We buy houses that have been vacant since Katrina

It is sad to still see houses that have been vacant since Katrina. We know these are real eyesores for the community and we love when we can buy them and fix them up. In this video our founder Steve Keighery is inspection a house in New Orleans East that has been vacant since Katrina. It is in very rough shape and he is trying to figure out if he can save it. Watch the video or read the transcript below.

Video Transcript

Hey guys, Aussie Steve here from Home Buyer Louisiana. We Buy Houses in any condition in Louisiana. I’m here at a property we’re looking to purchase. We’re doing our inspections, trying to figure out if we can make the numbers work. It’s a house that’s been vacated since Katrina. We’re in Orleans Parish in New Orleans East, so it’s in pretty rough shape, obviously been messed up since Katrina. The seller reached out to us, they’ve been getting a lot of code violations obviously, and that’s just racking up. The house is taking on water, there’s termites, so the value is just diminishing, and they’re ready just to sell the house and be done.

We’re trying to see if we can make it work. There are a bunch of liens, so the liens will need to be paid off as well as part of the closing. We just want to get our numbers now on it. But you can see, these are the sort of houses we buy. So if we can make the numbers work, we’re not scared by a project like this. But obviously, the amount of time and money needed to put into it needs to justify what the house would be worth. It’s in New Orleans East, we do buy New Orleans East, but it’s not the most valuable property, so we need to make sure there’s enough room for us to fix all this.

You can see the termite damage is pretty extensive in different parts, they’ve really eaten all that up. So obviously very dangerous to walk upstairs, you can go through the floor there. You can see this part of the house, it’s gone, that’s the backyard. Yeah, I mean, this pretty much needs everything, AC is gone, pretty much change everything. Some of the framing is okay though, so you know, it’s probably not a tear-down, just depends how much termite damage there is.

So you know, look, obviously, obviously, this is the house, it’s definitely not going to be sold to a homeowner, so it’s obviously very far from that, and that’s okay because we buy houses in as is condition. We’re not scared of properties like this, we are happy to purchase them, just as long as the cost of renovating them and the time, effort, and risk, as long as there’s some margin that once we do that, we can flip it for a profit, you know, maybe turn into a rental. As long as those numbers work, we’re not scared by a property like this. We buy houses in all sorts of conditions, they don’t need to be this bad.

If your house is great, we’re probably not your buyer, just be totally out front. If your house is great, list with a realtor, get a homeowner. Homeowners will always pay the most money, they’ll use bank financing, takes a little bit longer, and they have a few more hoops to deal with, but you’ll get more money in the end. So if your house is ready for the homeowner, just sell to the homeowner, I totally, totally recommend that.

But if your house isn’t ready for a homeowner, could be as bad as this, this is pretty obvious, but maybe it’s just not as bad, but there is, you know, termite damage, there is dated, you know, the kitchens and bathrooms haven’t been updated in over a decade and you’re just just not ready for a homeowner, then we’re a really good buyer, particularly if there’s tenants in place too. We have a lot of rental properties, so we’ll buy houses with a tenant, we’ll take over the tenant. So if you’re a landlord that has a house that’s maybe got a bit of deferred maintenance and a tenant that’s in the house, so it’s hard to sell, reach out to us. We’re very open to buying it with the tenant in place.