Sell a distressed property, in any condition, in any situation
The house can be the problem, the loan can be the problem, or the timeline can be the problem. We buy all three, as they stand, and we tell you plainly when we aren’t the right answer.
A distressed property is a house that needs work, a loan that’s behind, or a situation that won’t wait. Expert Cash Buyers buys all three, as-is, across Northern Colorado and the Denver metro, as long as the numbers work for both of us. You get one written cash offer within 24 hours, with the math shown, and you pick the closing date, as little as 14 days out.
What distressed actually means, and why it does not scare us
Distressed is a word lenders and agents use for a house that can’t go to market the normal way. Sometimes the house itself is the reason: a roof past its life, a foundation that has moved with the soil, smoke damage, a kitchen that was never finished, a red tag from the city. Sometimes the house is fine and the paperwork is the reason: a mortgage that’s behind, an estate that hasn’t been settled, two names on a deed that are no longer on speaking terms, a lease that runs past the day you need to be gone. Either way, the ordinary path of repairs, photos, showings and a financed buyer doesn’t fit.
We’re Amy and Jenny, two owners in Fort Collins who buy houses for cash and close at a local title company. We don’t need the house to pass an appraisal or an inspection. We don’t need it emptied. We don’t need the situation to be tidy before we look at it. We need the address, a few honest minutes about what’s going on, and a way to reach you. From there you get one number and exactly how we got there.
One thing to know before you read further: a cash offer on a distressed house is a trade. You give up some of the price a fully repaired, fully marketed house might bring. You get speed, certainty, no repairs, no cleanout, no fees, and a closing date you choose. For a lot of Colorado sellers in a hard spot, that trade is the right one. For some it isn’t, and when listing with an agent would clearly net you more, we’ll say so.
The kinds of distress we buy in Colorado, most weeks
- A house that needs work you can’t or won’t do. Roof, furnace, sewer line, windows, floors, a bathroom torn out and never rebuilt. Leave it.
- A mortgage that’s behind or already in foreclosure. A sale that closes before the public trustee sale can end the foreclosure when it pays the loan in full through title and the lender withdraws the filing, or the lender approves a short sale.
- A house in an estate. Out of state, full of belongings, three siblings with three opinions. One sale, one closing, and the money goes to the estate, which pays claims and costs first and then distributes to the heirs.
- A rental you’re done with. Occupied or vacant, lease in place or month to month, deposit and all. Depending on the house and the lease, we can often take the tenant with the house.
- Fire, water or storm damage. Insured or not, boarded or not, permits pulled or not. We buy the house in the condition the event left it.
- Code notices, red tags and unpermitted work. The city letter isn’t the end of the road. We buy houses with open violations and sort them out after closing.
Is the house the problem, or is the situation the problem?
Start here, because the answer changes what matters next. If the house is the problem, the questions are about condition: what’s broken, what’s unsafe, what a buyer with a bank loan would refuse. If the situation is the problem, the questions are about paperwork and dates: who has the right to sign, what the lender has filed, what a court or a lease requires, and how many days you actually have. Plenty of houses are both. A house that sat while probate dragged on is usually also a house that needs work.
Condition questions live on our as-is pages: sell a house as is, sell a fire damaged house, sell a house with foundation problems, sell a red tagged house. Situation questions live on their own pages: foreclosure, probate, inherited houses, divorce, tenants, and rentals. Every one of them ends the same way, with the same written offer and the same title company closing. The pages differ only in what you need to know on the way there. If you aren’t sure which page is yours, call. Amy or Jenny will listen for two minutes and point you to the right one, or simply make the offer.
Read more: Sell My House As Is Fast: Any Condition, No Repairs, Colorado →
- The roof, systems or structure are the issue: start with sell a house as is.
- The lender has recorded a notice: start with sell a house in foreclosure.
- Someone has died and the house is in their name: start with sell an inherited house or sell a house in probate.
- Two owners are separating: start with sell a house during divorce.
- Someone else lives there under a lease: start with sell a house with tenants.
- Fire, smoke or water did the damage: start with sell a fire damaged house.
Can I sell a house that needs work without fixing anything?
