As a homeowner in Southwestern Ohio, you have the option to pay your property taxes in a few different ways. What is probably the most convenient way to pay property taxes, however, is by using your County’s online payment feature. Depending on your County’s individual settings, there may be a small convenience fee attached to your payment (usually this is the case for credit card payments). Even so, the convenience or paying via their website might be worth the extra dollars to avoid going a paper check route in the mail, or dropping it off physically at the local government building downtown.
If you’ve already read our other recent articles regarding property taxes (you can check out the basics on Property Taxes here, and the nuts and bolts of Special Assessments here), then you already have an understanding of what Property Taxes are, what they pay for, and why they exist in general. At this point, the next most important thing to know is HOW to pay them. As we mentioned previously in the other article, if you have an active mortgage on your home, it’s possible that you are paying funds into an escrow account with your lender, which they then use to pay your Property Taxes on your behalf each year (this is reflected on your mortgage statements and balances). If that is the case, it might be easiest to simply continue to pay your taxes in this manner, rather than potentially confusing yourself, or risking overpaying your Property Taxes.
In the event that you do not have an active mortgage with tax escrow built-in, or if you just prefer to make the Property Tax payments directly yourself, check out the list below, and click on the corresponding link to navigate to your County’s tax payment website. If you’ve been considering selling your home and you’re not sure where to start, or perhaps you’ve been speaking to a Realtor about listing your home – or maybe you’ve even tried listing your house and you didn’t get the response you’d hoped for – give us a call! We’re more than happy to discuss your home and your options with you, and provide you with a free, fair, all CASH offer within 24 hours. There’s no obligation to speak with us, and if you don’t like our offer, we completely understand, and we’ll still be here if you ever change your mind.
When you’re a small, local operation… you don’t always have the newest and best gear and fancy equipment. We invest our money into houses, not microphones and recording studios – which means you get a great cash offer on your home!
If you want a chuckle, check out our latest video, then give us a call, text, email, or message to get started!
An estate is all that’s left behind when someone passes away. This includes all material possessions, such as real estate, vehicles, furniture, and physical belongings, as well as the immaterial – financial positives and debts alike. If the deceased had prepared a will to be executed upon their death, then everything is fairly straight-forward in regards to who is in charge of settling the estate and making all of the decisions regarding it. It can be more complicated, and a much longer process, if they left no will behind. In this article, we’ll be discussing the role of the Executor (or Executrix).
Within the will, an Executor, or personal representative, will be named. Their purpose is to carry out the wishes of the deceased, and to properly manage and protect their estate’s financial assets. This generally means that the Executor will be a close family member or friend. Occasionally, it may be an attorney or accountant, if the person did not have anyone else that they thought would be more fit for the role within their immediate social circle. In cases where real estate (a house) is involved, it is up to the Executor to decide what to do with that real estate.
The first step you’ll be responsible for handling as the Executor is to collect official copies of the death certificate (see this link to the Ohio Department of Health to see how to obtain copies). You’ll want to get a dozen or so copies, because you’ll need one copy each to provide to each bank, lender, insurance provider, etc. Then, you’ll need to file a copy of the will with the county Probate Court. When an Executor is specified in the will, the Probate Court will officially appoint you as such, and you’ll be clear to go through with settling the Estate from there.
A lot of various tasks come with being appointed the Executor. You’ll have to notify debtors, beneficiaries, the federal government, the BMV, and anyone and everyone the deceased held subscriptions and accounts with – it’s also a good idea to notify the three major credit bureaus to add a death notice to the deceased’s credit report. Another great idea is to establish a bank account for the Estate very early on. You’ll be able to keep everything clean and separated this way, and pay any bills due from this bank account without any confusion.
It’s not uncommon for heirs of estates to live in another state, making it more difficult to know what to do with an inherited home in Cincinnati or Dayton, Ohio. While some families may elect to keep the home and pass it along to someone else in the family to move into, others have no need for another house, and decide that they’d like to liquidate it instead. This is especially true in cases where the estate also has sizeable debts to settle, whether they be medical bills, funeral expenses, credit card debts, or outstanding loans. Selling an inherited house can give the family immediate cash to pay down these expenses, and possibly pocket some cash that’s leftover at the same time.
