Real estate in the United States is booming. It’s especially hot in the Tampa, FL, market—for now—which could be good news if you need to sell your home this year.
While the market is lucrative, the time it takes to close a real estate transaction averages 51 days. That’s not good news if you’re in a hurry to sell.
There’s no reason to wait months to finalize the sale of a home.
Have you seen signs around town with the phrase, we buy houses? Home buying agencies place some of those signs. If working with an agency isn’t something you’ve considered, you’ll want to spend a few minutes reading this article.
Read on and explore what it’s like to sell your home to we buy houses agency.
Why You Can Benefit from Selling Your House Fast
As we mentioned earlier, when you go the traditional route to sell a home, the process typically takes approximately 51 days. In some cases, it takes longer.
Once you decide it’s time to sell, you’re anxious to wrap things up and move on to your next home. Faster closing is one benefit of selling a home quickly, but there’s more, including:
You Won’t Pay Commissions
Most real agents work on commission. The average real estate commission is 5%-6% of the home’s sale price.
If your home sells for $200,000, you’ll pay your real estate agent $10,000 to $12,000. Selling your house fast for cash removes commissions from the equation.
No Need to Show Your Home
If you’ve sold a home before, you likely remember the hassle of showing your house. Every time you sat down for dinner, your realtor called to let you know they wanted to drop by for an impromptu showing.
Your house needed to look clean and always uncluttered. Those last-minute showings felt even more stressful if you have children or pets.
Working with a home buying agency limits your showings to one or two. You’ll have an initial showing and perhaps one more so that the agency can finalize some details.
More Advantages to Selling a Home Quickly
Many of the advantages of selling a home fast are financial. A significant economic benefit of a quick real estate closing is that you’ll avoid paying two mortgages and upkeep on two homes.
Other benefits include:
- No risk of your buyer getting cold feet
- You’ll avoid paying double moving expenses
- Fewer worries about a sale falling through
- Avoid housing market changes
- No need to make repairs
The bottom line is that selling a house fast gives you more control over the sale than in a traditional real estate transaction.
More Than One Way to Sell a House
When you need to sell your home, you have two options: work with a real estate agent or sell it yourself. If you choose the DIY method, you take on the entire process, including marketing, showing, negotiating, and anything else required before closing.
So, are you really limited to only two paths to your home sale? Not when you work with a home buying agency.
A home buying agency is genuinely different than working with a realtor. You’ll notice the difference from the beginning to the end of the transaction.
What Is the Difference?
Most people who work with realtors invite an agent over to do a walk-through of the home. After the initial visit, the real estate agent puts together information with a suggested selling price. If the seller decides to list the house, the agent comes back to take pictures for the listing.
When you work with an agency, you won’t create a listing. You won’t need to wait around for showings. And you won’t need to wonder if that last person who looked at your home will make an offer.
Working with an agency eliminates many steps required when selling through traditional channels.
What Happens First?
Remember, this experience is different from the beginning. There’s no living on edge waiting for an offer.
You request the offer! It’s like playing Monopoly and skipping over the entire game to pass Go.
You skip the staging and showing components and move straight into asking for an offer. That’s because most home buying agencies use an online form, which you’ll use to enter your details.
The form is what sellers use to request an offer.
Home Evaluation
After you provide details about your home, the agency may send a representative to visit your property. The purpose of this on-site visit is to evaluate your home.
Since the home buying agency is your buyer, they want to see the condition of your home, its features, potential repairs, and, of course, its location.
After the evaluation, the agency will put together your offer.
Receiving Your Offer
In a typical real estate transaction, the seller receives an offer, either accepts or counters, and the house goes under contract.
This step of the sales process is similar.
The seller reviews the offer, looks over the terms and contract, and decides whether the offer is accepted.
When you evaluate the offer, you’ll want to keep a few key points in mind, including:
Your Home’s Condition
Most sellers have at least an idea of their home’s value. They also have another number in mind. It’s the amount of money they hope to see on the offer.
Much depends on the condition of your home. You’ll likely receive a higher offer if it’s pristine than if the house is in serious disrepair.
Comparative Market Analysis
To understand how an agency might come up with an offer, one thing you can do is perform a comparative market analysis. The agency will likely do the same.
