When you’re finally ready to sell that older house, your first call should be to a Realtor, right? Maybe not, says Adam McCanna with Colorado House Buyers, who’s on track to do 30 purchases of older Denver area homes this year — none of them involving a sales commission to a real estate agent.
A house he showed me on Eudora Street in north Park Hill was clearly a case where the seller’s first call should have been to his company, not to an agent. The Craftsman-style two-story has had the same owner for 56 years, with virtually NO updating done over that span.
A Realtor listed it for the sellers in the $700s, then saw contracts to prospective buyers fall apart three times in succession over financing and inspection-related issues.
When Colorado House Buyers finally took a look at the property, they had a purchase estimate back within 48 hours; and after the sellers readily agreed, had a check sent off to them for $605,000 within a week.
“People don’t realize there are all of these other costs involved in selling an older house,” says McCanna, who along with Mark Krajewski will get back to you as soon as the next morning to arrange a look at your property, and will have a hard estimate to you within two days.
The most obvious expense is the seller’s commission at 6 or 7 percent, but then there are closing costs and updates and repairs that a good agent will recommend — $10,000 or $20,000 on the short side.
After an inspection turns up problems, buyers will often ask for a concession, averaging around 2 percent of a typical sale, according to McCanna. That doesn’t count any costs of holding the property while itap waiting to sell.
Meanwhile, sellers and agents are rarely positioned to see the big picture of a home’s potential — if, say, an outmoded layout can be opened up, or space added.
The Eudora house is a good-looker outside, but McCanna and Krajewski have already gutted the interior, scraps of its 1911-era wallpaper hanging between exposed studs. This week, they’ll pull out a staircase to get a Bobcat into the 6-foot-high basement to raise it to 8 feet — a huge improvement thatap way beyond the capabilities of average sellers and agents.
Selling to a contractor who can take that big view makes it more likely, says McCanna, that sellers will make out dollar-wise better than they would with an agent sale. “We can pay a little better when we know we’re turning 2,200 square feet into 3,800,” he adds. Meanwhile, sellers avoid the brain damage of a pending sale, something McCanna says is very important.
“We save homeowners a great deal of time by presenting solutions geared to their situation,” he says. “Most of our sellers have a specific reason they want to sell, and we can provide a few different options.”
After they have a check in hand, the seller is totally removed from any uncertainties. “However, we still find people who want to stay in touch with us to see what we’re doing with their home,” he adds.
The pair enjoy working in historic neighborhoods and adding architectural detail that matches the surroundings.
Colorado House Buyers has a dozen projects now underway in Park Hill, Five Points, Whittier, Arvada and Highlands/Tennyson. For a quick assessment of your home’s worth, contact Mark at 303-242-4621 mark@cohousebuyersllc.com.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.