Yes, and this is the most common reason Northern Colorado sellers call us. A house that needs work is hard to sell the ordinary way for a specific reason: most buyers borrow, and a standard home loan won’t fund a house with a failed roof, an unsafe furnace, exposed wiring or a foundation that has moved. Agents know this, so they ask you to fix, clean and stage before the first photo. If you had the money and the months for that, you probably wouldn’t be reading this page.
We buy the house as it stands. Not as it would stand after you spent a weekend on it. That includes the full range: deferred maintenance that piled up over decades, a remodel that ran out of money halfway, water in the basement every spring, a sewer line that backs up, a garage the last owner converted without a permit, a house that hasn’t been lived in for years and smells like it. You don’t clear it out. Take the things that matter to you and leave the rest, furniture and all. Our crew handles the cleanout after closing, and the cost of that’s part of the math we show you, not a surprise deducted at the table. Selling as-is means you skip the repairs, not the disclosures: you still tell a buyer about known material defects, a house built before 1978 still needs the federal lead-based paint disclosure, and Colorado requires written notice if the house was ever used to make methamphetamine and never cleaned up to standard.
The honest trade-off: a buyer who accepts every repair is pricing those repairs in. We walk you through the after-repair value we used, the repair budget we estimated, our costs and our margin, so you can see the number you’re giving up for the work you aren’t doing. Some sellers look at that and decide to do the work and list. That’s a fine outcome. We’d rather you choose with the math in front of you than guess.
Read more: Sell My House As Is for Cash: No Repairs, No Cleanout, Colorado →
Can you sell a house with mold in Colorado?
Yes, if you’re honest about what you know. In Colorado, a seller who knows about a hidden defect has a duty to disclose it. The Colorado Real Estate Commission’s Seller’s Property Disclosure form asks whether moisture or water problems have ever existed, asks for copies of any mold reports, and says a known adverse material fact must be disclosed whether the form lists it or not. The form covers what you actually know and says you have no duty to investigate or inspect to fill it out.
Mold slows a financed sale in two places. The Commission’s standard contract lets a buyer object or walk away over any condition, odor included, that they find unsatisfactory. Then the lender weighs in: an FHA appraiser who sees evidence such as a smell of mold in an attic or crawl space must make the appraisal subject to inspection or repairs, and under that contract, lender-required repairs end the deal unless agreed to, completed or waived.
An as-is cash sale fills that gap. We buy houses with mold as they stand, with no remediation first, as long as the numbers work for both sides. You get a written offer within 24 hours, and closing can be in as little as 14 days when title is clean. Meanwhile, EPA guidance is to dry water-damaged areas and items within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth, and to consult a health professional before starting cleanup if you have health concerns.
Read more: Sell My House As Is Fast: Any Condition, No Repairs, Colorado →
- Tell us what you know Past leaks, visible growth, a musty smell, any mold reports.
- No cleanout Take what you want and leave the rest.
- No fees or commissions Seller closing costs are covered.
What if the mortgage or the paperwork is the distress?
When the house is fine and the situation isn’t, speed and certainty are what you’re buying, and the calendar is set by someone else. In Colorado, foreclosure is a public trustee process under Colorado Revised Statutes 38-38. It begins when the lender’s attorney files a Notice of Election and Demand with the county public trustee, who records it and mails the notices. For a typical house that isn’t agricultural land, the sale date is then set no fewer than 110 and no more than 125 days after that recording; agricultural property runs 215 to 230 days, and the holder can continue the sale to a later week. You can cure the default by filing a notice of intent to cure with the public trustee at least fifteen calendar days before the sale date, then paying the full amount on the public trustee’s cure statement, which is the missed payments plus late charges, the holder’s attorney fees and costs, and the trustee’s fees, by noon on the day before the sale. A sale to us ends the foreclosure only when the closing pays the loan in full through the title company and the lender withdraws the filing, or the lender approves a short sale for less; a signed contract or a chosen closing date doesn’t stop the trustee sale by itself, so confirm the payoff and the withdrawal directly with the public trustee. After the sale, the former owner has no redemption right. If you’re behind on the mortgage, Colorado gives you specific protections when you sell to an investor, and free help is available through a HUD-approved housing counselor or the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline; talk to one of them or a Colorado attorney before you sign anything. Those dates are why a written offer within 24 hours and a closing in as little as 14 days matter in a way they don’t for an ordinary sale.
