Selling an old house / apartment building: Renovation backlog, vacancy, dilapidated – what to do?

Selling an old house / multi-family house – You own an old house or an old multi-family house (also apartment building) that is to be sold soon and you are asking yourself the question: What is the best and, above all, most effective way to organize the sale of an old house or multi-family house? How does the asking price change? Is refurbishment worthwhile to increase the value? Renovation backlog, vacancy, dilapidated – in any case, you are a property owner. But what else can you do? 2025 sell directly or renovate and then sell? From the process to the house valuation, you can learn this and more here.

Selling old real estate 2025: What to look out for?

Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and throughout Germany, this guide is specially designed for newcomers and the first sale. First of all, the initial situation is an important point of reference for the next steps. In principle, there are only two important questions:

• Who wants to buy my old house?
• How much is my old house still worth?

Your house sale, your multi-family house sale is basically like any house sale, only the valuation of the house, the valuation of the multi-family house is a little more demanding, depending on the year of construction and defects.

Let’s start with the “most important” question:

What is my old house worth?

Even if many first-time sellers often think so at first:

Who would be interested in my old house?

Even if your old house or apartment building is in absolute need of renovation and is in a C-location:

Offer price makes buyers

Firstly:

Buyers can always be found for the right price

Secondly, remember this:

Where there’s a house, there’s a plot of land!

Living space is scarce and land always has its value. Old detached houses, semi-detached houses or terraced houses and especially apartment buildings offer potential.

Want to learn more about sales?

Here I have all the steps for you in one guide:

• House sale
• Sale of apartment building

Let’s move on to the valuation of your old house:

Assessment: Dilapidated, in need of renovation, what to look out for?

How is a house valued? Anyone selling their very first home will have many questions about the procedure, the process and also the valuation of the old property. After all, the valuation is the basis for the offer price and purchase price and, ultimately, your profit from the sale of the property.

What type of house are you selling?

We are about to provide you with even more detailed advice on real estate valuation for houses, apartment buildings and villas, depending on the type of house you want to sell. The parameters change depending on the type of house, from terraced houses and detached villas to country houses and apartment buildings.

Depending on the size of the property, the condition of the property, the higher the letting capacity (versus vacancy), the location and the size of the plot, the offer price will be realistic and attract prospective buyers for your property.

Evaluation criteria: Location, size, condition

Here is an overview of the five most important evaluation criteria:

1. Type of house / type of use (owner-occupied, rented, multi-party houses)
2. Size of the property
3. Size of the property
4. Situation and development
5. Condition of the object
6. Current letting

Of course, you do not prepare this valuation yourself, it is prepared by professionals like us, by experts or surveyors. This provides an objective valuation(market value) as the basis for the entire calculation, from which the offer price can be calculated. When calculating the asking price, prospective developments are also factored in.

Want to learn more about valuation?

Learn more basics about house valuation, valuation of apartment buildings and, of course, the valuation of land.

• Rate house
• Valuate apartment building
• Valuation methods
• Typical defects by year of construction

Even away from the big city, living space is rare and you will find a buyer.

Selling an old apartment building: Get in touch!

If the floor space is large enough and the apartment building has enough condominiums, old houses, apartment buildings and their plots can have great potential with real estate investors, both domestic and foreign.

With renovation backlog, vacancy, dilapidated, please contact me without obligation:

• Contact us

Apartment building / apartment building for sale off market

In order to reach such investors (family offices, companies, investment and real estate funds, other institutions), you need to sell your property with experts in the off-market sector. What does that mean? This is where real estate is marketed exclusively by a real estate agency.

1:1, so to speak, the real estate agency only contacts selected contacts based on the previously known profile. Your property will then not appear on real estate portals, but will be presented very specifically to individual investors with a suitable purchase profile. Large investors want direct and exclusive access, other properties are not of interest to them because they cost time.

The big advantage:

The entire sale is discreet, anonymous and you don’t waste time with interested parties who have no money or just want to have a look.

Advantages of off-market sales:

• Targeted approach of investors and institutions
• Exclusive access for selected contacts with a matching profile
• No presence on public real estate portals
• Faster sale and potentially higher sales price

Capital and purchasing power: e.g. for modernization

These investor groups also have the necessary capital to develop the old property. They have 2 options.

Example: Development from rental to ownership

A very simple example: You have an old apartment building with 15, 20, 30 or 40 tenants. Now you have two options:

Option 1: Regional buyers

Regional investors generally have less capital than investors who operate nationally or internationally. Accordingly, the majority of properties will continue to be operated as they are.

This means that there is less potential in the old property and the purchase price falls.

Option 2: Supra-regional investors

Larger investors, on the other hand, take capital into their own hands and develop the property, for example by turning rental apartments into condominiums.

As a seller, you will also receive higher offers.

That’s why you don’t waste your time on real estate portals, having to answer 100 emails, constantly running credit checks. And how do you check the buyer’s equity or financing?

If you sell your old property off-market, it is not uncommon for the first person you contact to become the buyer of the property. The purchase contract and notary appointment are completed four weeks later.

Advantage: Proof of financing is available, as are the investors’ purchase profiles = fast sales process

Properties in the renovation backlog:

Old castle, palace or estate?

Even more special than houses and apartment buildings are properties such as old castles and palaces that have seen their best days.

However, there is also a good chance that real estate investors or investment funds will be interested in your property. Depending on the status of the listed building, “simple” options (conversion into condominiums) or more complex options for conversion or rededication can be implemented.

That’s why we can’t offer you a standardized guideline here, similar to old houses and apartment buildings. It always depends on the individual location, the development possibilities, for example due to the listed building status, but the history also counts for such properties.