The agency will also assess the repairs they’ll need to do before selling or renting the property. They will deduct the cost of repairs from the value of the home.
Terms
An offer isn’t only about price. You need to understand the terms of the offer. Read the fine print to make sure you’re aware of any special request made by the buyer.
For example, a private investor may agree to purchase an as-is house but may make the offer contingent on a home inspection. An investor might also want an appraisal.
Most home buying agencies don’t make offers contingent on inspections or appraisals.
If you have questions regarding the terms, you can often find your answers on the agency’s website, or a quick phone call can clear things up.
Guaranteed Offers
When a company states that “we buy houses for cash,” they’re not playing around. Before you get your offer, the company will have done its due diligence.
Often when you work with a private investor, particularly one with little investing experience, you end up with a low-ball offer. You’re forced to negotiate—a skill the average seller doesn’t possess.
Investors sometimes change the price based on a variety of obscure reasons. When things don’t go their way, they back out of the deal.
Your offer is guaranteed when it comes from a home buying agency. Once you accept the offer and terms, there is no game playing. You’re under contract!
Proof of Funds
As soon as you sign the sales contract, you should request proof of funds. When an agency says, “we buy houses fast,” it’s because they mean business.
Unlike other buyers, including private investors, agencies don’t rely on a lender to sign off on a home loan. They have the money in the bank to cover their purchase.
Don’t hesitate to request documentation to verify that the company is who they say they are and that they do indeed have the funds to complete the purchase of your home.
Will You Need a Home Inspection or Appraisal?
One of the more unsettling components of most real estate transactions is the home inspection. A stranger with a critical eye comes into your home and reports even the most mundane flaw.
Home inspections usually result in the buyer requesting the seller to make repairs or leave money on the table at closing. Waiting on the results of an appraisal is just as unnerving.
While a company that buys homes for cash may require a home inspection, they don’t usually pay for an appraisal. Not requiring an appraisal is another reason you can close faster when working with a home buying agency.
What About Home Repairs?
Before the agency representative makes an offer on your home, they already know about most of the needed repairs. They calculate the cost of repairs when putting the offer together.
Unlike a traditional real estate transaction where the buyer makes the offer contingent on the home inspection and any requested repairs, cash sales usually don’t require the seller to make repairs.
Unless something catastrophic turns up on a home inspection, don’t plan on fixing that loose toilet in the basement or the sticky garage door.
The Title Search
Whether a private investor or an agency, any buyer will want a clear title.
A title search performed by a local title company or real estate attorney ensures that you can convey your property to the buyer free and clear.
Title searches reveal claims and judgments against a property. Judgments include mechanic’s liens, unpaid taxes, or boundary encroachments. A title search may also discover missing heirs or other claims that could impact the sale.
Seller Disclosures
One critical document in any home sale is the seller’s disclosure. The disclosure is where the seller shares any known information about the home that could impact the home’s value or the buyer’s ability to live in the house safely.
Even though an agency isn’t going to live in your home, it’s still required in most states to submit a seller’s disclosure. Every state has rules about what a seller must disclose.
Most real estate experts recommend transparency on the part of the seller. You want to avoid any legal ramifications if the buyer discovers significant issues that you failed to mention.
Companies that buy homes for cash usually have funds to cover those quirky foundation issues you haven’t been able to take care of or the history of basement flooding.
You’re not going to shock them with what you disclose, but it could create problems if you’re not upfront.
How Will You Get Paid?
The grand finale of any real estate transaction is when money exchanges hands. It’s not uncommon for someone to assume that a cash sale means they will receive an envelope full of money on closing day.
That’s not how this works.
Your buyer will wire the funds to your bank, or if you use a closing company, you may get a check from them.
Regardless of how you get the money, you won’t wait for the buyer’s financing to go through. Neither will you sit on pins and needles wondering if your deal will fall through because of a buyer’s questionable ability to get a loan.
We Buy Houses and Would Love to Buy Yours
You have options as a homeowner who wants or needs to sell your Tampa Bay area home fast. You can use a real estate agent, list your home for sale by owner, or work with a home buying agency.
By far, selling to an agency is faster and much less stressful.
Here at Emperor House Buyers, we buy houses in any condition. Let us help you get your house sold quickly!
Contact us today and request an offer!