Looking on Tips and Trick To Purchase An Abandoned House Cheaply?

Keep reading… We walk you through the steps to take.

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What is an abandoned house?

An abandoned house is simply a vacant house. These houses have been vacated due to foreclosure, bankruptcy, financial reasons, or legal reasons. 

These houses generally run down and need lots of repairs. Homeowners who abandon these houses for financial reasons didn’t have the money to upkeep the property. Abandoned houses are perfect for investors. Whether you’re a landlord or a flipper, you can buy these houses at steep discounts. 

How To Buy An Abandoned House

• Locate a property that has been abandoned. 
• Verify that it is actually abandoned (i.e., vacant during tenancy turnover is not abandoned).
• Find the homeowners and skip trace them. 
• Make an offer on the property.

Want Access To Discounted Off-Market Properties? Fill Out The Form Below. 

How To Find Abandoned Houses Near Me In Atlanta

To find an abandoned property for free, you’ll have to hit the road and drive for dollars. Search for houses that look dilapidated. Write down the address of the abandoned house when you find it. 

But what should you even look for?  

• Heavily overgrown grass and weeds.
• Structural damage.
• Broken windows or vandalism.
• Graffiti. 

Another approach is to ask your local servicemen.

Chat with your mail carrier to see if they know of any abandoned-looking houses on their routes. It’s a great idea to offer a percentage of the deal if you buy one that they recommend. 

Most likely, these abandoned houses are behind on taxes or mortgages and are going to end up in a foreclosure or tax lien auction. Sometimes, you can find a list of the properties that are behind on taxes at your local courthouse.

Look out for local property auctions.

But beware, when you buy an abandoned house at auction, you take on a lot of risks. The most access you get to the abandoned house is driving by and seeing the outside. If you win the bid on the house, you have to write a cashiers check on the spot to fund 100% of the purchase price. 

So, how do you take on fewer risks at the auction? Go there to network. Building relationships with the cash buyers that attend the auction can give you access to more properties. Sometimes they purchase too many, or a deal comes across their desk that they can’t take on, or they have a deal that may not work for them but could work for you. 

Call local realtors.

Realtors who specialize in certain areas and neighborhoods will be aware of abandoned properties. These properties affect their listings and are an eyesore in their community. No one wants to buy a newly renovated house next to a dilapidated house. 

Ask your local banks for a list of their shadow inventory.

These are the homes that they have gotten back through foreclosure, but they have been vacant or abandoned for years. Sometimes, these are just houses that the banks own, but they can’t sell for some reason. You can get cheap foreclosure homes when buying from the shadow inventory list. Some banks may claim ignorance to what this list is, so just keep asking other banks. 

Make Sure It Is Abandoned and Not Vacant

So what’s the difference in an abandoned house and a vacant one? 

A vacant house still has someone who claims the legal responsibility of the property. Some examples are:

• A rental property that’s going through tenant turnover. 
• A vacation home that’s empty unless the owners are in town. 
• Someone’s second home. 
• A house that’s being renovated. 
• Someone relocated for work or family care but keeps the house to move back. 

These are just a few examples of why a house might be vacant. In any of these situations, the house could need some love, but it doesn’t mean that the house has been abandoned. 

An abandoned house, though, means that someone has forfeited all rights to the property. These houses are usually boarded up with large sheets of plywood on the windows. The weeds and trees make it hard to even see the house because they are so overgrown. 

Tip: Oftentimes the owners of vacant properties don’t want to deal with the hassle of making repairs and/or getting their home sold. To prevent a vacant home from being abandoned, you might try telling the owner about services like Breyer Home Buyers. We can make it fast, easy, and convenient for even an out of state homeowner to sell their property as-is.

Track Down Who Owns the Property

The best way to find out who owns an abandoned piece of property is to check your county’s tax assessor website. You may have to pay a small fee but it’s well worth it.

