After 30 years, it's time
Maybe you bought the house in the 1970s, 80s or 90s. You raised kids in it, hosted the holidays in it, and patched the roof more than once. Now the house is older than some of your grandchildren's parents, and it needs more than you want to put into it. You might be moving closer to family, heading to assisted living, downsizing to something with no yard, or you are simply done with the upkeep.
Here is something many long-time owners do not realize: in a lot of Tampa Bay neighborhoods, builders are looking for exactly your kind of property. Not for the house. For the land. That changes how you can sell, and who you should be talking to.
Who this is for
Tampa Teardown is a good fit if one or more of these sounds like your place:
- A small house on a big lot, or on a couple of lots. Many older homes sit on oversized or double lots. A builder sees room for something new.
- A house that needs everything. Roof, plumbing, electrical, AC, windows, kitchen, baths. When the repair list is the whole house, a buyer who plans to clear the lot does not care.
- A house in a flood zone. Older homes built low can be costly to fix or insure, and big repairs may trigger rules that require the house to be raised. Clearing the lot and building new is often the simpler path for a builder.
- You have owned it for 30+ years. Or you inherited it from someone who did. The house is full of memories and a lot of stuff, and it shows its age.
- A corner lot, two side-by-side lots, or a lot in a neighborhood where new homes are going up.
If your house is in great shape and buyers would pay top dollar for it as a home, you probably do not need us. We will tell you that.
Why builders want the land
In established Tampa Bay neighborhoods, there is very little empty land left. A builder who wants to put up a new home close to the water, downtown, good schools or the interstate usually has to buy an older house and take it down. So the value of a property like yours often comes down to the lot: its width and frontage, its depth, whether it is a corner, the zoning, what the setbacks allow, and what new homes nearby sell for.
A house that needs $150,000 of work to be livable might scare off a regular buyer. To a builder, that same house is simply something to remove. They are paying for the dirt, the location and what can legally go on it. Whether a lot can be split or built on in a certain way always depends on local zoning, so that is something we check on every property. Read more in what builders look for and small house on two lots.
How it works
- Call or text us. Tell us the address and a little about the place. No pressure, no obligation.
- One walkthrough. We visit once, at a time that suits you. Family is welcome to be there. We look at the house and the lot, and we listen.
- A written cash offer. We explain how we got to the number, based mainly on what the land is worth to a builder. Take your time and talk it over with your family.
- Close when you are ready. At a licensed Florida title company, on the date you pick. Any mortgage, liens or back taxes are paid off from the sale.
The full step-by-step is on how we buy.
What you don't have to do
- No repairs, no painting, no new roof, no fixing the AC.
- No clean-out. Take what you want and leave the rest. Old furniture, the shed full of tools, the garage. We deal with it.
- No agent commissions.
- No paying normal closing costs. We cover those.
- No waiting on a buyer's loan to be approved.
- No worrying about the demolition. Once we close, what happens to the house is our problem.
If the house is inherited and still needs to go through probate, we pay for the probate.
An honest word about price
We buy for cash, as-is, and we take on the demolition, the permits, the holding costs and the risk. Because of that, our offer is below full retail. That is the trade: you get certainty, speed if you want it, and none of the work.
Sometimes listing with a real estate agent will clearly put more money in your pocket, especially if the house is in decent shape and you have time to wait. When that is the case, we will say so. We would rather you make the right call for your family than sell to us for the wrong reason. Our page on how we figure land value walks through the math in plain words.
Where we buy
We buy houses for the lot across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties: Tampa, South Tampa, Seminole Heights, West Tampa, Carrollwood, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Dunedin and the areas in between. We buy single-family homes, duplexes up to fourplexes, small multifamily, small commercial and vacant lots. We do not buy condos, co-ops or mobile homes. See what we buy and our neighborhood pages.
Tampa Teardown is run by 131 Cash Home Buyers, a St. Petersburg company that has bought more than 140 houses around Tampa Bay since 2018.