How to Sell a House With a Code Violation

Did you recently find out your for-sale house has a code violation during a prepurchase inspection? Have you been putting off listing your house because you know it has code violations and don’t know whether you can sell? If so, here’s some good news: You can still sell your house even if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of bringing it up to code.

How do you do it? Read on to learn about the various ways you can sell a house with a code violation.

First, Find Out Whether You Need to Fix the Violation

Some code violations don’t actually need to be remedied before you can sell your home. Often, local and state authorities require that safety code violations be corrected before a property transfer can take place, but other types of violations may not need to be addressed.

To find out whether your particular violation(s) need to be fixed, you can check with your local building department or city hall or consult with an experienced real estate agent. If you learned of the violation(s) during a prospective buyer’s prepurchase inspection, their lending company may have stipulations about fixing code violations too.

If you learn that your home’s code violations don’t need to be addressed before you can transfer the property, you can still sell your house on the open market. But be aware that prospective buyers will likely use those violations as leverage to negotiate a lower selling price. After all, they’ll likely pay more for homeowners insurance if they wind up buying your code-violating property.

Disclose the Violations and Lower the Price

If you want to sell on the open market, you must inform prospective buyers of any issues you know about. Ohio law requires home sellers to disclose known issues in writing via this residential property disclosure form. If you don’t fill it out, you could become the subject of a lawsuit after you sell.

Disclosing any known issues, even if you’re not required to fix them, could help you sell faster on the open market since buyers will know exactly what’s wrong with the house. And if fixing the violations will involve a fairly substantial investment, consider offering prospective buyers a repair credit or reduced sale price.

Since the buyers will be assuming responsibility for bringing the house up to code, they’ll need that extra cash to invest in repairs.

Sell Your House “As Is” to a Cash Home Buyer

If you don’t want to fix the code violations and know you’ll have difficulty finding traditional buyers who will handle the necessary repairs, consider selling to a cash home buyer.

These types of buyers are people who pay cash for homes and buy houses in any condition. After they make a purchase, cash home buyers invest in any repairs and/or renovations a house may need. They then rent or list the home to make a profit off their investment.

Most cash home buyers can put an offer in your hand very quickly (in as little as 24 hours in some cases) and can close home sales in a matter of days. If you take this route, you’ll get a fair cash offer for your house that takes into consideration its current market value and condition. You won’t need to pay the buyer a commission or any associated selling fees, which can save you thousands of dollars over the cost of working with a real estate agent.

Get a No-Obligation Cash Offer for Your Cleveland-Area House!

If you own a house with a code violation and want to sell it without making repairs, get in touch with our team at We Buy Houses Cleveland! We buy houses in any condition and can make you an all-cash offer for your home even if it’s in violation of one or more building codes. If you need to sell quickly, we can put a no-obligation offer in your hands within as little as a day.

Ready to request an offer? Want to learn more about how we work first? Then give us a call today at 216-303-8558 to get started! You can also contact us online with any questions or concerns, and we’ll reach out promptly with more information.