Selling an inherited home through the MLS with a Realtor is often a troublesome process that just exacerbates the stress of the entire Estate settlement. You’ll have to deal with arranging some kind of cleaning and staging for showings, and if the home is full of various belongings, that will be a costly and time-consuming event to manage. After that, you have to be prepared to negotiate with potential buyers that ask for all kinds of repairs and financial concessions. If you manage to make it through to a contract, you still have the possibility of the sale falling through due to a low appraisal value or the lender backing out entirely. THEN you still have to calculate the commissions due to the Realtors involved in the deal, which typically will run you between 4% and 6% of your total sale price, eating a solid chunk out of the funds you’ll receive at closing.
A much simpler, and much faster alternative to this method of selling an inherited house, is to find a reputable and established investor that operates in the area the house is situated in, and get a cash offer from them directly. Real estate investment provides a host of benefits to both the local community and to the folks who need to sell their homes in the first place. Credible investors know how to provide an easy and streamlined purchase without the need for Realtors and their commissions, appraisers, showings, and lenders; they also won’t ask you for repairs or extra concessions.
Ohio Cash Buyers is an established local real estate investment company that is family-owned and operated, and we’ve been buying homes from folks just like you for nearly two decades now. We’re licensed General Contractors, and we have hundreds of renovations and thousands of property purchases and sales under our belts. We provide MORE than just a free, fair cash offer for homes. We also provide connections to valuable resources and knowledge, and do all that we can to help homeowners out of all kinds of situations. Check out some of our Case Studies to read about some of these situations!
Give us a call anytime to chat with us and receive your FREE cash offer on your inherited home in Ohio (no matter where you live). It takes about 15 minutes to give us the details and information we need to provide you with our cash offer, and there’s no obligation on your part beyond that. We buy homes in as-is condition, for cash, and we can close quickly and easily. Closing is scheduled at your convenience, and can be done remotely with a Notary that can meet you anywhere. You can also just fill out the form below to get started!
Memories. Beautiful, but painful; they surrounded him every moment of the day in this house. His wife had passed a few months prior, and he was ready to move on and into a retirement community. He had a pretty good idea of what he wanted out of a retirement community, so he set about conducting a LOT of research on all of the local offerings and crossing off the ones that didn’t fit what he was looking for, one by one. Eventually he had narrowed the list down to the perfect community for him! There was a slight problem, though – there was a long waiting list to move into this particular community, and it required quite a bit of paperwork, follow-up, and logistics to move into.
On top of that, he had to figure out how to fix up and sell his house so he wouldn’t be making payments on a house he didn’t live in or need anymore. The house wasn’t in bad shape by any means – though there was the pool in the backyard that wasn’t really a pool anymore. It was a large, yawning chasm surrounded by broken cement and dirt. It was a safety hazard, and he didn’t even want to think about what it would take to either recreate the pool, or demolish it and fill the void that it would leave behind. There was just so much to do to get it all lined up in a way that made sense. If he had to spend the money and time fixing the property up, how much would that cost? How long would it take? How could he be sure he would be hiring reliable people to do the work? Once it was finished, how long would it sit on the market? Had he overestimated its value? What if it took months to sell? What if it took a year or longer?
Luckily, he found us. We were more than happy to talk to him and carefully explain all of his options, and what he would get out of each one. He decided it was best for him and his circumstances and peace of mind to sell the house to us instead of someone else less experienced, and we were eager to get everything arranged on his behalf. We contacted the Director of the retirement community and made sure all of the paperwork was filled out correctly, then verified that he was on the waiting list. After that, we called back every couple of weeks to check in, and kept him updated on his place in line so he could prepare.
A few months later, he was at the top of the list, and we scheduled movers to help him move into his new home. He hardly had to lift a finger through the entire process with us, and by the way, in case you’re wondering – seven months passed from the day he signed a purchase agreement with us to the day of closing! He even joked with Tony that we might think he was a squatter! That wasn’t the case at all, though. We’re here to help, not cause more stress or worries. We knew what we were doing, and we’re very pleased that it all worked out just as we thought it would!
Best of luck, sir!It was such a pleasure to be able to help in such an awesome and tangible way!
How do you sell your home on the MLS? The first step is to contact a licensed Real Estate Agent (Realtor) to represent you and list your house for sale. Only licensed Agents can list properties for sale on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Once you’ve contacted an Agent and signed a listing agreement with them, they will publish the sale listing for your house, and begin the process of staging and scheduling showings.
