We Buy Houses in West Palm Beach, As They Sit

West Palm Beach is the county seat of Palm Beach County, incorporated on November 5, 1894. The City counts 59 neighborhoods, from the Intracoastal Waterway west toward Grassy Waters Preserve, the 23-square-mile wetland that supplies its water. The houses came in waves, 1920s cottages and bungalows, then post-war and midcentury infill, yet only 38% predate 1980 and the median home dates from 1988. The City looks after 18 locally designated historic districts, among them Old Northwood, Grandview Heights, Flamingo Park and El Cid. So the house that reaches us can be a century old or barely forty, and we buy both as they sit.

Ownership is close to an even split: 50.5% of the city's 52,522 households own their home and nearly as many rent, so the seller who calls us is often a landlord with a tenant in place. The typical owner has been in the house since 2012, and more than four in ten owner households (42%) are headed by someone 65 or older. So the house often reaches us through an estate, probated at the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit here in West Palm Beach; we work alongside the estate's attorney and pay that attorney at closing.

Before closing, the title company pulls the City's lien report, which comes through a system called Conduits and covers utilities, code violations and receivables, unrecorded liens included. Permits, inspections and code cases can be searched by address in the City's Civic Access portal without logging in. Code cases go before a Special Magistrate at City Hall, unpaid fines can become a lien, and a magistrate can reduce it on a $200 application once the case is in compliance and any expired permits are completed. We read all of it before the offer, and any balance shows as a line before you sign.