An unheated house in a Kentucky January becomes a different house by March.
This is the one with a deadline attached. Frozen supply lines in a vacant unheated house cause more damage in a weekend than years of neglect.
Sell before winterWhy a dead furnace escalates
Below freezing temperatures in an unheated house put every supply line at risk. A single burst line running unnoticed for days destroys ceilings, floors, and cabinetry, and turns a straightforward mechanical problem into a five figure water damage claim.
Winterizing, meaning shutting the water off at the main and draining the system, prevents most of this and costs almost nothing. If your house is vacant and unheated right now, do that today regardless of whether you ever talk to us.
Habitability and code
An occupied rental without heat raises habitability issues under Kentucky landlord tenant law in jurisdictions that have adopted it, and code enforcement can get involved. That is a separate and more urgent problem than a vacant house.
For a house you live in, a dead furnace in December is not something you can wait out. The replacement cost arrives all at once and rarely at a convenient time.
Replacement cost versus sale value
A furnace and coil replacement is a meaningful number, a full system with ductwork considerably more, and on an older house the electrical service sometimes has to be addressed at the same time.
Putting a new system into a house you are selling does not usually return what it cost. We assume a full mechanical replacement in our numbers on older houses anyway.
Five questions. That is the whole thing.
We already know your situation from this page. Change it if it does not fit.
Question 1 of 5
What people ask about this
My house is vacant with no heat right now. What should I do?
Shut the water off at the main and drain the lines today. It costs nothing and prevents the expensive version of this problem.
Do you buy houses in the middle of winter?
Yes. Winter is when we get the most calls about this specific issue, for obvious reasons.
The pipes already burst. Is it too late?
No. It moves the house into water damage territory, which changes the number but not whether we buy.
Often it is more than one thing at once
Sell before winter.
No cost, no obligation, and nobody shows up at your door unless you ask them to.