Selling a House With Fire Damage for Its Best Value

Selling a house with fire damage in as-is condition

If you want to sell your home in as-is condition, you can seek out a cash buyer, but there’s no guarantee that it’ll be a fast sale. If you’re looking for a speedy transaction, you can try HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform.

With Simple Sale, you can get an all-cash offer in 24 hours and have cash in your hand in as few as ten days without worrying about doing any repairs or being on the hook for prep costs, agent commissions, and other fees.

Unsure How to Sell a Home with Fire Damage?

Sell your house as-is through HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform — it’s OK if it needs some work! We provide cash offers for homes in almost any condition nationwide. Skip many of the hassles of selling the traditional way and get started today.

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5 steps to selling a house with fire damage

If you’re not pressed for a fast sale and want to hire a real estate agent to sell your home, you’ll want to follow these five steps to selling a house with fire damage.

1. Restore the home to its original condition

Restoring your home to its previous condition can get expensive. According to HomeAdvisor, repairing fire and smoke damage can cost between $3,091 and $51,506, and the national average sits around $27,135 for a total repair. Larger fires that destroy a kitchen or cause significant damage to the roof can cost $15,000 to $25,000 per room to repair.

Before doing any work to your home, you’ll need to contact your insurance adjuster or representative. They’ll go over your policy and let you know what is covered and how much you’ll have to pay out of pocket.

Luckily, most insurance policies cover fire damage, with some exceptions such as arson and a negligently maintained structure. Insurance may also cover lodging expenses while you repair your house and any damage the fire may have caused to your neighbors.

2. Disclose any previous fire damage to potential buyers

Once the house has been repaired, there’s no more damage, and it doesn’t smell like smoke anymore, do you have to disclose a fire when selling? To comply with your state’s disclosure laws, you will likely need to.

“Most people are going to find out or know that the home has been on fire,” Darden said. “So the only way to alleviate that and actually be able to sell that home and get a fair market value for it is to be extremely extensive with the details, what you did to put that home back together, and how you made sure it met codes and standards that would apply to any home.”

3. Keep detailed records from the restoration

You must keep detailed records of all the work that’s been done to your home when you’re repairing fire damage.

“A buyer is going to be looking at the house through a microscope, so you need to be prepared for that, even more so than your standard inspection and purchase,” says Darden. “Really dot your i’s and cross your t’s in reference to documenting everything that was done to bring that house back up to speed, all the way down to photos and paid invoices.”

Note: It’s a good idea to keep track of all repairs and renovations you make to your home from the moment you move in. You can use the receipts and invoices when determining the asking price when you want to sell the house further down the road.

4. Don’t withhold information from buyers

Darden advises that homeowners be upfront when selling a house with fire damage, including how the fire started.

“People are going to ask, just wanting to know, like anything else that would happen in the house that would stigmatize it. Then they’ll make their assessment based on that,” Darden reports. “If it’s your standard kitchen fire or electrical fire or vent hood, it goes right back to the documentation of showing them that, ‘Hey, this is what happened, and this is what we’ve done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’”

5. Be patient

Selling a house with fire damage can be a challenge. Potential buyers are likely to have plenty of questions and will want to go over every repair that was done as a result of the fire. They may also request specialized inspections like:

• A chimney inspection if the fire originated in the chimney or fireplace.
• An electrical inspection if the fire was caused by an electrical problem.
• A roof inspection to ensure the fire didn’t damage the roof.
• An HVAC inspection if the fire was caused by a faulty heater, poor ventilation, etc.
• A structural home inspection to ensure the fire didn’t damage the structure of the home.

Navigating the sale of fire-damaged home

The trauma of a house fire is undeniably profound — its implications reaching far beyond charred walls and the stench of smoke. For homeowners planning to sell, the journey from disaster to putting up a ‘For Sale’ sign can be intimidating. Yet, as grim as the aftermath might seem, the selling process doesn’t have to be an insurmountable challenge.

Immediate action can mean the difference between a successful sale and lingering damages deterring potential buyers. If you decide to restore your home to its previous condition, documenting the restoration process and providing buyers with the peace of mind that comes from comprehensive disclosures will go a long way.

Or if you decide to take the as-is route, resources like HomeLight Simple Sale can help you land a cash offer for a fast and easy home sale.

Header Image Source: (Omar Rodriguez / Unsplash)