No. And I’d rather you didn’t.

I get this question on almost every call. Somebody’s mother passed, or they’re moving out of state in three weeks, or the house has been rented for eleven years and the last tenant left everything behind. And before they’ll even tell me the address, they want to know how bad it has to look before I’ll come see it.

It doesn’t. I buy houses with everything still in them.

What “as-is” actually means when I say it

A lot of people say as-is and then show up with a repair list. Here’s what it means when I say it.

The furniture stays. The clothes in the closets stay. The garage stays — and I’ve walked garages in Seminole Heights you couldn’t get three feet into. I’ve been in a house in Brandon where thirty years of boxes were stacked to the ceiling in the second bedroom and I couldn’t open the interior door more than about eight inches. I bought that house.

Food in the pantry, dishes in the sink, mattresses, the old TV nobody wanted, the shed out back that’s half collapsed. All of it stays. I walk the house, I write the offer on what’s in front of me, and the cleanout is my problem after closing.

The part people don’t say out loud

Most people asking me this aren’t really asking about trash. They’re a little embarrassed. The house got away from them — maybe for a year, maybe for a decade — and now a stranger is going to walk through it and see that.

I’ve walked over a thousand of these. I’m not judging the house and I’m not judging you. I’m doing arithmetic.

What about the photographs and the paperwork?

Take what matters to you. Photographs, documents, jewelry, the things with names on them. Take your time with it — we set the closing date together, so if you need three weeks to go through the filing cabinet, we write three weeks.

What I’d tell you not to do is spend a month agonizing over the furniture and the dishes. Those are the things I’m going to haul off anyway.

Does cleaning it out get you more money?

Here’s the honest answer, and it cuts both ways.

If you clean the house out completely, my cost to clear it drops, and that shows up in the offer. Usually it’s a few thousand dollars. So yes — technically, emptying the house can move the number.

But I’ve got dumpsters and a crew, and I do this every week. Clearing a loaded three-bedroom costs me a lot less than it costs you, because you’d be paying retail junk-removal pricing and spending four weekends doing it. On most houses, that few thousand dollars doesn’t come close to covering what it costs you in money, time off work, and your back.

If the house is close to empty already, sure, finish it. If it’s full, leave it. That’s the real math.

What about medical equipment and hospital beds?

Those come up more than you’d think, usually when somebody was being cared for at home. Hospital beds, oxygen concentrators, lifts, walkers, wheelchairs.

Leave them. I handle it. If any of it is rented from a medical supply company, tell me and we’ll get it back to them — that’s paperwork, not a problem.

What to do next

Send me the address. That’s the whole first step — not photos, not a cleaned-out house, not an explanation.

I’ll come walk it myself, usually within a day or two, and I’ll tell you what I can pay. If listing it would net you more than my offer, I’ll tell you that too, and I’ll tell you why. I’d rather lose a deal than talk somebody into the wrong one.

Call or text me at 813-200-7665.

Mike Youngblood · A+ Home Buyers · Licensed FL Real Estate SL3213954