A Santa Clarita realtor who previously offered sellers a grant to fix up their house through the Resale Renovation Program is now offering an expanded version of the program for houses in need of significant improvements.

Richard Szerman of Alta Realty Group has given sellers in the past 1 percent of the house’s projected sale price to make basic improvements, such as re-carpeting, painting, minor landscaping and more.

“You don’t pay it back,” Szerman said. “It’s a very simple calculus: houses in the best condition sell for the most amount of money the quickest. Realtors work on commission; the more your house sells for, the more money we make.” 

Related: Santa Clarita Realtor Fighting Carrington Mortgage To Save Home Of Elderly Man In Need Of Heart Surgery (VIDEO)

This typically translates into spending several thousand dollars, but increasing the sale price of the house by tens of thousands of dollars, as was the case with a recent home that had $6,000 worth of improvements done and yielded a $60,000 increase in sale price. 

However, Szerman and his team recently decided to offer an expanded pilot program where the seller can take out an interest-free, no-fee loan to make significant improvements to their house and therefore dramatically increase the resale value.  

To explain the program, Szerman used a house in Saugus currently enrolled in the pilot program as an example. The house was in incredibly poor condition cosmetically and valued at about $320,000 when it should have been closer to $500,000, according to Szerman. 

As a result, the homeowners planned to sell to an investor who would “flip” the house and sell it for a profit. But Szerman decided to make an offer of his own instead. 

“I essentially loaned them the money (to fix it up) for nothing — they paid no money, nothing in interest, nothing else like that,” he said. “We spent a tremendous amount of money on this one. We redid the kitchen, we redid the bathrooms. There were no structural components, but we did pretty much everything.”

While the house isn’t quite done yet, Szerman estimates he will be able to sell it for half a million dollars when the renovations are complete. 

“Every situation is different and we need to see some sort of a return on the money when we loan it, but rather than doing it with payments and interest rates and that sort of stuff, we just put it into the house and we say, ‘Okay, whatever the percentages are, we’ll get a percentage of the addition of the cost,” he explained. 

This means that the homeowners will still pocket the original $320,000 they would have made selling to an investor, but Szerman will receive a percentage of the estimated $180,000 increase if the house sells for $500,000. 

“So for them it’s a win no matter what, because they were only going to get $320,000 before,” he said. “So it’s just money in their pocket, and for us it’s fun because we get to rebuild a house and get to put it back together, makes it easier to sell, so it’s better for everybody.”  

Szerman concluded, “We’re in a position now where we can come into a house that’s a total derelict and completely rebuild the thing from stem to stern and get it resold for you. As long as the numbers make sense, we’re good to go.”

Ed. Note: This article is a KHTS Community Spotlight based on a recent radio interview with Richard Szerman of Alta Realty Group. 

Santa Clarita realtor Richard Szerman, of Alta Realty Group, has more than two decades of experience as a realtor. After “quietly” conducting public outreach and pro bono work as a realtor in Santa Clarita for many years, Szerman is raising awareness about the opportunities available to the community through Alta Realty Group. He offers free foreclosure defense services to the public, gives clients money to buy a house based on the rent they have previously paid, and gives sellers money to fix up their house in an effort to help it sell at a higher price. The Rental Rebate, Free Loan Modification and Resale Renovation Programs are designed to help make it easier to buy a house, sell a house and even save a house from foreclosure.

Richard Szerman, Alta Realty Group

27451 Tourney Road, Ste #140

Valencia, CA  91355

Office: 661-253-3000

To call/text Richard directly: 661-714-1400

Richard Szerman, Alta Realty Group – Santa Clarita

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adBZS11iUjY

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