The Common Outcome: Repaired, Then Sold
Most fire-damaged houses we buy are repaired and sold on to somebody who lives in them. That is the base case and it is where the money is.
It has an implication worth stating plainly: we make more when a house can be repaired than when it has to be replaced. So we are not looking for reasons to write a building off, and when an engineer says the frame came through, that is good news for us as well as for you.
Does That Not Mean You Will Overstate the Damage to Me?
The Second Outcome: Repaired and Kept
Some properties we repair and hold as rentals rather than selling. Usually where the location is strong and the numbers work better over time than at once.
Worth knowing because it shapes what we are willing to buy. A buyer who only flips needs a fast, clean exit and walks away from complications. A buyer who sometimes holds can take on a file with a longer road, which in this market means a file where a housing code process is already running.
The Minority Outcome: Cleared and Rebuilt
Where the frame genuinely did not survive, the building comes down and something new goes up. This is the least common outcome and the most expensive, which is why offers on properties in this category are lower.
In North Carolina it also carries the process consequences. Where the repair cost cannot be kept under fifty per cent of the dwelling's then current value, the statute points at demolition, and an owner in that position is closer to this outcome than they may realise. The full position is on our page covering the fifty per cent determination.
The Outcome We Avoid: Holding It Empty
Buying a damaged house and sitting on it is a losing position for us and a bad one for the street. It accrues carrying cost, the building deteriorates, and in this state a dwelling vacated and closed for a year runs into the abandonment provision.
Which is a useful thing for a seller to know about any buyer. Ask what their timetable is after closing. A buyer with no answer is a buyer who may leave your former house boarded on your old street for two years.
Why Would That Matter to Me Once I Have Sold?
How That Shapes the Number
We buy below what the finished property is worth, do or arrange the work, and keep the difference less costs. Nothing is charged to you: no fee, no commission, no deduction, no cost for a figure and none for declining one.
Because the repair outcome is the common one, the gap we need is smaller on a repairable house than on one requiring replacement. That is why establishing which you have changes our number more than negotiating does.
Where We Are Not the Right Answer
Where the frame came through and the finished value in your neighbourhood carries the work, a rehabber or an owner doing the work themselves will beat us, because they need a smaller margin than we do. Across a good deal of Wake County that is the position, and the written figure says so when it is.
Where an order has already been made, or a fraction has already been calculated against you, that is a matter for a North Carolina lawyer before it is a matter for a buyer.
Where Our Interests Diverge From Yours
We are the buyer. We benefit if you accept less and decide sooner, and everything above is still true.
Which is why the checks run through people other than us. A structural engineer for what survived. The housing or code enforcement office for whether anything has been issued. The register of deeds for what is recorded against the property and against your name. Local sale evidence for the finished value.
We buy as principal, in our own entity, with our own funds, and we take title. The contract is not assigned. We are not brokers, not public adjusters, not contractors and not lawyers.
What We Buy
Fire-damaged residential property across Raleigh and Wake County, in any condition from smoke to cleared lot, including houses already subject to a housing code process. Claims open, settled, denied and uninsured. Owner-occupied, tenanted, vacant and inherited.
Beyond the Triangle the picture changes and we would be the wrong buyer.
To start, send an address through any form here. Before you do, read the two determinations on our page about how the process actually runs, and the sorting question on our page about how to tell local cash buyers apart.