PROPERTY TYPES
HOUSES, MOBILE HOMES,
LAND, COMMERCIAL.
The short answer is most of it. The useful answer is a specific list, including the situations that scare other buyers off and the ones that are genuinely a poor fit here.
The four categories
Single-family houses
Owner-occupied, vacant, or tenanted. Any age, any condition, in-town or rural. Subdivision lots in Irmo and Lexington, older stock in Columbia, and everything in between.
Mobile and manufactured homes
On owned land or in a park. Single-wide and double-wide. Whether the title has been retired to real property or not — a distinction that changes the transaction and is covered on its own page.
Land
Residential lots, acreage, wooded and cleared, with or without utilities, including inherited parcels nobody in the family has visited. Access and utilities drive almost everything here.
Small commercial
Small retail, office, mixed use, and light industrial buildings, typically vacant or underused.
The question is never the label on the property type. It is condition, title, and what the property can reasonably become after the work is done.
Conditions that do not disqualify a property
Most of what sellers apologise for is ordinary here.
- Fire damage. Partial or substantial. The important details are whether the structure and foundation survived, what the insurance situation is, and whether the municipality has issued any orders on the property.
- Water damage and mould. Roof leaks, burst pipes, storm flooding, long-term moisture. Remediation is a known cost, not a mystery.
- Hoarding and heavy contents. Nothing needs to be cleared out. Take what matters to you and leave the rest. This is handled without commentary and without anyone touring the house for entertainment.
- Abandoned renovations. Half-finished work, permits that lapsed, a contractor who disappeared, open walls. Common and workable.
- Structural problems. Foundation movement, failed piers, roof framing, termite damage, sagging floors.
- Long vacancy. Years of it. Vandalism, copper stripped, systems dead, a yard gone back to woods.
- Septic, well and utility issues, including properties a lender would refuse outright.
Everything on this site is an extension of the free learning community.
Why damaged property is bought at all
It is worth explaining the logic rather than leaving it as a slogan, because a seller who understands it negotiates better.
A house with serious damage has a very small buyer pool. A retail buyer usually needs a loan, and a lender will not finance a property that is not habitable or insurable in its current state. That removes most of the market. What is left is buyers who can fund the purchase and the repairs themselves and who have a construction capability to deploy.
So the trade is real on both sides. The seller gets a transaction that would not otherwise exist and avoids paying for work they may not be able to fund. The buyer takes the risk that the damage is worse than it looks, which with fire, water and structure it frequently is.
Commercial, multi-family and the unusual ones
The commercial side is smaller and more specific. Small retail buildings on a corner that has changed around them. An office suite that emptied out and never refilled. A former restaurant, a garage, a warehouse bay, a church building that has outgrown or outlived its congregation. Mixed-use buildings with apartments over a storefront are common in older parts of Columbia and in the small downtowns across the Midlands.
What is looked at is different from a house. Not comparable sales of similar buildings, because there usually are not any, but what the building can legally be used for, what it would cost to make that use possible, and who in the local market actually wants that use. Zoning, parking, access and the condition of the roof and the envelope carry most of the weight.
Duplexes, triplexes and small apartment buildings sit between the two. They are priced partly as houses and partly on what they produce, and the condition of the tenancies matters as much as the condition of the building. Bring leases, payment history and any pending magistrate court actions to the first conversation rather than the last.
Anything genuinely specialised — large industrial, institutional, or an asset class that requires an operator rather than a renovator — is usually outside the range here, and the useful answer is to say so quickly.
What does not fit
Being clear about this saves everyone time, and a buyer who claims to buy everything is exaggerating.
Properties already listed under an active agreement should be discussed with your agent first, because that agreement governs what happens next.
Well-maintained houses in strong submarkets with flexible sellers. Those belong on the open market and the honest advice is on when not to sell to us.
Property where the seller cannot legally convey. If title sits in a deceased owner's name, if heirs cannot be located, or if a co-owner will not participate, the first step is legal rather than commercial. Start with title, liens and probate.
Large-scale commercial and specialised assets outside the operating range. Saying so plainly is better than tying up a property while someone figures out whether they want it.
Anything where the numbers do not work. Some properties genuinely have no room in them. The answer then is no, delivered promptly, with the reason.
Frequently asked
Questions people actually ask
Do I need to clean out the house before selling?
No. Take what you want and leave the rest, including furniture, appliances and anything in the attic or the yard. Mention what is staying so it is priced in and written into the contract instead of becoming a disagreement later.
Will you buy a house with fire damage?
Yes. What matters is the structure, the foundation, the insurance position and whether the city or county has issued any orders on the property. Bring the file, including the claim paperwork if there is one.
What about a property with an active code violation?
Those are bought regularly. Bring the notice. Violations, fines and orders attach to the property and the closing attorney needs to see them. Hiding one does not make it go away; it makes it a surprise in title work.
Do you buy houses with tenants who are not paying?
Yes. Say so up front. In South Carolina a lease generally runs with the property, so the tenancy and its obligations transfer to the buyer, and that has to be priced in rather than discovered.
Will you buy just the land if I keep the house?
Splitting a parcel is a subdivision question governed by the county or municipality and it is rarely quick. It is worth a conversation, and the honest expectation is that most of those do not work.
Make your next move
A year from now, what will you be glad you started today?
You don't need another promise that everything will be easy. You need something useful to learn — and a next step you're willing to take.