For the twelve years that I owned a rental house in Jacksonville, Florida, I had the same tenant. The guy paid his rent every month right on time and without fail. He rarely asked for anything or had any complaints. Because he was such a reliable tenant, I seldom raised his rent. He even took care of all of the mowing and yard work. My tenant passed away a little over six months ago. I hadn’t been inside the rental house in over a year. When I saw the condition of the interior, I was appalled. While my tenant kept the exterior in pristine condition, the living environment was a different story. The smell was terrible. There were countless bags of garbage, old take-out containers and spoiled food all over the place. There was mold growing in the shower, sinks and refrigerator. The stovetop was disgustingly crusty and greasy. There was no possibility of renting the house to a new tenant without major renovations and cleaning. Just hauling away all of the debris would have taken several weeks and multiple dumpsters. My job leaves me very little free time. I don’t want to spend it working inside a stinky, dirty rental property. I worried that the air quality was unhealthy. I considered hiring all of the work done, but that would have cost a considerable amount. It would take a long time for the rent to recoup my losses. Rather than take on that stress and work, I decided to contact a cash home buyer. A brief online search turned up a local, Jacksonville company that makes cash offers on properties in any condition. A cash sale avoided the need for a home inspection, repairs and buyer financing. There were no realtor commission fees or delays.
