If your house has a mice infestation, it can be much harder to sell. Most buyers are wary of mice and can drop out of a sale at any point if they discover that the house is infested.
Therefore, the ideal option would be to get rid of the mice before selling your house. Alternatively, you can sell the house as is but disclose explicitly that the house has mice.
Legally, you are not prohibited from selling your house with mice as long as you disclose it.
However, disclosing that your house has mice will likely have significant implications regarding the pool of potential home buyers, the house’s value, how much you can sell your house for cash, and the time it takes to sell.
Below is a look at the various ways house mice can affect the sale of your house.
Even in the early stages, a mice infestation can cause significant structural damage to your house. The mice can chew on electrical wires, posing a risk of electrocution or cutting the power supply to sections of the house.
They can also chew on pipes leading to leaks in the plumbing system. Or, they could urinate and defecate in the water pipes, contaminating the water with their droppings.
These damages from your mouse problem can result in a lower appraisal value. They also affect the presentability of the house and its perceived value. As a result, you would have to list the home at a much lower price than similar properties in the market.
Due to its perceived lower value, buyers are likelier to negotiate the price further down when there is a known pest infestation.
Most prospective homeowners will not be excited about buying a house with a mice infestation. For mortgage financing, lenders require a thorough inspection of the house by an independent inspector. If the home inspection reveals a termite infestation, it is unlikely that the lender will finance the house as is. The same might be said if selling a house with rodents.
The house will likely take longer to deal with a reduced pool of potential buyers. Depending on the market conditions, it could further lose value the longer it stays in the market.
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While selling a house with mice is harder, it is not impossible. However, it requires more effort. Below are steps and tips for selling a house with mice.
If you are working with a real estate agent, notify them about the mice infestation early in your engagement. Some may opt not to go forward with overseeing the sale of the house, in which case you would have to hire a different one.
Others may insist that you deal with the infestation first. Yet, others may be open to selling the house as is.
If you are aware of a mice infestation at the point of selling the house, you are required to disclose it to potential buyers. Fill out the relevant disclosure forms and provide details of the affected areas of the house.
Failure to do so can lead to a potential buyer opting out of the sale, or they can sue you for non-disclosure.
However, sometimes a rodent infestation may not be obvious. It could be in the early stages with a mouse or two in your attic that you are unaware of. If you are not aware of it, then you have no obligation to disclose it.
On the flip side, potential buyers will likely inspect the home as part of their due diligence before buying the house. If they discover that there are mice, they may drop their offer or lose interest in the house, making it difficult for you to sell.
Therefore, you should conduct a pest inspection before selling the house. That way, if there is an infestation, you can get ahead of it to ensure it does not affect your sale process.
The best chance of selling a house with mice infestation as is is to non-traditional buyers such as cash buyers. The process is straightforward as the buyer may not request an inspection.
They will inspect and assess the house themselves and decide how much they are willing to pay for it. In most cases, they will offer a much lower price than the house’s market value.
However, considering you can sell my house fast for cash independently, there is minimal paperwork, and the sale process will cost less than a traditional sale. Therefore, you will sell fast and walk away from the mice problem with cash in hand.
Do your due diligence to find a legit cash buyer. Beware of scammers. Use an escrow service to process payments and close the sale. If you are unsure how to go about the sale, hire a real estate agent or lawyer to facilitate the process.
Dealing with the mice infestation before selling has several advantages. First, you get to sell the house competitively within the market value.
As such, you will have a wider pool of buyers, including mortgage buyers. Even if you opt for a cash sale, you will be able to sell at a much higher price than if you sold the house as-is.
Hiring full professional services to exterminate the mice ranges from $200 to $1000. The cost may be higher if the infestation is rampant or troublesome.
Nevertheless, it would still be worth it. Compared to how much the infestation would lower the value of your house and derail the sale process, the cost of extermination is significantly lower.
Some people opt to eliminate the mice themselves to save on extermination costs. While it is a viable option, if you do not know the right approach, it will not work. You may catch a mouse, yet there may be many others left in the house.
In such a scenario, trial and error would be time-wasting. Therefore, it is best to let professional exterminators do their job.
The pest control company will do a thorough inspection to determine where the mice are throughout the house. They then seal off the entry points and proceed with the extermination process by setting up an assortment of traps.
In most cases, the pest control company will require multiple visits to eliminate the mice completely. They could suggest cutting down bush and grass to disrupt mice habitation.
Once the extermination is complete, it is important to clean and disinfect the house. Depending on your agreement with the exterminator and their range of services, they may clean and disinfect, or you may need to hire a professional cleaning company.
Finally, obtain a professional guarantee and a pest inspection report to prove your home is pest-free to potential buyers.
Keep in mind that mice extermination and rodent control can take 1-3 months, depending on the extent of the infestation. This timeline will affect how soon you can list the house.
Ideally, you want to hire the exterminator as soon as you realize your house is infested with mice or as soon as you start considering selling the house.
In circumstances where you need to sell as soon as possible, e.g., in a foreclosure, consider selling as is. Otherwise, factor in the extermination process in the sale timeline.
In most states, you can legally sell a house with a mouse infestation as long as you disclose it to potential buyers. However, the mice infestation may curtail your sale process. It lowers the property’s value and reduces the pool of potential buyers.
Therefore, getting rid of the mice before selling the house is best. If selling the house as-is is your best option, contact cash buyers in your area, such as We Buy Houses In Denver – Denver’s best home buyer since 2008.
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