Storm and structural damage

Hail and wind

This metro sits in one of the most active hail corridors in the country, and roofs here age faster than the shingle warranty suggests. The practical problem is not the leak — it is that carriers have tightened up on older roofs, and a house whose roof cannot be insured cannot be financed. That knocks out most retail buyers before they ever see it.

Since we do not use a lender, the roof is a line item in our estimate rather than a dealbreaker.

Tornado damage and stalled rebuilds

Moore and south Oklahoma City still have houses on the 2013 corridor where the rebuild started and stopped. A contractor took a deposit and disappeared, or the insurance settlement fell short of what completion actually cost, and the house has sat partly finished ever since.

Half-finished is genuinely harder to sell than untouched, because a buyer has to figure out what was done to code and what was not. We buy them. Bring whatever documentation exists, including permits and contractor invoices, and where none exists we will price around the uncertainty.

Foundation movement

The red clay under this metro expands when it is wet and contracts when it is not, and it does that hard, every year. Cracked brick, sticking doors, sloped floors, and separated trim are common across every one of our markets. It is not a defect unique to your house.

What matters is whether movement is active or historic, and whether prior repair carries a transferable warranty. If you have piering documentation, share it — it usually raises your number, because it replaces our conservative estimate with a known quantity.

Insurance claims

Open claims complicate a sale but do not prevent one. Where claim proceeds go depends on the policy, the mortgage, and how far along the claim is; a mortgagee often has to endorse the check. Tell us on the first call so the title company can work it out early rather than discovering it three days before closing.

Related: selling in Moore and what as-is covers.