Selling your Houston county Ga house with code violations

Do you own an extra house in Houston county Georgia that needs some work? Has code enforcement sent you a letter about your vacant house? Here is how to sell your house with code violations.

Houston county Georgia is a beautiful place to live and buy a house. There are houses built from every decade. There are houses from the 40’s and 50’s all the way up to built yesterday. Part of what makes the Houston county Georgia area nice is code enforcement making sure everyone maintains a minimum standard on the outside look of their house.

Houston county code enforcement looks for houses that are potential health or safety risks. A vacant house and that is not maintained gets a lot of repeat attention.

The outside of your vacant house

Houston county code violations usually start with the general look of your vacant property. The grass, shrubs and trees are the first thing they look for (we have gotten a code enforcement letter for tall grass in the BACK yard of one of our occupied rentals). Snakes and mice like tall grass, so code enforcement tries to push people to maintain a clean yard and limit animal access to areas like that.

A vacant house with an unkept yard also hurts the local home values. It’s hard to sell your vacant house if it looks like Hermon Munster lives there. Grown up vegetation around the house can also cause mold damage to your vacant house.

Inside access to your vacant house

Neighbors don’t like to see vacant houses next door to them, but sometimes it happens. Houston county code enforcement does not care if a house is vacant. They care if it looks like the neighborhood kids have taken over your vacant house as a local hangout.

Make sure all the windows are intact and doors are locked on your Houston county vacant house. Kids will turn your house into a hideout and could end up on a police report. If code enforcement sees signs of entry or ways to get into your vacant house, they will contact you.

Selling your house with Houston county Ga code violations

Georgia real estate closings are completed at a real estate attorney’s office, the attorney is required to research the public records. If they find any code violations tied to the house, it could prevent the sale of your house.

Most code violations are not expensive to fix, unless the house has been vacant for a long time. Re-securing the house or mowing the grass usually fixes the problem cheaply. Make sure you get a letter from the city code enforcement that the problem has been resolved before closing.

If the code violation is more significant or costs more then you can afford, you may be able to satisfy the violation at the closing table. Some code violations have a fee the city charges for not complying with fixing the violation. The attorney may allow you to pay the fee out of the proceed of the sale.

Fix The Smaller Things

Even if your house has major code violations you aren’t able to fix, taking some time to fix the smaller things can have a huge impact on a property’s perceived value. You can fix holes in the wall, chipped paint and cracked tiles to instantly make the house look more presentable.

Have The House Cleaned

Cleaning a house with code violations can make a big difference. Code enforcement rarely enter a property unless the house is vacant and the house looks to be accessible. If they do go in, they can write up violation they see. Make sure to lock up and fix windows that allow access from the first floor.

Emphasize The Good parts of your Ga house

If your selling a house with code violations, your buyer should already know there are repairs to be done. Work on making the good parts better or more presentable.

Why You Should Sell Your House Directly

Your house has code violations, which means your not selling the house on the open retail market. Although you may have a few retail customers want to look at it as a fixer upper, the majority of the buyers looking on the MLS want a move-in ready house.

Direct Georgia home buyers know how, and are willing, to buy houses with code violations. We can save time and could put more money in your pocket.