Sell a Vacant House in Marietta

The insurance gap is the real risk

Standard homeowner's policies typically limit or exclude coverage after a property has been unoccupied for a set period — commonly 30 or 60 days. A vacant house that burns, floods from a burst pipe, or is stripped for copper may not be covered at all, and a vacancy endorsement costs more than the original policy.

In Marietta that risk runs both ways seasonally. Winter freezes burst pipes in unheated houses, and humid summers in a closed-up house over a wet crawlspace grow mould quickly. A house that was merely dated when it went empty can be a remediation project a year later.

What a wooded Cobb County lot does to an empty house

Marietta is heavily wooded, which is part of its appeal and hard on an unoccupied property. Limbs and whole trees come down in storms, and nobody is there to tarp the roof or call a claim in. Leaves fill gutters, water runs against the foundation, and the crawlspace — already damp in this clay — stays wet year-round, rotting sills and joists.

None of it needs fixing before you sell. But it is why waiting rarely improves the number.

Code enforcement and the mail problem

Cobb County and the City of Marietta enforce overgrown-lot, nuisance, and unsafe-structure rules, and charges attach to the property. Notices go to whatever address the tax assessor has on file, which for an heir or an out-of-state owner is frequently years out of date — so the first many owners hear of it is when a lien turns up in a title examination.

Open cases do not stop a sale. Send us the case number and recorded liens are paid from the closing proceeds. A case nobody mentioned is what moves a closing date.

Why Marietta houses sit empty

• An inherited house whose family lives out of state
• A rental that never got re-leased after a turnover
• A home left behind after a move for work, family, or care
• A house a financed buyer could not close on because of a crawlspace or roof finding
• A renovation that stopped when the budget ran out
• A house in a Marietta design-review district where a compliant renovation proved too expensive

Selling it without going back

You do not need to turn on the utilities, cut the grass, clean, remove belongings, or meet anyone at the property. If you are out of state, the Georgia closing attorney arranges for documents to be signed before a notary where you are and wires the proceeds.

Tell us the address, how long it has been empty, whether the insurance is current, and whether there are any citations. That is enough to start.

Frequently asked questions