This Wilkes-Barre double — two side-by-side units — came to us with a stack of complications that made it effectively unsellable through traditional channels. The seller was an out-of-area owner who had inherited the property as a non-primary asset and had no interest in managing a lengthy disposition process. They wanted to liquidate cleanly, without personal involvement in repairs, lien resolution, or contractor coordination.
The title search revealed a probate lien tied to a student loan payoff — a common complication with inherited properties where the decedent's estate had unresolved creditor claims. Until that lien was properly discharged through the probate court, no title company would insure a sale. We coordinated directly with a probate attorney to navigate the lien resolution process, keeping the seller out of it entirely.
A probate lien from a student loan creditor was recorded against the property through the estate. Resolving it required working through Luzerne County's Orphans' Court — not something a retail buyer or their agent would typically take on. We handled the coordination with a probate attorney as part of our standard acquisition process.
The property had been occupied up to the time of sale, and both units showed the wear of long-term tenancy with deferred maintenance. The more serious issue was discovered during our inspection of the basement: six to eight inches of standing water — a safety hazard that would have immediately killed any retail deal and required emergency remediation before a listing could go forward.
Beyond the basement, the property had the typical profile of a late-occupancy Wilkes-Barre double: original bathroom fixtures in need of replacement, decades of accumulated belongings throughout both units, a boarded attic window visible from the exterior, and utility complications that required coordinating new water meter installations for both units before closing could proceed.
The seller's calculation was straightforward: the property had legal complications they didn't want to navigate, physical problems they didn't want to manage, and was located in a market they weren't actively engaged in. Hiring a property manager to stabilize it, then a Realtor to list it, then waiting through a retail sale timeline — and managing a lien resolution alongside all of that — wasn't a realistic option for someone who simply wanted to liquidate a non-primary asset.
A cash sale to Simply Sold RE offered a single point of contact who handled everything: lien coordination, attorney interface, utility scheduling, cleanout, and closing logistics. The seller signed the purchase agreement and received their proceeds. Everything in between was our responsibility.
Wilkes-Barre has one of the highest concentrations of multi-unit rental housing in Northeast Pennsylvania — and a large share of those properties carry the complications that come with age, long-term tenancy, and generational ownership. Probate liens, delinquent water bills (which attach to property in Pennsylvania), code violations, deferred maintenance, and complex title histories are common in this inventory.
If you own a Wilkes-Barre double, triplex, or larger multi-unit property with any of these issues, the retail listing path is extremely difficult. Conventional buyers and their lenders can't close on properties with unresolved title defects, significant water intrusion, or code violations. A cash sale to Simply Sold RE removes all of those barriers — we evaluate the property on its merits, price the complications into our offer, and handle the resolution ourselves.
