One: We Underestimate What Survived
Working from photographs and a description, we price conservatively, because the downside of assuming a frame is sound and finding otherwise is large.
The cost of that error falls on you. A conservative assumption produces a lower figure, and where the frame actually came through, our number is worse than it should have been.
What we do about it: we ask for a structural assessment before finalising, and we revise upward when one arrives. If you have a report, send it. It is the most reliable way to correct this particular mistake in your favour.
Two: We Get the Structure Value Wrong
The denominator in the fifty per cent calculation is the structure's market value with land excluded, and the figure is not always on the public record. We work from what we can obtain, and sometimes what we can obtain is not what a private appraisal would say.
Where we have used too low a figure, we have assumed the threshold is closer than it is and priced elevation risk that may not exist. The full position is on our page covering the fifty per cent rule.
What we do about it: we say which figure we used. If you disagree, a private appraisal from a Florida-licensed appraiser is the answer, and we will reprice against it.
Why Publish That at All?
Three: We Are Too Slow to Say No
We look at properties we should decline in the first ten minutes and sometimes take three days to say so. That is a cost we impose on somebody who has just had a fire and is waiting on us.
What we do about it: not enough, honestly. Where the answer is obviously no we try to send it the same day. Where it is not obvious we would rather take the time than guess, and the middle cases are where the delay accumulates.
Four: We Assume People Know Things They Do Not
We work in this market constantly and forget that almost nobody else does. We have described a substantial damage determination to owners as though the phrase meant something to them, and watched a conversation go sideways because we skipped the explanation.
What we do about it: most of this website, which exists so that the explanation is available before the conversation rather than during it.
What We Do Not Get Wrong
We do not charge sellers. No fee, no commission, no deduction, no cost for a figure and none for declining one. We make money on the difference between what we pay and what the finished property is worth, less the cost of getting there.
We buy as principal, in our own entity, with our own funds, and we take title. The contract is not assigned. We are not brokers, not public adjusters, not contractors and not lawyers.
Where Our Interests Diverge From Yours
We are the buyer. We benefit if you accept less and decide sooner, and everything above is still true.
The checks that protect you run through public sources rather than through us. Your community's floodplain administrator holds the zone. The county property appraiser holds the structure value. The building department holds the roof permit history. The county clerk holds what we have actually bought under our entity name.
What We Buy
Fire-damaged residential property across Tampa Bay, in any condition from smoke to cleared lot, across Hillsborough and Pinellas and the cities within them. Claims open, settled, denied and uninsured. Owner-occupied, tenanted, vacant and inherited.
Beyond this region the rules change and we would be the wrong buyer.
To start, send an address through any form here. Before you do, work through both fractions on our page about how the process actually runs, and read the sorting question on our page about how to tell local cash buyers apart.