A Pennsylvania-based executor contacted us after her father passed away, leaving her mother alone in the home. The mom wanted to move to Connecticut to be near her grandkids.
We met with the executor at the property for our unique Max The Estate™ Consultation. While touring the property with the executor and her mom, we got an odd feeling of being off-balance when we entered the dining area and headed toward the kitchen – kind of like we were in a carnival funhouse with sloping floors. We weren’t wrong – the floors in that area of the home DID slope about 3″ from the walls to the center of the room. “This house was in an earthquake!” the mom proudly explained. Sure enough, the home was in a neighborhood that experienced an earthquake decades prior, which was pretty interesting here in seismically solid Northern New Jersey.
But sadly, when we looked deeper, we ascertained that earthquake damage was not responsible for the floor sloping. Our investigation led us to one of the house’s main support beams that was bowed in the center (and the floors above followed that dip in the beam). Aside from THAT giant issue, the primary bedroom needed a coat of paint, and then that was pretty much it.
There was no way that a potential buyer wouldn’t notice that the floor was sloping, plus it begged the question, “Is the house even safe?” To answer that, we consulted with a structural engineer we know, and after some engineer-type stuff, he replied that while the structure was safe from collapse, it ultimately required the replacement of that beam plus the beam supports and their footings. That’s a pretty costly and involved job. We got quotes for the work from contractors that ranged from $9,000 to $26,000+. The estate couldn’t pay for that work up front and they didn’t want to endure that level of construction while the mom was living in the home. So we determined that our Silvina Foley would need to market the home as-is and figure out a way to deal with the problem beam once a potential buyer was identified.
The executor came down one weekend and painted the bedroom herself. Our related renovation arm fixed a couple of minor town-required items, and the home was ready to hit the market.
Silvina placed the home on the market using a strategy that caused maximum competition among buyers to achieve the highest sale price. She received multiple offers within days (and this was in a town that didn’t usually inspire multiple offers). Silvina used those multiple offers to negotiate a purchase price that was $26,000 higher than the seller’s initial starting price.
The buyer brought in two home inspectors and their OWN structural engineer in order to feel comfortable with the extent of the floor-sloping problem, and they THEN found a contractor they liked to do the work for about $10,000. The issue that could have derailed this transaction was that the buyers were going to use up all of their money for the down payment and closing costs, so they didn’t have an extra $10,000 to fix the beam once they closed. And remember, the estate didn’t have that money on hand either. Silvina ended up negotiating with all parties to have the seller pay the contractor directly for the work at closing (when the seller got the sales proceeds from the home). That solved the issue, and the home sale closed.
An extra $26,000 to the estate in the sales price. Minor costs for paint. No cost for the minimal work our renovation arm did. And a deal that didn’t require any money from the estate before closing, which improved the estate’s cash flow and kept the deal on track.
More money to the estate. Less hassle to the executor. That’s what we do!