The tax assessor site should give you two addresses; one of the property and one for the homeowner. But, if the tax assessor site only shows one address, this means that the person who owned the property never updated their address with the tax assessor’s office. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t mail a letter to the address anyways. There’s a good chance that they have their mail forwarded to their new address. Therefore, you should still attempt to contact them and express interest in buying.

Inspect the Home and Make An Offer

Once you have gotten ahold of the homeowner and they have expressed an interest in selling, it’s time to see the property and inspect it before making an offer. 

You have no idea why the house was abandoned or what’s happened to it since then. 

• Structural damage.
• Busted pipes.
• Copper wire was stolen.
• The rain got into the house somehow. 
• Vandalism. 

The list goes on. Make sure to bring a contractor with you when you see the property. Even if it costs you $100, they will be able to tell you exactly how much it would cost to bring the property back up to HGTV or rental quality finishes. This $100 can save you tens of thousands if you make a mistake on your repair estimations. Making mistakes on guessing repairs can eliminate all of the profits that you expected you’d get on the flip. 

Once you know you want to buy the home, it’s time to make an offer. You could be dealing with the original owner, a bank or the government. Either way, you need to account for the costs of repair before making the offer.

Want Access To Discounted Off-Market Properties? Fill Out The Form Below. 

Abandoned Houses: Squatters and Crime

Abandoned houses are terrible for the neighborhood. An abandoned house lowers the value of the other houses in the neighborhood. 

Let’s your house is worth $200,000. But you have an abandoned house within sight of your house. So, when prospective buyers come to look at the house, they see the abandoned house, which is a total eyesore.

They worry about the house attracting crime and vandalism to the neighborhood. They worry that the house will make the house they are trying to buy (your house) worth less over time. 

Because of this, they offer you $170,000 to make sure that they are risking less. 

Not only are abandoned houses terrible for ruining the value of houses in the neighborhood, but they are also attracting crime. Studies show that illegal activities, such as drug trafficking and robberies, occur more frequently in areas with abandoned houses. 

Vacant homes can attract squatters. Squatters could be homeless people sheltering themselves from the outdoors. But, they could also be gang members. Either way, when there’s an abandoned house in your neighborhood, there’s trouble.

What’s worse? You have to evict squatters when they move into your property. That’s right. Squatters have rights to your property. 

Not only does trashy curb appeal drop the neighboring property values, but the crime has long term effects on the neighborhood. Good families feel unsafe and move out. Less money is reinvested into the community. Good schools and businesses relocate. 

“I Have A Junky Abandoned House Near Me.”

As mentioned above, check to see if the tax assessor site has a different mailing address listed for the owner than the property address in your neighborhood. You can skip trace these people to find their phone numbers. If you don’t want to skip trace them, simply write them a letter. 

Don’t be nervous. Chances are that they aren’t aware that the house is attracting criminals and vandalism. They want to prevent damage to their property. You are doing them a favor by reaching out. 

If there is not an owner listed, check to see if there is a bank that owns the property. You can reach out to them by Googling their business phone numbers. 

You can also volunteer to take over some basic maintenance like mowing the lawn yourself while the bank tries to hire someone. Even something so simple can make a home appear lived in and discourage criminals from breaking in. 

Live Next To An Abandoned House You Don’t Want to Buy? 

That’s what we are here for. Click on this link and fill out the form. Just add your contact information and the details for the abandoned property. When we chat with you, we will get the homeowner’s information from you. 

What’s in it for you? 

If you refer a property to us and we buy it, we will give you a percentage of the profits when we close on it.

If you refer a property to us and we buy it, we will renovate the property and place a great family in there, increasing the value of the homes in your neighborhood. 

“I’m Looking For Abandoned Houses For Sale!”

We have discounted, off-market properties in our inventory in Atlanta and surrounding areas. If you are looking to purchase a house to flip or hold as a rental, fill out the form below. You will have investment properties sent directly to your inbox.