In 2021, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis had U.S. median home sale prices listed at $374,900. This was a stunning $50,000 increase from 2020. But while the numbers may show that it’s a seller’s market, getting an offer isn’t as simple as putting up a “For Sale” sign on your lawn.
You have to put up a listing. You may need National Geographic-level photos. And then, maybe if you’ve played your cards right and the stars align, you’ll be able to take your home off the market.
This time-consuming process doesn’t have to be your destiny, however.
We buy houses fast. And, if you’re in the Tampa area, we’d be willing to purchase yours.
But is selling to companies like ours a good idea? Read on to see our list of 10 compelling reasons to sell your house for cash.
1. You Can Research Your Buyers
Selling a house is the definition of a high-stakes affair. Although it’s unlikely that the bank, the realtor, and the lawyer would all get it wrong, there’s no denying the fact that you can’t always vet your buyer ahead of time.
Could these people be con artists? Do they pull offers at the drop of a hat? Is their nitpicking going to extend negotiations while dragging your price down?
There’s no way to know.
With We Buy Homes for Cash companies, you can read up on the people you’re doing business with. For example, because we want homeowners to feel comfortable selling their houses to us, we have testimonials available on our site. Although other companies may have different trust-building processes in place, here’s the bottom line:
Companies like ours are all about transparency. You can go online and learn about our buying process before you request your free, no-obligation cash offer. It simply doesn’t get any easier to familiarize yourself with a buyer.
2. You Don’t Have to Worry About Buyers Backing Out
Picture this.
We’ve fast-forwarded a few months into the future and you’re in the process of selling your house.
You’ve booked the tours. You’ve answered everyone’s questions. And you didn’t just get an offer — you got offered significantly more than your asking price.
You make a same-day acceptance and you go to bed with images of money dancing in your head.
But that’s not where this story ends.
After receiving the home inspector’s report and hearing from the mortgage appraiser, the buyer has a change of heart. Their realtor informs you that they want to back out. And now you’re back at square one of the selling process.
Sound like an outlandish story? Whether due to financing or just falling in love with a different house, buyers back out of “done deals” more often than you think.
With cash home buyers, the whole point of purchasing the house is to make an investment. As such, you’ll rarely ever see companies like ours walking back deals or haggling in the 11th hour.
3. You Can Avoid Paying Real Estate Commission
According to the numbers, real estate agents typically take between four to six percent of the final selling price. You might be seeing those stats and thinking, “Okay. I’ll just sell the house on my own and keep all the money.”. But sellers don’t just pay for their own realtors — they’re often expected to cover buyer agent fees as well.
On the lower end, you can expect to pay $8,000 on a $200,000 sale. While that might not seem like much in the context of a six-figure transaction, that money can go a long way if you’re relocating. With a cash home buyer, however, there are no real estate agents — and therefore no commissions being paid — for either side.
In other words, you get to pocket all of the money from the sale instead of just most of it.
4. There Are No Closing Costs
When a selling price has been agreed upon and the lender has approved the buyer, the fees don’t stop at the mortgage amount. Both sides may be tapped to cover closing costs.
For sellers, buyer agent commissions are a common closing expense. But it’s not unusual for legal fees and title insurance fees to be covered by the sellers as well. Even though it might seem like a few hundred dollars here and a few thousand there, these expenses can add up fast.
Cash buyers don’t use real estate agents and they don’t rely on loans. This is yet another way in which a cash home purchase company can help you walk away with a little more cash in your bank account.
5. You Can Sell Your House Fast
When the IRS is making demands or you’re trying to sell ahead of foreclosure proceedings, time is very much of the essence. You don’t have the luxury of hemming and hawing over housing prices while waiting several weeks for the transaction to wrap up.
Homebuyers often have limited control over the speed of the transaction. But cash home buyers can manage timelines down to the minute.
Take us, for example.
We pride ourselves on pacing our closings according to the wishes of our sellers. When people need a few weeks to relocate, we work with them. But if you need to sell your house fast, we can get you the cash within five business days.
Life comes at you fast. And you deserve to work with a home buyer that’s nimble enough to keep up.
6. You Can Sell Your Home Without Marketing
They say that you need to sell the sizzle to sell the steak. Real estate is no different than anything else in this regard.
