Sell your Ensley house fast, for cash.

The City of Birmingham groups six neighborhoods into its Ensley community: Ensley, Tuxedo, Wylam, Sherman Heights, Oak Ridge, and Dolomite. The housing changes as you move out from the old steel town center, so we look at each part differently.

• Central Ensley and Tuxedo (35218). This is the old town grid of lettered avenues and numbered streets, with the historic business district along 19th Street between about Avenue B and Avenue I. Housing here started with workers' cottages. After the company developing Ensley was reorganized in 1898, hundreds of small cottages went up for the people working in the new mills. Today you see small frame cottages, shotguns, and modest houses from the 1940s and 1950s on the same block, some lived in for decades and some boarded up.
• Wylam and Sherman Heights (mostly 35224). West and northwest of the old center, out toward Lloyd Noland Parkway. These areas have older houses too, plus more houses from the 1960s and 1970s than central Ensley does. Those usually need updating more than rescuing: original baths and kitchens, old HVAC, and roofs near the end of their life.
• Oak Ridge (35224). On the northwest side near Birmingport Road. We buy houses here in any condition.
• Dolomite (35061). At the southwest end of the Ensley community, toward Pleasant Grove Road. We buy here as well, including houses that have sat empty.

We also buy just south of central Ensley in Ensley Highlands and Fairview, which the city counts as part of Five Points West.

Ensley's housing is old even by Birmingham standards. In the 35218 ZIP code, which covers central Ensley and Tuxedo, the Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 estimates show about 3 of every 10 homes were built before 1940, and about 3 of every 4 were built before 1970. Houses that age run into the same set of problems, and we price them in before we make an offer.

• Floors and foundations. Shotgun houses and small cottages often sit on brick or block piers instead of a full foundation. Over the years piers settle or crumble, and you get sloping floors, sagging sills, and doors that will not latch.
• Wiring. Fuse boxes, two-prong outlets, and circuits added one at a time over decades. If a house has been empty, some wiring may be missing altogether.
• Plumbing. Rusted galvanized supply lines, cracked cast iron drains, and pipes that froze or burst while the house sat with the water on and the heat off.
• Roofs, rot, and termites. A slow roof leak turns into soft decking, stained ceilings, and rotted framing. Termite damage hides in the sills and floor joists of older frame houses.
• Damage from sitting empty. Broken windows, kicked-in doors, trash, and overgrown lots.

You do not need to fix any of it. We buy the house the way it is today.

The buyer's loan can fall apart. Many buyers of lower-priced houses use FHA loans. For a house built before 1978, FHA requires that chipped or peeling paint be corrected before the loan closes, and the appraiser can also call for repairs to roofs, wiring, and other safety items. In Ensley, where most of the houses are that old, a seller can accept an offer and then face a repair list weeks later. We pay cash, so there is no lender and no appraisal to pass.

The house came from a parent or grandparent. When a long-time owner passes, the house often goes to several children or grandchildren, and some of them may live in another city or state by then. We work with everyone on the title so the family can sell together.

The house is empty and the city has noticed. Birmingham's blight process usually starts with a neighbor's complaint. If an inspector finds the house unsafe, the owner gets a notice with 30 days to repair it or tear it down. If that does not happen, the city council can condemn the house and the city can demolish it. After a demolition, the owner still owns the lot. On top of that, many standard homeowner policies stop covering vandalism once a house has been empty for more than 60 days in a row, so check your policy. Selling before the house reaches that point usually leaves you more money and fewer headaches.

The rental is not worth another round of repairs. Older rentals tend to need everything at once: a roof, a sewer line, an electrical panel, and a full turnover between tenants. Plenty of landlords would rather take a fair cash price than put that money back in.

Our offer starts with two numbers and some simple subtraction. We walk you through all of it.

• What a fixed-up house near yours sells for. We pull recent sales of renovated houses as close to your block as we can. If there are only a few renovated sales near you, we widen the search to nearby streets, and we tell you which sales we used and why.
• What it costs to get your house there. We walk through the house and price the work item by item: piers and floor framing, roof, wiring, plumbing, HVAC, kitchen, baths, windows, and paint, plus anything the city requires.
• Our costs to hold and resell it. Insurance, taxes, utilities, and the cost of selling the finished house.

The offer is the finished value minus the repairs and those costs. For context, the Census Bureau's latest estimate puts the median value of owner-occupied homes in 35218 at about $92,600. At that price level, a few thousand dollars of required repairs is a large share of the sale, which is why the as-is math matters so much here.

Here is what we 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 time, because you pick the date. We pay the normal closing costs. No commissions, no repairs, no cleaning, and no obligation to accept.

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

Several heirs. When an owner passes without a will, the house usually goes to the heirs together, and each heir on title generally needs to sign. Some estates also need to go through probate before a sale. We coordinate with the family and the closing attorney so everyone signs and gets paid at one closing. For the estate itself, talk to an Alabama probate attorney.

Back taxes. Unpaid property taxes are usually paid off out of the sale at closing, and you keep what is left. If a tax lien on your house has already been sold at auction, you can still redeem it. Alabama sets no fixed deadline for that, and the lien holder cannot foreclose until four years after the auction, but interest and fees keep adding up in the meantime.

A foreclosure date. In Alabama, a foreclosure sale is advertised in the newspaper once a week for three weeks before it happens. If the house is your homestead, you may have up to 180 days after a mortgage foreclosure sale to buy it back. Selling before the sale date almost always leaves you more options. Ask an Alabama real estate attorney about your exact dates, and call us early so we can close in time.