Staging involves cleaning your home and making it “showing ready,” for your potential buyers. You might use the furnishings and decor you already have to achieve this, or if you’ve already started packing and moving for your new home, you may need to rent furnishings and decor to make it appear inviting (and to make it easier for people to imagine themselves living there after they’ve purchased it). It is often better to attempt to modernize the aesthetics of your home as much as possible, to appear current and updated. You want to appeal to as many people as possible, to encourage multiple offers, and to ultimately receive the best price for the sale of your house. Some Agents might go the extra mile for your showings and include small personal touches or treats and refreshments.
It is also important to consider the first impression of your home beyond just the sense of sight – smell is also a huge factor, so be sure to leave air fresheners of some kind, and to keep them refilled throughout the sale process!
Showings
Once the staging and cleaning has been completed, it is time for potential buyers to start touring your home. Generally these will be scheduled as individual showings through their own Agent (Buyer’s Agent), and diligent Agents will send feedback to your Agent (Seller’s Agent) after the showing has wrapped up. This can include good AND bad feedback, so be prepared to hear some criticism about your home during the showing and offer process. It can be something small and subjective, such as personal styling choices, or it can be something that will actually need to be addressed, like a failing HVAC system or ailing roof.
Showings can also be done via an open house, which is usually done on the weekend as a window of several hours. Your Agent will be at the home to greet and welcome people interested in seeing your home, and to answer any questions they might have about purchasing it. There are pros and cons to an open house, so not every Agent will host one. You’ll need to speak to your Agent to see whether or not they advise putting on an open house for your home.
While all of the showings are going on, if you’re not still living in the home, you’ll want to stop by every few days to make sure the home is still clean, and to replace any air fresheners as needed. If the weather hasn’t been great, there might be dirt or mud tracked into the house. If it’s winter, there could also be slush or salt, which could damage some types of flooring over time. Most of the time, you won’t need to do more than vacuum or mop to make things shine again for your next set of showings. Again, speak to your Agent about this, as they will often do all of this for you.
Receiving Offers
When your Agent receives an offer to purchase your home, they will notify you about the offer and explain its terms to you. It’s common for offers to include requests for various concessions, and you may need to negotiate through your Agent to reach an agreement with your buyer. Read our article about Negotiations, Concessions, and Fees to learn more about what those are, and how much they may cost you.
It might take weeks, or even months, to find a buyer through the MLS for your home, and weeks and months longer to actually close on the sale. The time investment can be a source of frustration and stress. There are also the holding costs to keep in mind – you’ll need to maintain insurance on your home throughout the entire process, continue to pay property taxes for it, and pay for its general upkeep (lawncare, landscaping) AND pay for all utilities. This is less burdensome if you are still living in the home, but it can put a significant weight onto your shoulders in terms of lining up your next home, and knowing WHEN to start looking for it, or even when you might be able to close on it.
Or …Get a Fair Cash Offer Now!
Rather than putting yourself through all of the unnecessary hassles and uncertainties of an MLS sale, you can contact a local real estate investor to purchase your home instead. Local homebuyers will give you a cash offer for your home, and do their best to make the process as smooth and simple for you as possible. No need to bother with cleaning, repairs, showings, appraisals, lenders, and the constant storm cloud over your head of “will we actually close or will the sale fall through?”
Ohio Cash Buyers is a local homebuyer and investment company that is family-owned and operated. We’re local to the greater Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan areas, with our home office located in Middletown/Franklin. Our team lives across the region, and we’re very familiar with it, as we’ve been renovating homes as licensed General Contractors for nearly two decades here. Give us a call or fill out one of our forms to see what kind of cash offer we can provide to you!
Media Contact: Sara Kemerer, Public Relations Specialist
Phone: 513-639-9146
Email: Skemerer@cincinnati.bbb.org
Ohio Cash Buyers Named 2020 Torch Award Winner
CINCINNATI, OH. (November 13, 2020) – The Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics is Greater Cincinnati’s only ethics-centered awards program. For 20 years, local businesses and nonprofits have demonstrated their dedication to ethics by going through a process of self-evaluation and submitting to feedback from a panel of judges.
Torch is a program of BBB Center for Ethics, designed to encourage and celebrate outstanding ethical organizational practices. All finalists involved—including Ohio Cash Buyers—have earned this remarkable commendation.
“It’s a privilege to celebrate Ohio Cash Buyers as a 2020 Torch Award Winner,” said Jocile Ehrlich, president and CEO of BBB Cincinnati. “The strength of their commitment to exceptional ethical practices is truly inspirational. We’re proud to award Ohio Cash Buyers this honor, along with all of this year’s winners and honorees.”
