House burned down - what to expect next

[David K.]

My investment property had a fire and burned down... To be more exact, only half of the house caught fire and the other half got the water and smoke damage from the firemen and all that.

The place is uninhabitable; tenants were not home when it happened thankfully and moved out the next morning.

Now, I am awaiting for the adjuster to assess the damages. It has been 3 weeks but they keep saying that it is a fire /frozen pipes season and takes up to a month.

I bought the house for cash 54k back in Nov 2017 so do not have any recurring payments on the house right now other than taxes/ins.

I am looking for someone who has gone through a similar experience and to give me some heads up what to expect.

My insurance is, I guess, very straight forward type of a deal - 94 replacement cost, 8k rental loss.

What can I expect now?

thanks!

[Jason White]

You need to have a restoration contractor give you an estimate because the insurance adjuster is going to lowball the heck out of that number. Most of them will do that for you for free hoping that they get the job.
You can take the cash value amount, you will not get the recoverable depreciation but you could just sell the house/land to some other investor and walk away. If the fire was bad enough you will probably get more money then you paid for the house. Here in California on a 1200 square-foot house it’s almost impossible to have a “good fire” (that’s what we call it) that is less than $100K in damages if it’s a complete gut to the studs, with even minimal structural damage would be over $100k.