Question One: "What Do You Think of the Shell?"
On a masonry building this is the whole file, and the answer separates buyers immediately.
Someone who works with St. Louis brick will talk about the walls specifically: whether the mortar has been cooked, whether the parapet is sound, whether there is bowing, whether the party walls carried load from the neighbouring building. They will have opinions about the roof structure separately from the walls, because in masonry construction those fail independently.
Someone pricing a generic damaged house will talk about the property as a single condition and quote a figure. That number is a category rather than a building, and it moves once a mason walks it.
Why Does the Shell Matter More Than Everything Else?
Question Two: "Is This a Certified Historic Structure?"
A buyer who works this market checks before quoting, because a 25 percent state credit on the rehabilitation, or 45 percent with the federal on income-producing property, changes what the project costs them.
More usefully for you, a buyer who has checked and found the building eligible is buying something worth more than they would otherwise pay for it. A buyer who has not checked is pricing the harder version of the same project.
Should I Establish the Historic Position Myself?
The full position is on our page covering historic credits, brick and condemnation.
The Thing to Do Before Either Question
Secure the building, if it is brick and it is open.
That is not advice about buyers; it is advice about keeping the asset you are selling. An unsecured masonry building in the wrong neighbourhood can lose walls, and with them the shell, the credit eligibility and most of the value. Every week an open building stands is a week that can happen.
It also affects the offers directly. A buyer looking at a secured building prices a known quantity. A buyer looking at an open one prices the possibility that it will not be the same building by closing.
Who Is Actually Calling
St. Louis rehabbers who work with credits. They buy certified historic structures as a business, they understand the approval sequence, and on an eligible building they can pay more than anyone because the credits are worth more to them. On the right property this group wins outright.
Masonry-experienced builders. They price the shell accurately rather than discounting it, which matters where the walls are sound but look alarming.
Cash acquirers. Capital held to buy in damaged condition. Balance sheet funding, title in their own name, their own timetable. Usually fastest, rarely highest.
Out-of-market investors. Working from models with no historic credit line and no view on masonry. Fast, confident, and the most likely to revise.
Contract assigners. They sign to buy and sell the contract on before closing. The question is whether the party will own your building or introduce somebody who will.
The Records Worth Pulling
The Recorder of Deeds, in the right jurisdiction. The City of St. Louis and St. Louis County keep separate records, so search the one your property sits in. Look for the buyer's exact legal entity as grantee, using the name on the contract rather than the brand on the letter.
The assessor's parcel record. Your own: the jurisdiction, the year built and the construction type. All three matter here and all are free.
The licence lookup. A party marketing your property to others rather than buying it themselves is engaged in brokerage and needs a Missouri licence. A principal buyer taking title does not.
Where We Fit, and Where We Do Not
We buy as principal, in our own entity, with our own funds, and we take title. We do not assign contracts. Ask us both questions and search our entity in the right recorder's index.
We are frequently not the right answer, and on this stock more often than most. Where the building is a certified historic structure with a sound shell, a rehabber who works with the credits can pay closer to finished value than we can, because the credits are worth more inside their model than ours. Where the shell is sound but the building is not eligible, a masonry builder will often beat us. And where the rehabilitation cost sits below the finished value, doing it yourself with the credits nets more than any cash offer. Our written figure says so when the numbers point there. What happens from there is on our page about how the process actually runs.
Questions About Buyers
A Buyer Said the Brick Walls Are Worthless.
On a sound shell that is either ignorance or negotiation. Get a mason or a structural engineer to look before accepting a figure premised on demolition, because the walls are usually the most valuable thing standing.
Nobody Has Mentioned Historic Credits.
Then nobody has checked, and on an eligible building that means every offer you have is built on the more expensive version of the project. Establish it yourself and tell them.
Does a Buyer Need a Licence?
Not to buy as a principal and take title. Marketing property on behalf of others requires a Missouri licence, and the state lookup will confirm whether a party holds one.