Ohio Cash Buyers is thrilled to be recognized for extraordinary business operations. “Our team is very grateful for this honor, and we hope it will spread the word to everyone that we are here and ready to help if they ever find themselves in a situation where they might need to sell their house!” said Tony Deal, Director of Acquisitions of Ohio Cash Buyers.
Ohio Cash Buyers encourages local businesses to learn more about the Torch Awards program by visiting TorchApp.org.
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Ohio Cash Buyers is a family-owned home-buying business from Middletown. Founded in 2014 with the goal of helping neighbors and improving communities, Ohio Cash Buyers solves a wide array of difficult and time-sensitive real estate problems that require creative and tenacious solutions. For those facing the possibility of foreclosure, or who have inherited a house or own a rental property they don’t want to keep; for people preparing to downsize or move into assisted living facilities—Ohio Cash Buyers is there to help.
Selling your house as-is, without an Agent involved, does not have to be complicated or difficult. It can be a smooth and easy process, as long as you find a great local homebuyer who has funds at the ready, and who has a proven track record for performance and service. How do you decide which cash buyer to sign a contract with, though? Where do you even start?
We Buy Houses! Finding a Cash Buyer
The first step, after you’ve decided that you might want to sell your home, rental property, or inherited house, is to speak to someone who would be interested in buying your house from you. There are several homebuyers around Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus, but not all of them have been around for very long, and not many of them have the funds on hand at any one point in time to be able to purchase your house in cash (we pay cash for houses, of course). It’s important, therefore, to locate someone who buys houses that can put their money where their mouth is, and who will work with you to create the best win-win scenario possible. How do you screen a potential buyer, though?
Ask your friends, family, and community for recommendations. You may learn that one of them has worked with a cash buyer and had a great (or terrible) experience with them. You can also try social media groups and check out reputable accreditors such as the Better Business Bureau, Google My Business, local Chambers of Commerce, and Yelp.
Call! If you’re not comfortable speaking over the phone, most trustworthy homebuyers are also fine with communicating by text, email, or live chat through their website or social media pages. There shouldn’t be any obligation to speak to the buyer, and they should be happy to work around your schedule. Call us at 513-815-5000, or email us at info@ohiocashbuyers.com!
Sell Your House Fast
Once you’ve gone over the basic details, you can sell your house quickly to a seasoned homebuyer. If they aren’t willing to work on your timeline, then you should move on to a different buyer. Sometimes you might need to sell a house later down the road, rather than right now. It’s a great idea to go ahead and establish a relationship with a great local “we buy houses” buyer early on in the process, so you aren’t stressing about finding one later.
Sell Your House As Is
Selling a house as is can be nearly impossible if you list your home through an Agent. Most interested buyers will expect you to do a long list of repairs and improvements before they’ll agree to close on your house. That can mean long delays, hefty repair bills, and repeat inspections or appraisals…not to mention Agent’s commissions and fees! When you sell your home to a local professional homebuyer like us, you skip ALL of that unnecessary hassle and headache. We buy houses as is, and no renovations are too big or too small!
Reviews, Testimonials, & Ratings
Trust, but verify! Anyone can tell you they’re great, and that they’ll totally do everything they say they will. How do you know for sure that they’re not a scam, though? Well, the best way is to do some digging. See what other people say about them, especially on places like Google and the BBB. Google makes it very difficult to remove a negative review, and the BBB goes the extra mile to verify that reviews are real, so they’re great, reliable places to start. From there you can surf other websites and social media to make certain you have a well-rounded and realistic perception of the homebuyer and their trustworthiness and ethical standing.
Also: Avoid Foreclosure, Navigate Probate, & More
Sometimes we find ourselves in situations and circumstances that aren’t terribly straightforward and easy to navigate. If you’re wanting to sell a house because you’re attempting to avoid foreclosure, you’re going through Probate court, you’re going through a divorce, you’re wanting to retire and move into assisted living, etc, make sure your cash buyer is experienced and well-equipped to help you through your situation successfully. It’s much better to deal with a homebuyer who understands your circumstances, and the steps necessary to get you through them, than to deal with someone who is inexperienced and likely to cause more problems than they solve.
We buy houses as is, in any condition, and in any situation. We pay cash for houses and we are experienced, professional homebuyers.
Ohio Cash Buyers Buys Homes As Is Quickly in Cincinnati Dayton & Columbus
How do you sell a house fast? How do you sell your home quickly when everyone is busy with the holidays? It can be pretty simple, actually!