You can’t expect to throw up a few lines and get high-quality offers. You need a listing that makes people stop mid-scroll to click on your pictures and book walkthroughs.
You’ll likely have to spend time taking professional-quality photos. You’ll have to write an irresistible description that makes the off-white bedroom wall sound like everything a buyer could want. For people who are just not that familiar with copywriting and marketing, producing that type of listing can be tough.
Cash home buyers make it possible for you to sell your home without having to do this whole song and dance. As such, there’s no need to gush over outdated flooring while hoping nobody sees the dents in the kitchen wall. You can let it all hang out and still get an offer.
If you’re the type of person who doesn’t enjoy decorating, marketing, or pre-sale prep, this is a hassle-free way to sell your house.
7. It’s Easier
Most home-selling gurus will talk about the importance of deep cleaning and making sure that your house looks as move-in ready as possible. If you’re going through the traditional process, these steps are an absolute necessity.
PolicyMap noted a while back that the total cost of making repairs to the U.S. home housing market came out to a whopping $126.9 billion. On an individual level, most of these repairs would have added up to nearly $3,000 per household.
This can be a catch-22 for home sellers.
Many homeowners don’t have a few thousand dollars to spend on random repairs. But at the same time, these fixes may be needed if you don’t want to receive lowball offers.
And then there are the walkthroughs.
You’ll have to make time for strangers to walk in and out of your space. If you’ve got young children or you’re a more private person in general, this can be uncomfortable in the best of circumstances.
With a cash home buyer, you get the closest thing to a stress-free sale as possible. There are no walkthroughs or renovations. And in many cases, you might not even have to clean up behind you.
As a company, our customers receive:
- A guaranteed offer
- No appraisal
- The ability to leave items
If you want to see how we stack up against the home buying competition, you can check out our comparison chart.
8. No Mortgage Lender Requirements
Banks and traditional lenders are cautious by nature. If there’s even a slight hint of risk, they’re very quick to step in and shut transactions down. And with six figures of their own money on the line, mortgage lenders tend to take caution to the next level.
For example, it’s well-known that mortgage lenders will typically refuse to finance a home purchase that isn’t adequately insured. This is in part to make sure that they’re protected in the event of a disaster.
If you’ve inherited a property or you’ve otherwise not had time to do regular maintenance on the house you’re selling, your home may not be insurable by lender standards. This, in turn, can make it difficult to sell your property.
Cash buyers aren’t depending on mortgage lenders to make the purchase. As such, they don’t have to worry about the level of repairs needed on the house. If you need someone to take a fixer-upper off your hands, cash home buyers are the first group of people you should contact.
9. You Don’t Have to Stage Your House
According to the National Association of Realtors, 75 percent of sellers who used staging were offered anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent above the home’s asking price.
Why does this work so well? Because it gives buyers a visual reference.
Sometimes it’s not enough to tell buyers that you’ve got three bedrooms and a spacious back porch. You have to give them a taste of what it might be like to come home from work and settle in to watch TV in your ultra-comfortable living room.
Although there’s no question that staging works, it’s also an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. After all, even if you’re staging, you don’t want your decor to look too much like you live there. These folks want to imagine themselves in your home.
With a cash home buyer, you don’t have to do all of that. You can just request an offer and accept the money. If you want to sell your house fast with minimal preparation, a cash sale could be exactly what you need.
10. You’ll Have Cash in Your Bank Account Right Away
Remember what we said before about how the traditional real estate process can often take time? We said it because it’s true.
Even after a house is officially off the market, it can take several weeks for the money to reach your bank account. With a cash home buyer, however, you don’t have to wait for your money. You can receive your offer, accept it, and watch the dollars roll in within days.
When you have to liquidate fast or you’re doing what you can to stay ahead of a financial disaster, you don’t have time to wait for the underwriting process to do its thing. A cash home buying company can get you the money you need on short notice.
Want to Sell Your House? We Buy Houses Fast
Even in a red-hot housing market that has sellers beating back offers with a stick, sometimes the traditional home-selling process just isn’t fast enough.
Fortunately, companies like ours make it possible for you to sell your home with no fuss, stress, or hassle. And if you need money fast, we buy houses for cash.
In less than a week, you could be counting the money you’ve made from selling your house. All you have to do is get in touch with us.
If you’re looking to sell your house ASAP, we buy houses fast. Get your cash offer today.