Sell your Birmingham house fast, for cash.

Birmingham is not one housing market. Two houses of the same age can sell for very different prices depending on which side of town they sit on, and the problems inside them differ too. Here is how we look at the city.

• Ensley, Wylam and Tuxedo. Ensley grew up around the steel works at the end of the 1800s and became part of Birmingham in 1910. Many streets still have shotgun houses and small frame cottages. After the mills closed, the area lost much of its population, and a lot of houses have sat empty or been rented for years. We buy them in any condition, including houses with boarded windows and overgrown lots.
• Pratt City. The April 2011 tornado destroyed or made uninhabitable close to 500 homes here. Today the area is a mix of older houses that made it through the storm, houses that were patched afterward, and newer rebuilds. We buy all three, including houses where the repairs were started and never finished.
• West End, Bush Hills and Titusville. These are older neighborhoods west and southwest of downtown. Bush Hills was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2024. Expect the usual issues of older houses here: original plumbing, tired wiring, and roofs that have been patched instead of replaced.
• Smithfield, North Birmingham and Collegeville. Smithfield is one of the city's historic neighborhoods west of downtown. Parts of Collegeville, Fairmont and Harriman Park sit inside the 35th Avenue Superfund site, where the EPA has removed contaminated soil from hundreds of residential yards. Some buyers using a bank loan get nervous about that. We do not.
• Norwood. Norwood was built as a streetcar suburb north of downtown in the early 1900s, with Craftsman houses, American foursquares, and larger homes along Norwood Boulevard. Big old houses cost a lot to bring back, especially when the wiring, plumbing and roof all need work at the same time.
• Woodlawn, East Lake and Avondale. All three joined Birmingham in the 1910 annexation. New investment has reached parts of Woodlawn and Avondale, while other blocks still have worn houses that need a full rehab. Either way, we buy as-is.
• Crestwood and Roebuck. Most of Crestwood was built after World War II, with a lot of brick and frame ranch houses. Roebuck Springs is older, laid out starting in 1909 with Tudor, Craftsman and Colonial Revival homes. Owners who have lived in these houses for decades often have original kitchens, baths and mechanical systems, and that is the kind of house we are set up to buy.
• Five Points South and the Southside. Close to UAB, with older houses and small apartment buildings, many of them a century old or close to it. Older multi-unit buildings and houses split into apartments can be hard to finance with a regular loan, which is where a cash buyer helps.

Many of Birmingham's neighborhoods were built out in the first half of the 1900s. Houses that old tend to have the same short list of expensive problems. We plan for them before we walk in, and we price them into the offer. You do not fix any of it first.

• Foundation movement. The ground under an older house shifts as it gets wet and dries out. Over decades that shows up as cracked brick, sloping floors, doors that will not close, and gaps around windows.
• Old plumbing. Galvanized steel supply lines rust from the inside and slowly choke the water pressure. Cast iron drain lines crack and leak under the floor where nobody sees them until the smell or the stain shows up.
• Old wiring. The oldest houses may still have knob and tube wiring. Others have two-prong outlets, ungrounded circuits, or a small fuse box that was never upgraded. Some insurance companies will not write a policy on a house with knob and tube.
• Termites and rot. Subterranean termites are active across Alabama. In older frame houses the damage often hides in sills, floor joists, and the bottom of door frames.
• Roofs and water. A roof that has been patched for years usually means water has already reached the decking, ceilings, or walls.
• Lead paint. Any house built before 1978 may have lead-based paint under newer coats.

If your house has one of these, or all of them, you can still sell it to us as it sits.

Listing with an agent is the right move for some houses. For a lot of older Birmingham houses, these are the reasons owners call a cash buyer instead.

The buyer's loan can fail on condition. Most retail buyers use FHA, VA, or conventional loans, and the lender sends an appraiser. On an FHA loan for a house built before 1978, peeling or chipped paint has to be fixed before closing. Appraisers also flag safety items like exposed wiring, missing handrails, and roof leaks. That can mean repair demands or a dead deal weeks after you accepted an offer. We pay cash, so there is no lender and no appraisal condition.

The house was inherited. Plenty of Birmingham houses have been in one family for generations. When an owner passes without a will, the house usually goes to the heirs together, and that can mean several siblings or cousins, some out of state, all on title. Alabama adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act in 2014, which shows how common this is. We can work with every heir and the closing attorney so everyone signs and gets paid at the same closing. For questions about the estate itself, talk to an Alabama probate attorney.

The city is pressing on a vacant house. A vacant house that keeps getting broken into, or that has been tagged by the city, is a liability that grows every month. Selling it before it gets that far is often the cleanest way out.

A rental has worn out its owner. Older rentals in Birmingham can need a new roof, new plumbing, and a full turnover all at once. Some landlords would rather take a cash price than put another round of money in.

Alabama is a buyer beware state, with limits. Alabama generally follows the rule of caveat emptor for used homes, so sellers usually do not have to list every defect. Courts do carve out exceptions, including known defects that affect health or safety and direct questions from the buyer. We buy as-is and inspect the house ourselves, so tell us what you know and we will factor it in. This is general information, not legal advice.

We do not pull a number out of the air, and we do not use a formula that ignores your street. Here is the actual process.

• What fixed-up houses near you sold for. We look at recent sales of renovated houses in your neighborhood, as close to your block as the data allows. In Birmingham, prices can change a lot from one neighborhood to the next, so a sale across the interstate tells us very little.
• What it will cost to get your house there. We walk the house and estimate repairs room by room: roof, foundation, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, kitchen, baths, floors, paint, and anything the city would require.
• Our costs to own and resell it. Insurance, taxes, utilities, and the cost of selling the finished house.

The offer is what is left after repairs and costs come off the value of the finished house. We show you how we got there. Our offer will be lower than what a fully renovated house sells for, because we are the ones paying for the renovation. What you get in return is speed and certainty.

Here is what we can promise. A cash offer, usually within about 24 hours of seeing the house. Closing in as little as 7 to 14 days through a local title company or closing attorney, or later if you need more time, because you pick the date. We cover the normal closing costs. You pay no commissions. You make no repairs and do no cleaning. And there is no obligation to accept.

Tenants in the house. We can buy a Birmingham rental with tenants still living in it. Send us the lease, the rent amount, and the deposit details, and we will price the house as a rental. You do not have to empty it first.

Back taxes. In most cases, unpaid property taxes and liens do not stop a sale. They are usually paid off out of the sale proceeds at closing, and you receive what is left. Jefferson County sells tax liens, not houses. If your lien has already been sold, you can still redeem, and the lien holder cannot sue to foreclose until at least four years after the auction, but interest and fees keep growing and the lien holder can try garnishment in the meantime. The city also has a land bank authority that works to take control of long tax-delinquent, abandoned properties. If your house is behind, it is better to act early.

A foreclosure date. If the lender has set a sale date, selling first usually leaves you more options than waiting. Alabama gives some owners a limited right to buy a house back after a foreclosure sale, but the deadline depends on the property and the loan. Talk to an Alabama real estate attorney about your exact dates, and call us early so the closing can happen before the sale.