"I Inherited a House That Needs Work" — And I Can't Front The Money.

"Shouldn't we just fix it up and sell it for full price?"

Somebody in the family has already said it: we'll fix it up, then we'll get retail money for it. On paper that's the right answer. A renovated house sells for more than an unrenovated one, and the gap in Miami-Dade can be large.

The plan assumes three things that usually aren't true. That somebody has the cash to front. That the heirs will share the cost. And that whoever is running it has the time to manage a renovation on top of a job.

"Why am I the only one paying for the repairs?"

This is where the plan usually comes apart, and it may already be where you are. We bought a house near West Miami and Westchester from a personal representative who was also one of the heirs. She was the one on the ground. The other heirs were out of state, and one was in Italy.

She had genuinely considered doing the rehab herself. What stopped her wasn't the idea — it was that every dollar would have come out of her pocket while the other heirs, who would share the upside, contributed nothing. She also had a full-time job. Between choosing finishes, running to Home Depot, chasing contractors and managing the design decisions, it was going to be a second job she couldn't take on.

That is the normal shape of it. One heir has to carry all the risk and all the labor for a share of the reward.

"I already started the renovation and ran out of money"

If that is where you already are, you are not past help. The hardest one we've bought was in Miami Springs. A woman inherited the house; her brother lived up near Gainesville. She started the renovation herself while living in the house.

Two things happened. The city caught the work mid-project, which brought the permit process down on top of a renovation that was already underway. And the contractors she'd paid took the deposits and disappeared.

By the time we met her she was living in a house with no kitchen, with an open project she couldn't finish, a city expecting work she couldn't afford, and a brother who wasn't going to cover the losses she'd taken.

We bought it as it stood. Part of what made that work is that we agreed with the City of Miami Springs to forgo re-occupying the house, which ended the cycle of inspections, required repairs and fines that would otherwise have kept running against the property. She stopped losing money the day we closed.

"Is a half-finished house worth less than one nobody touched?"

This surprises people. An untouched 1960s Miami house is a known quantity — a buyer like us prices the work and moves on. A house with the kitchen ripped out, three permits open and two contractors gone is worse than that: someone now has to undo decisions, close out permits, and re-hire trades for a job that's already been mishandled.

So the moment to sell is before you start, not after you've stopped. If you're reading this and you've already started, that's fine — we've bought plenty of those. Just don't spend more trying to reach a finish line that keeps moving.

"What does as-is actually mean when you say it?"

Roof, plumbing, electrical, foundation, fire damage, mold, an unfinished kitchen, an open permit, junk in every room. We price the condition once, at the start, and that's the number. We don't send an inspector back in week three to renegotiate, because the condition was never the point — we're the ones doing the work afterward.

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Other guides

Selling a House in Probate · When Heirs Disagree · Selling a Hoarder House · Open Permits & Violations · Stalled Builds & Unsafe Structures · Spotting a Real Cash Buyer · Inherited a Reverse Mortgage · Behind on an FHA Loan