off the market!”, “You should be embarrassed for listing this house”, “It stinks!”, not to mention some of the direct insults to the seller even though the agents had never even met the seller.
The seller was actually a very nice, thoughtful, intelligent, and hard-working couple. They got in over their heads on a couple projects, and as a result had a lot of distress in their lives. They were spending so much time putting out fires in their lives that taking care of the house became a low priority. Many people are quick to judge because they’ve never been in true distress. They don’t understand that most people make different decisions when in distress than they would in normal situations.
In the end, this house did sell—The short sale was approved and the bank took a $190,000 loss. It was sold to a retail buyer, not an investor as many people might assume. This buyer saw great potential in this house and ended up getting a great deal.
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Authored by David Monroe, Realtor and Pre-Foreclosure and Short Sale Specialist.
Access Seattle area short sale help and foreclosure resources including selling in foreclosure, and 8 Ways to Avoid or Stop Foreclosure.
Copyright (c) 2010 by David Monroe (Home4Investment Team at Keller Williams Seattle Metro West).

If you were asked who your lender is—who actually owns your mortgage, what would your answer be? Your mortgage statement may come from Wells Fargo, Aurora Loan Services, Select Portfolio Servicing, or some other lender, so they must own the loan, right? It’s easy to assume that the company listed on your mortgage statement is the owner of your loan, but it’s usually not.
Stop Foreclosure in Seattle, Washington. There are many real estate agents and investors offering to help stop foreclosure in Washington State. Have you been approached by an investor claiming that they can help you stop foreclosure?
Do you qualify for a short sale? You may have determined that you wouldn’t be able to sell your house for a high enough price to pay off the existing mortgage(s), and you’re now considering a short sale. You may be in foreclosure or just one or two payments behind, or maybe you’re current on your mortgage but unable to continue making the payments. You know you will not be able to stay in the home and you need to get out from under the debt.
You’re a few house payments behind, and one day you find that the front door lock and deadbolt have been drilled out and replaced with new ones and the garage door opener has been disconnected. Now you can’t even get into your own house! Who is responsible for this? This must be illegal, right? After all, you still own the house.