“But wait,” you’re thinking, “my situation isn’t simple, and there’s no way it can be done quickly!”
Well, where there’s a will, there’s a way (Having years of experience and a mindset towards community doesn’t hurt, either).
We buy houses as is, in any condition, for cash. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. “Cash Buyers” can be a dime a dozen these days, but TRUE, performing cash buyers are another story entirely. Read about how to choose the best cash buyer here.
Ohio Cash Buyers goes so much farther than buying your house – we focus on how to really help solve our neighbors’ problems, and that often includes providing a whole host of services and connections to our homeowners, above and beyond what most companies will do for you. Here’s a brief list of just some of the many services and resources available when you work with us:
Moving Arrangements, including Movers, Storage Unit Rentals, Truck Rentals, and in extraordinary cases, even PODs!
Sorting Possessions, and deciding what to do with all of them. Sometimes that means connecting to an antiques dealer or auctioneer and holding an estate sale. Sometimes that means connecting to local charities to distribute furniture or other items that can be used by other families in the community. We can handle all of that for you, and more!
Repairs and updates. We take care of everything, and you don’t have to do anything. No finding and scheduling flaky contractors, no extra money spent on a roof or kitchen, and no unnecessary headaches.
Taxes, liens, and outstanding mortgages. We see these and work through them every single day. If you’ve inherited a house, you may not know all of the entanglements and issues that come with it, and you shouldn’t NEED to try and become some kind of financial and real estate detective and expert when you have much more important things to focus on. We’ve got you covered.
Probate, Legal, or Title Issues. Need an experienced attorney that listens to you and your needs, and can navigate the system without causing more problems for you? We know a few OUTSTANDING attorneys in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas, and since you’re referred to them through us, they will absolutely maintain our one-on-one style of taking care of you on your own timeline and budget. We routinely work with heirs to settle estates and purchase houses in Probate cases, across many different counties. Title issues are easily solved with our amazing title company resources – when you’ve worked alongside someone for a decade, you know they’re competent, reliable, and flexible (see testimonial from one of our title companies below)!
Finding a New Home. Who better to help you find the perfect new place to call home than someone who deals with homes day in and day out every single day of the year (except maybe Christmas)? Why jump through hoops and work with five different people and companies and have to keep up with all of them and pay all those commissions and fees when you can chat with us and we’ll do all the work for you? Maybe you’re looking for a condo. Maybe you’re wanting to downsize and move into the country. Maybe you’re exploring the option of moving into Assisted Living. We do ALL of that legwork for you, and you get to choose from only the BEST options, rather than trying to wade through dozens of options that don’t fit your needs in the slightest.
Avoid Foreclosure. We’ve saved many homeowners from going through the ugly process of foreclosure, and it always brings everyone a HUGE sigh of relief when we get to closing and their credit is saved from total ruin. Even if your home is scheduled for Sheriff’s Auction, we CAN intervene and work our magic, but we do need time to get all of the pieces of the puzzle into the right place to make it happen. Don’t wait until the last minute and wind up escorted out onto the curb with your belongings tossed into black garbage bags – NO ONE should ever have to go through that.
We buy houses from our neighbors in order to make our communities a better place for all. We achieve this by sticking to our core values and leveraging all of our expertise and resources to create win-win solutions for everyone. If you’ve been thinking about selling a house for any reason, it only makes sense for you to reach out and see what we can do for you. There are no obligations to speak to us, and you’re more than welcome to say “no, thank you,” if you don’t like the sound of our offer.
“I have worked with Bryan and his team at Ohio Cash Buyers, LLC on hundreds of closings for over a decade. They are amazing to work with and provide necessary information to make our job easy. They are ready to close when they say they will be and I have seen them help many people over the years to sell quickly due to divorce, bankruptcy, foreclosure, etc. All Points Title would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone who needs to sell a home for any reason, and actually, we do so very often. They are always a pleasure to do business with and in all the years we have been doing closings with them, we have never had any complaints or issues before, during or after the closing. They are currently working on a property in Fairfield that the owner decided to have friends and family help with rehab and they were losing serious money and needed to get out from under the pressures. The OCB team offered not only to buy the property even with all the existing problems, but also to allow them to stay in the home for several weeks until after the holidays. Bryan’s team also offered to rent a Pod to store their things until they found where they wanted to go and went as far as to offer to help them move. I have been impressed with the way Bryan and the Ohio Cash Buyers Team manages to handle the entire process with grace and poise, while looking out for the client. We look forward to working with them for many years to come!”
