Get a cash offer for a vacant house.
Empty for 3 months, empty for 3 years. Enter the address and see a real cash number. We close and the carrying costs stop the same day.
An empty house costs money every month you own it.
A vacant house anywhere in the US carries $500–$1,500 per month in mortgage, insurance (vacancy riders often double the premium), property taxes, utilities kept on for pipes and heat, and landscaping or snow removal. Most major cities and many suburbs also have vacant-property registration fees and inspection requirements. Over a year, that adds up to $6,000–$18,000 of pure carry.
Most sellers we talk to have had the house vacant for 2–18 months. Some inherited it and never figured out what to do. Some moved out during a job change. Some had a tenant leave and never re-rented. The longer the house sits, the more the carry outpaces the value it loses to deferred maintenance.
Vacancy also creates secondary problems: frozen pipes in cold-climate states, break-ins, squatter risk (most states have moved in the last few years to speed removal under their unlawful-occupant statutes, but it's still a problem), vandalism, and insurance non-renewal. A cash sale ends all of them on one day.
Your stage sets your buyer pool and your offer range.
What a cash buyer actually pays here.
Cash-offer math on a vacant house is the standard ARV × 0.65–0.75 minus repairs, minus margin. The vacancy itself doesn't move the offer much on houses that have been empty under 6 months and kept up. On long-vacant houses, the repair line grows because systems degrade (HVAC sitting idle, plumbing corroding without use, roof neglected). Expect a repair reserve of $15,000–$45,000 depending on how long.
Example: $250,000 ARV in Kansas City, MO, vacant 14 months, last tenant left mid-winter without winterizing properly. Plumbing airlock, some freeze damage, HVAC non-functional. $22,000 in confirmed repairs. Math: $250,000 × 0.70 = $175,000, minus $22,000 = cash offer around $153,000.
The carrying-cost arithmetic is worth running yourself. If your carry is $1,200/month and listing takes 5 months, that's $6,000 eaten just to stay on the market. Subtract it from the listing-price expectation before comparing to cash.[1]
Cash vs. listing — here's how long each takes.
Vacant houses close fast because there's no tenant to coordinate and no seller living there. 10–21 days is typical. If there's winterization or heavy snow/ice access issues, walkthrough may delay a few days.
With work before listing, photos, time on market, and inspection risk. On a tight timeline, a listing usually doesn't close in time — you'd want cash or a hybrid strategy.
When cash is NOT the right move on a vacant house.
If the house has been vacant under 3 months, is in good shape, and the carry is manageable, list it. Vacant houses actually show better than occupied ones (no clutter, no scheduling, no tenant drama). The cash vs. retail spread is usually larger than 3 more months of carry.
If renting it is feasible and you don't need the liquidity, renting beats selling almost every time over a 5-year horizon. Rental demand is strong in nearly every major US metro; even an older single-family usually finds a tenant in 2–4 weeks through a property manager.
And if the house is vacant because of probate or a divorce holdup, sell the legal issue first. Selling the house won't fix the delay — it just moves the delay to a different asset.
Cash offer · List with agent · Hold and wait.
The questions homeowners ask us first.
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