HomeBlogReasons to SellWhen Your St. Louis House Is More Trouble Than It’s Worth Share on Like what you see? Share with a friend. When Your St. Louis House Is More Trouble Than It’s Worth Chris Kirshenboim | August 4, 2022 Last updated August 10, 2026 There is a point where a house stops being an asset and starts being a second job, and most owners can name the month it happened. If your house is more trouble than it's worth, the signs usually show up in the numbers before they show up in how you feel. Property taxes and a special assessment climbing faster than your income. The roof, the furnace and the sewer lateral all coming due inside the same two years. A rental that has not cleared its costs since the last tenant left. Stairs that were fine at sixty and are not fine at seventy-eight. A house four hundred miles from where you actually live now. None of that means anyone failed at anything. It means the fit changed. A burdensome house is worth exactly what it costs to keep minus what it gives back, and once that figure turns negative the only real question left is timing. Add up a year of taxes, insurance, utilities and repairs. Put the as-is sale figure beside it. If the first number is winning, it is probably time to sell. Read how we buy houses, get our number, get an agent's number, and choose with both on the table. Our 4.9 across 368 Google reviews comes from St. Louis sellers who took weeks over it, not hours. Taxes or Fees Property taxes may rise dramatically, depending on market fluctuations and could outpace any increase in your income over the same time period. Another expense that may be unplanned is tax assessments or homeowners association (HOA) fees for special projects, which can be extremely expensive. If you find that it is costing you a lot of money just to own your property because of these fees or taxes, your house in St. Louis is likely more trouble financially than it is worth. Repairs As homes age, the progression of repairs usually increases in both frequency and expense. Eventually between the effects of time and wear and tear, major systems and appliances wear out. Depending on the age and condition of the major structural elements, you could be facing thousands in structural or foundation issues, or even plumbing or roofing repairs. At the same time, the decor of the home usually needs at minimum a touch up, if not a complete updating. You may even need to consider major remodeling. If you are facing a great deal of upgrades and repairs, your house in St. Louis is probably much more trouble than it’s worth. Maintenance Maintaining a home can become extremely burdensome, especially if your circumstances change. While you may have had the time or the ability to handle all of the responsibilities of caring for your property when you purchased your home, it may have become impossible physically or financially. Allowing routine maintenance to be delayed for prolonged periods can mean thousands of dollars in damage to your home, or worse. Should an issue such as an overgrown tree cause damage from falling limbs, you could be facing legal fees and penalties as well. Depending on the size of your property, hiring help could be quite costly as well, meaning your house in St. Louis is more trouble than it’s worth. Downsizing or Upsizing If your home isn't working for your current needs, your house in St. Louis is more trouble than it’s worth. As time passes and families grow, they often find the house that worked perfectly when it was purchased has become much too small. Later in life, as homeowners begin to focus on retirement years, they often prefer to live in and maintain much less home. In either event, when your home just doesn’t suit you, it’s time to move on. Difficult to Rent If you can afford to hold the property, turning it into an investment property as a rental, your home could become a dependable source of monthly income. However, if your home is not in what is considered to be a good location in St. Louis, which would be desirable to tenants, it may be difficult if not impossible to find good tenants. Should you find yourself in this situation, your house in St. Louis is more trouble than it’s worth. Would you like to avoid paying for these and other expensive costs homeowners face when their homes in St. Louis no longer suit their lifestyle? You can avoid these and many more unexpected costs by selling directly to Chris Buys Homes in St. Louis! Please give us a call today at (314) 334-1481 to discuss these and other reasons why your house in St. Louis may just be more trouble than it may be worth. To learn more about how to end your burdens of an unwanted property, send us a message or give us a call today! (314) 334-1481 FAQs Frequently Asked Questions Is it worth fixing the house before selling? + Only when a repair returns more than it costs, which usually means paint and cleanup rather than a roof or a furnace. Big systems rarely pay themselves back in the sale price. What happens if I keep waiting? + Carrying costs continue and deferred repairs compound, so a house held another three years typically sells for less against the market than the same house would fetch today. Does a house in poor condition still get an offer? + Yes. Condition changes the number, not whether an offer exists, and a St. Louis house with a failed roof or foundation movement is still something our team will price and buy.
