Do you own a home with unpermitted work? San Diego Realtor Kyle Whissel goes over how it is possible to sell a home in San Diego with unpermitted work.

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Can You Sell Your Home with Unpermitted Work?

If you own a home with unpermitted work and you're concerned about whether or not you can sell that home, this video's for you. Hey there, it's Kyle with Whissel Realty Group here in San Diego, and I want to talk to you if you've got a home with unpermitted work and you're thinking about selling.

'Cause, it's probably a little bit of a scary thing to think about. "Can I actually sell my home if I had work done without getting permits to it?" And let me give you the good news is the answer is yes. Yes, you can sell a home if it has work that was not permitted. Now, the caveat to that is you got to make sure that you have not actually been cited or red-flagged by the city or by the county. If you are currently if you have an order, a notice of abatement or you have any sort of citations or outstanding liens or anything like that for this unpermitted work, you're going to have to clear that up before you sell it.

But maybe you remodeled a bathroom and you didn't get permits for it. Maybe you added an addition and didn't get permits to it. Or maybe you converted your garage and you didn't get permits to do it. Yes, you 100% can sell that, as long as you don't have any liens or citations or notices against you from the city or the county. So, that's the good news. Yes, you can sell it. We're obviously going to disclose that to anybody who comes in and writes an offer. We're going to let them know that work was completed without permits. Now, how is this going to affect the value of your home?

Well, it depends. I sound like an attorney when I say that, right? But the answer is, it depends. And it depends on a lot of things. It's going to depend on the quality of the work that you did. That's going to make a big difference. If you did it all yourself and you've never done anything before and you put new tile in and the tiles are crooked and the grout lines are completely off and different sizes, that may not add a lot of value. That may actually hurt you more than helping you. But if you actually did it and you had a contractor do it, you just didn't want to deal with the headaches of getting the permits and stuff, it could absolutely add value to the property. Now, is it going to add as much value as if it was permitted? No, probably not, but you could still see a substantial value increase, even for work that wasn't permitted. It's going to be a little bit easier when you maybe just remodeled a kitchen, bathroom, things like that. You're not going to have as many concerns over things. Whereas, if you added square footage, this is where you're going to see a big difference. Because if you added square footage without permits, versus if it was permitted, now we're talking about a substantial value difference.

Because when it's permitted square footage, we're here in San Diego, there's not a lot of real estate in San Diego. The value of a home-based on the square footage could be very substantial. There are neighborhoods in San Diego where homes are selling for north of $1,000 a square foot. So if you added even 100 square feet at a value of $1,000 a square foot, that could be pretty substantial. So, if you added square footage, it may be worth it to get that square footage permitted. Now, can you get it permitted? Potentially. We actually have somebody who's a part of our team of resources here at Whissel Realty Group who specializes in what's referred to as an after-the-fact permit.

What that means is, he can help get things permitted after the fact, after they're already built. So as opposed to traditionally going and getting permits and then building it and then getting the permits signed off on, you can actually retroactively go back and get something permitted that was already there. I actually used him myself. I bought a property up in Fallbrook, had a walk-out basement. I know that sounds weird, a walk-out basement, but yes, they do exist in California.

They're rare, but they exist. But we were actually able to add that walk-out basement and get the 500-plus square feet permitted. Well, 500 square feet in California, has a lot of value. So for us, we ran an analysis and we determined that if we could have an extra 500 square feet of living space, that took us to a whole nother level of value. So, if you're in that scenario, maybe you converted a garage, maybe you added an extra bedroom or something to your property, it might make sense for you to get that permit.

The best thing to do is reach out to us down at the number below. You can call us or text us on that number. Our team will connect with you and we can run an analysis to help you determine, is it better to sell it as is, or is it going to be better to actually go and get that work permitted to really get that maximum value? Maybe it will make sense, maybe it won't. The only way, call us, text us at that number down below. I'm Kyle Whissel with Whissel Realty Group. Thanks so much for watching this video.

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