Fire damaged rental row home in Harrisburg. Should I list it?

[John Fider]

I own a 2 unit in Harrisburg, PA. (For some reason there is no Harrisburg in the location so I put Philadelphia instead). I'm a realtor myself so listing it shouldn't be a problem. Its just that I've never listed a property this damaged before. The thought of having potential buyers tour the place sounds like a huge liability.   I recently contacted a company that buys fire damaged properties, so perhaps I can skip listing it altogether.  Anyone have experience with this? What would you recommend?

[Brad Jacobson]

Hey John, 

We actually discussed this at a local REI meetup a little while back and the group came to the conclusion that it would be better to simply wholesale a fire damaged property due to both the liability and extremely narrow potential buyers.

I'd recommend finding one of the bigger wholesalers in your market and partner with them so you have access to their buyer's list and can have them blast it out and do a controlled open house.  That way you can compare the offers from the investors you'll get with the wholesaler with the offer from that fire damaged property company and then go with the best offer from there.

Good luck!