FACT: There are three vacant houses in America for every homeless person.

With home prices on the up and up in Dallas, vacant houses are more common around every corner. We’ve all seen these houses: they’re sort of eerie looking. There’s never anyone home, the yard is overgrown, perhaps a broken window, and the house generally looks as though it’s falling into disrepair. In addition, there are millions of vacant houses that are not obviously vacant because they are taken care of, but no one lives there. If you’ve got a vacant house maybe because you’ve moved on, you haven’t been able to find renters, or the home became uninhabitable due to an incident or problem, you can’t afford repairs, got married and you are now making 2 mortgage payments, or inherited a house you don’t really need or want….it could be costing you a lot of money.

Where are all those costs coming from?

If you’re the owner of a vacant house, we want to caution you. A house is typically viewed as an asset; it’s something that builds equity. If you’re sitting on a vacant home, whether or not it’s paid for, you have turned your asset into a liability. Number one, you’ve put yourself at an enormous risk for vandalism. Vacant property, whether residential or commercial, is linked to higher crime rates. If your home does not have security features like an alarm system or fence, the wrong people can easily access it. If someone were to get hurt on your property, they could sue you for negligence. Leaving a house vacant leaves you vulnerable to squatters. In the event that you’ve got a squatter who refuses to leave, the eviction process can be lengthy and expensive (heard of squatter’s rights?)

This brings us to a second cost tied to vacant houses. You are required to pay for taxes and insurance. As we just mentioned, someone could get hurt on your property, and your property is still susceptible to natural disasters like storms, fire, and flood. Be warned that insurance on a vacant home is possible, but expensive. If your home is vacant and you do not notify your insurance company but continue to keep your regular policy, you’ll face significant penalties. Taxes are an obvious non-negotiable, and you will be charged very high penalties if you do not pay and potentially lose the house. The county could foreclose if you get far behind on your taxes.

If your home is one of the eerie eyesores with an overgrown lawn, collapsing walls and newspapers piled up out front, chances are your neighbors will complain. Once a complaint reaches the city municipality, an officer will come inspect the property and cite you for code violations.

Lastly, your home is vacant for a reason. Rodent problems or insect infestations will not fix themselves, nor will foundation issues or mold. By leaving your home vacant, you’re exacerbating these problems and inviting more. If no one is living in a house, there isn’t anybody to see additional leaks when it rains or smell a possible gas leak. These troubles become more expensive the longer they are allowed to manifest. If squatters took over the property you would have the difficult task of eviction.

Your vacant home is costing you thousands of dollars each year. Why take this risk? With Reddtrow you can sell your house for cash and be free of all these time-consuming issues. Get rid of your risk today.

Author: Sandra Nesbitt