Why the Disposal Line Explains Everything
A burned house produces a great deal of material, and how that material is classified decides what removing it costs. Untested fire debris must be handled as Regulated Asbestos Containing Material, and that is several times the cost of ordinary construction waste.
So a buyer's number depends heavily on an assumption they may not have examined. The full position is on our page covering the debris and the ground.
What Is the Question to Ask?
The Buyer Who Has Priced Testing
The most useful answer you can get. They have allowed for a survey, and for ordinary disposal on the assumption it comes back clean, with a contingency if it does not.
Their number is realistic and it holds. They will also usually tell you that testing before anything is cleared is in your interest as well as theirs, because it is.
The Buyer Who Has Priced the Worst Case
Conservative, lower, and durable. They have assumed the whole waste stream is regulated and priced accordingly, which is what happens where nobody has tested.
Their offer looks poor next to an optimistic one and it will not be revised downward later. On a property where testing has not been done, it is frequently the most honest figure on the table.
Can I Improve That Number?
The Buyer Who Has Priced Nothing
The commonest, and usually not dishonest. Investors who buy damaged houses in other regions have no reason to expect a regional air district notification requirement with a ten working day clock, and no reason to know what untested fire debris is classified as.
Their number looks best today and it is the one most likely to be revised at the point where you have stopped speaking to anyone else.
The question that catches it: have you bought a fire-damaged property in this air district before.
The Buyer Who Has Not Looked at the Ground
Separate from the debris and relevant to anyone planning to rebuild. Where a parcel sits in a mapped earthquake fault zone, a project exceeding fifty per cent of the structure's value engages the Alquist-Priolo requirements, including a geologic report by a registered geologist.
The question that catches it: have you checked the hazard mapping for this parcel, and what did you allow for a geologic report if it applies.
One Thing Worth Refusing
Any buyer suggesting you clear the site before closing, or offering to have somebody start work while a sale is agreed.
On an untested building that puts you in the position of the owner or operator for notification purposes, with the classification of the entire waste stream determined by decisions taken on your behalf. Demolition is a cost buyers price in, and there is no version of this where you carrying it out early helps you.
The Records Worth Pulling
Your own purchase file. The natural hazard disclosure given when you bought identifies whether the property sits in a mapped fault zone or a seismic hazard zone. Many owners already hold the answer.
The city's hazard mapping. Held by the jurisdiction and derived from the State Geologist's maps.
The county recorder's index. Search a buyer's exact entity as grantee. What a firm has taken title to describes it better than its marketing does.
The licence lookup. A party marketing your property to others is brokering and needs a California licence. A principal buyer taking title does not.
Where We Fit, and Where We Do Not
We buy as principal, in our own entity, with our own funds, and we take title. We do not assign contracts. Ask us what we allowed for the debris and the answer will state which assumption we used.
We are frequently not the right answer. Where the frame came through and a repair stays under the threshold, an owner avoids the geologic requirement, avoids the demolition notification entirely and keeps the margin, and no cash offer competes with that. On sound stock in strong neighbourhoods a rehabber or a retail buyer will beat us. Our written figure says so when the numbers point there. What happens from there is on our page about how the process actually runs.
Questions About Buyers
One Offer Is Far Above the Others.
Ask that buyer what they allowed for disposal. On an untested burned house that single line explains most large outliers here.
Should I Test Before Taking Offers?
It is one of the few seller expenditures that reliably raises offers rather than merely protecting them, because it removes a contingency every buyer is carrying.
Does a Buyer Need a Licence?
Not to buy as a principal and take title. Marketing property on behalf of others requires a California real estate licence, and the state lookup is free.