Probate has its own clock. If the house was in the deceased owner’s name alone, the estate needs probate, informal or formal, and Letters before anyone can sign; a house held in joint tenancy, under a recorded beneficiary deed, or in a living trust can pass without probate. The small estate affidavit doesn’t transfer real property. The court appoints a personal representative and issues Letters, and in an unsupervised administration the personal representative generally has authority to sell estate real property without a separate court order unless the will restricts it or a restriction is endorsed on the Letters. Sale money goes to the estate, which pays allowances, claims and costs first, and the personal representative distributes to the heirs afterward. During a pending divorce, neither spouse can transfer marital property without the other’s consent or a court order, and who must sign the contract and deed depends on the title, the decree and any written agreement. A tenant-occupied house sells with its lease: the buyer takes the tenant and the lease terms, and within 60 days after closing the seller transfers the security deposit to us and notifies the tenant in writing, or returns it to the tenant. We have closed on all of these and we know what the title company will ask for before it asks. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm with a Colorado attorney, and for probate questions the Colorado Judicial Branch probate forms and instructions are the place to start.
If you owe more than the house is worth, or close to it, say so on the first call. We’ll tell you early whether our number clears the payoff, rather than letting you find out from the title company. Sometimes it doesn’t, and the honest answer is a conversation with your lender rather than a sale to us.
Read more: Sell a House in Foreclosure: Close Before the Sale Date, Colorado →
What we do not buy, and what we will tell you instead
A page called any condition, any situation should be honest about its edges. We buy houses in Larimer, Weld and Boulder counties and across the Denver metro, roughly within about fifteen minutes of I-25. A cabin two hours up a canyon, or a property on the other side of the state, is outside what we can price well, and we’ll say so rather than send a weak number. We buy houses, townhomes, condos and small rentals; we aren’t the right buyer for a working farm, a commercial building or raw land.
We also don’t buy a house that should be listed. If your house is in good shape, in a neighborhood where buyers are competing, and you have the time to wait for a financed buyer, an agent will very likely net you more than we will, even after commissions. We’ll tell you that on the phone, and we’ll still send the written offer if you want a floor to compare against. You’re a neighbor, not a lead.
And we don’t send a number we can’t close on. Our offer is built from the house, the repairs and the local comparable sales, and it’s written down, with the math shown, before you commit to anything. If a piece of the picture changes after we walk the property, we show you what changed and why. If the number doesn’t work for you, you keep the house and we part as neighbors. If you still owe on the house, the page below explains how the payoff, the offer and the closing statement fit together.
Read more: Can I Sell My House If I Still Owe on It? Payoff and Liens →
Repair it and list it or sell it to us as it stands.
Repair it and list it
- Repairs You fund and manage them before the first showing.
- Cleanout Emptied, cleaned and staged before photos.
- Timeline Weeks of prep, then market time, then a buyer’s loan and inspection period.
- Showings Yes, on the buyers’ schedule, with a sign in the yard.
- Fees and commissions Agent commissions plus your share of closing costs, deducted at title.
- Certainty Depends on the appraisal, the inspection and the buyer’s financing.
- Price Usually the highest gross number, if the house qualifies for a loan and the market holds.
Sell it to us as it stands
- Repairs None. We price them in and walk you through the figure.
- Cleanout None. Take what you want and leave the rest.
- Timeline Written offer within 24 hours; close in as little as 14 days, on your date.
- Showings One walkthrough with Amy or Jenny. No sign, no strangers.
- Fees and commissions No fees or commissions; seller closing costs covered.
- Certainty Cash, no appraisal contingency, a local title company.
- Price Lower than a fully repaired listing, and we walk you through how much lower and why.
Three clear steps, and nothing to surprise you.
Tell us what kind of distressed it is
Two minutes by form or phone. The address, what’s wrong with the house or the situation, and any dates that matter: a trustee sale, a court hearing, a lease end, a move. You talk to Amy or Jenny, not a call center.
