Sell Your House As-Is, No Matter What Shape It Is In
By Ed Brancheau, Co-founder, SunnyNest Homes. Reviewed by the SunnyNest family team. Updated July 2026.
We buy San Diego houses in any condition: fire or water damage, foundation problems, failed roofs, hoarder houses, and homes with code violations. As-is means exactly that. No repairs, no cleaning, no lender to satisfy, and an offer that already accounts for the work.
What does selling as-is actually mean?
As-is means the buyer accepts the property in its current condition and the price already reflects the needed work. You still disclose known problems, which California law requires, but you fix nothing. With us, anything you disclosed or showed us on the video walkthrough never reopens the price, which is where most as-is promises fall apart.
Here is the industry secret worth knowing. Many buyers say as-is, then use the inspection report to grind the price down 3 weeks into escrow, when you are most committed. We price the work in before you sign instead, from your answers and a 20-minute video walkthrough, and we show you that math. After you sign, the price only moves under the no-surprise-cuts rule in your contract: what we already knew about never counts and a surprise comes out of our fee first. Past a limit written in the contract, you can cancel for free.
Do you really buy fire-damaged and water-damaged houses?
Yes. Damaged homes usually cannot get conventional financing, which removes retail buyers entirely. Cash is how these houses trade. We buy them with open insurance claims, with remediation half-done, or untouched since the incident. Bring us the insurance paperwork and we will work with the situation as it stands.
A house that lenders will not finance is not unsellable. It just has a smaller buyer pool, and that pool pays cash. We have processes for damaged structures: contractor walkthroughs, remediation bids, and title work that accounts for any insurance proceeds. What feels like a disaster to live with is a solvable project to buy.
What about hoarder houses or houses that embarrass me?
No judgment, and no cleanup required. We walk houses in every condition and we have seen far worse than yours. Take the belongings that matter to you and leave everything else. Your belongings never change the price. The walkthrough is a private video call, and after you sign, one visit from the buyer's contractor is the only time anyone else comes in.
Shame keeps people trapped in houses for years. A traditional sale demands the house be presentable to dozens of strangers, which for a hoarding situation means months of painful work before you can even start. Our process needs one private visit. That is the entire audience. Sellers routinely tell us the biggest relief was not the money, it was not having to explain the house to anyone.
The house has code violations or unpermitted additions. Now what?
We buy houses with open code cases, unpermitted garage conversions, and red-tagged additions. These issues kill financed sales because lenders will not touch them. In a cash sale they become line items in our repair math, and we take over the responsibility of resolving them after closing.
San Diego County has thousands of unpermitted ADUs, converted garages, and add-ons from decades past. Retail buyers walk away because their lender makes them. We resolve permits and violations as part of the renovation, so your involvement ends at closing. Bring us the notice from the city and we will factor it in transparently.
The numbers behind a direct sale
- A traditional listed sale takes about 73 days from list to close. A cash sale can close in 7 to 14 days, and the fastest close pays the least. (Redfin market data)
- A traditional sale involves 10 to 25 showings on average. Selling direct usually means one walkthrough. (National Association of Realtors)
- FSBO homes sell for about 13 percent less than agent-listed homes on average. (NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers)
- 36 percent of people who sold without a realtor reported making legal mistakes in the process. (industry survey data)
Questions sellers ask us
Will you lower the offer after you see how bad it is?
No, because we see it before we make the offer. The first number is a ballpark from what you told us. A 20-minute video walkthrough narrows it, and only then do we write an offer. After you sign, anything we already knew about never changes the price. A surprise nobody could see comes out of our fee first, and past a limit written in your contract you see the contractor's bid and can cancel for free. Surprise renegotiation is the tactic we built this company to compete against.
Is a fixer worth more sold as-is or after I do the repairs?
Run the honest math: repair cost plus months of carrying costs plus contractor risk, against the as-is price today. Owners doing one-off renovations pay retail for work we get at volume pricing. Sometimes repairs do pay off, and if your situation looks like one of those, we will tell you.
Do I still have to disclose problems if I sell as-is?
Yes. California requires sellers to disclose known material defects even in as-is sales. Disclose everything. It protects you legally, and with us a problem you disclosed never lowers the price, because the price already assumed the work.
Tell us what the house needs. We have seen worse
Tell us about the property. Ed gets back to you within one business day to set up a short call, and on it he walks you through a ballpark for every way we could buy it, in writing, in dollars. If we are close, a 20-minute video walkthrough firms it up before any offer. No pressure, no obligation, and we will tell you if listing with a Realtor is your better move.