Get one written offer with the math shown
Within 24 hours you receive one written, no-obligation cash offer, and we walk you through how we reached it: after-repair value, the repair budget we estimated, our costs, our margin, and an estimated net before your mortgage payoff and any liens, which the title company’s settlement statement finalizes. Compare it against listing. If listing clearly wins, we tell you.
Pick the date and leave the rest
You choose the closing date, as little as 14 days out or weeks later if the situation needs it. Closing is at a reputable local title company. Seller closing costs are covered, there are no fees or commissions, and the house closes as it stands, belongings included.
Questions homeowners ask us.
Who is the best company to sell your house?
There’s no single best company. The right buyer depends on the house and the situation. If the house is in good shape and you have time, a local agent will usually net you the most. If the house needs work, the loan is behind, or the calendar isn’t yours, a direct cash buyer trades some price for speed and certainty. Judge any buyer by three things: a written offer that shows its math, a real local office, and a closing at a title company you can call yourself.
Do big cash buyers and iBuyers lowball you?
Any cash offer on a distressed house is below full retail, because the buyer is taking on the repairs, the cleanout and the risk. Whether that’s a lowball depends on whether the discount is explained. A number with no math behind it’s the pattern to watch for. We walk you through the after-repair value, the repair estimate, our costs and our margin, so you can see where the number came from and compare it against what listing would net.
Who offers the most cash for homes?
For a house that can pass an appraisal, the highest number almost always comes from the open market: a listed sale to a buyer with a loan, after repairs, prep and commissions. Among cash buyers, the highest quoted number isn’t always the highest number you receive at closing; some offers shrink after the walkthrough. Ask every buyer for the offer in writing with the math attached, ask what could change it, and ask which title company closes. Then compare net proceeds on your date, not headline prices.
Is a we buy houses sign or postcard legit?
Some are and some aren’t. The sign itself tells you nothing. Look for a business with a physical office, owners with names, a written offer that shows its math, and a closing at a licensed Colorado title company, never a check or a wire from the buyer directly. Be cautious of anyone who wants a deed signed before a title company is involved. Our office is at 300 S Howes St, Suite B, in Fort Collins, and you’re welcome to come by.
Who is the best cash house buyer?
The best cash buyer for you is the one whose offer you can verify and whose closing you can count on. Locally owned matters because a buyer who lives here knows what a house in Loveland or Greeley or Thornton is actually worth. A shown-math offer matters because it lets you compare. A local title company matters because it protects your money. We’re two owners in Fort Collins who answer our own phone. Call us and one or two others, compare the written numbers, and choose.
What counts as a distressed property when you are selling?
Distressed usually means one of three things. The house is distressed when its condition would stop a conventional buyer from getting a loan: structural, roof, systems, damage, code violations or long neglect. The loan is distressed when payments are behind or a Notice of Election and Demand has been recorded. The sale is distressed when the timeline is forced by an estate, a divorce decree, a lease, a job move or a medical event. Any one of them makes an ordinary listing hard. We buy in all three cases.
Do you buy houses with code violations or unpermitted work?
Yes. Open code notices, a red tag, a converted garage or basement that was never permitted: none of these stop a sale to us. They do affect the offer, because resolving them is part of the repair budget we walk you through. Bring whatever letters you have from the city or county to the first conversation so the estimate is accurate. You don’t need to pull permits, correct the work or clear the notice before closing. We take that on after title transfers.
Pages that usually come next.
Sell My House As Is Fast: Any Condition, No Repairs, Colorado
Sell a House in Foreclosure: Close Before the Sale Date, Colorado
Sell an Inherited House: Belongings, Siblings, Distance, One Sale
Sell a House With Tenants: Leases, Notice, Deposits, and Closing
Sell a Fire Damaged House: Insurance, Permits, and Selling As Is
How Much Do Cash Buyers Pay for Houses? Our Offer Math, Shown
Whatever kind of distressed it is, start with one honest number
Tell us about the house and the situation, and within 24 hours you’ll have one written cash offer with the math laid out, plus a plain answer on whether we’re the right buyer for it.