Only around eight percent of homeowners in America sell to cash buyers instead of using a realtor to list their properties when they are ready to sell. That number is climbing, however, as more homeowners discover the appealing benefits of skipping the traditional listing process.
But what are the benefits of selling a house to a cash buyer? Who can do it? Are some properties more suited to cash sales than others?
Here’s what you need to know.
You Don’t Have to Invest in Repairs
If you sell your home via the traditional realtor-handled sale process, one of the first things your realtor will do is take a walk through your property. They’ll make notes on all the immediately obvious things you’ll need to fix, replace, or touch-up before your home is ready to sell. What appears on the list can vary widely from house to house, but common items include:
- Fresh paint
- Repairs to leaky faucets or fixtures
- Updating outdated decor
- Repairing or replacing locks, lights, and other safety features
- Addressing small functional issues such as doors and windows that stick
- Addressing scuffed walls and floors and other cosmetic issues
Nearly every homeowner will find a note that the house needs a thorough scrubbing on their list, as well, regardless of how well kept their property is.
To some degree, these sorts of lists are understandable. Houses that present well are most likely to get you the biggest bang for your buck on the open market.
But in other ways, these lists create very real problems for homeowners. The hard truth is that most improvement projects have a return on investment (ROI) of less than 60 percent. That means that for every $100 you put into fixing up your home, you’re likely to get less than $60 back at the time of sale.
Between investments in home improvements, fees and commissions, and incentive costs, homeowners can stand to lose huge sums of money trying to sell their homes the traditional way.
Selling your house to a cash buyer, on the other hand, means that you can sell it “as-is.” No stress or hemorrhaging of money is required.
You Don’t Have to Stage Your Home
For many homebuyers, the fact that they don’t have to do repairs is reason enough to start asking, “how do I sell my house to a cash buyer?” Others perk up at the news that selling to a cash buyer also means you don’t have to stage your home.
Once considered an “extra” reserved for high-end properties, home staging has become an expectation of every traditional sale among buyers, sellers, and realtors. At a minimum, home sellers are encouraged to:
- Declutter
- Depersonalize
- Clean
While this sounds simple, it can quickly become costly. Homeowners routinely find that they need to:
- Rent storage spaces for furniture and belongings they remove from their homes during staging
- Hire cleaning companies to help them get and keep their homes spotless during the showing period
- Hire home stagers to arrange their spaces and provide staging props
All of this is even more money draining out of sellers’ bank accounts that they won’t get back at the time of sale.
Cash buyers, however, don’t need you to stage your home. Selling to a cash buyer lets you keep your time, money, and energy and still get a good price for your home.
You Don’t Have to Wait Months to Close
Houses sold on the traditional market take an average of 40 days to sell. Once you have a buyer, the paperwork involved in selling your home can take another six weeks or more.
This long, slow process can be stressful for everyone. It can be particularly difficult and costly for sellers:
- Trying to close out estates
- Needing to move for work or other responsibilities
- Trying to schedule sales around academic school years and other lifestyle factors for the good of their families
- Trying to keep their properties clean, maintained, and staged until the sale goes through
- Trying to finalize a divorce or other legal proceedings in which the home is an asset under dispute
Sellers wondering how to sell a house to a cash buyer are often amazed and relieved to discover that cash buyers can close on a home in just a few weeks or even days. This is the case because cash buyers allow you to skip the lengthy parts of the selling process, such as waiting for buyers to secure mortgage lender approval to buy your property. In fact, selling to a cash buyer may be the fastest way to sell your home.
Selling a House to a Cash Buyer Can Make Tricky Sales Easier
Finally, one of the most compelling reasons to explore how to sell your house to a cash buyer is that cash buyers can make tricky home selling situations easier.
There are many factors that can complicate home sales. Common situations and examples include homes:
- In poor condition
- In probate
- At risk of foreclosure
- Being liquidated due to divorce proceedings
- With complicated ownership documents or situations
Often, even when these homes are desirable to buyers, selling them can be a challenge. Banks, mortgage lenders, and other parties involved in the sale may balk at the complications or require a time-consuming series of extra steps and documents before they approve the sale.
“But will selling my house to a cash buyer really make the process that much easier?” you may wonder. The simple answer is yes.
Cash buyers do not need the approval of numerous third-parties to buy your house. Selling to them does not require an array of realtors, lawyers, and other intermediaries the way a traditional sale would.
Instead, you are free to sell your home quickly and directly. There are no delays, no extraneous costs, and far less stress involved. While selling to a cash buyer would be appealing to any homeowner, it is especially ideal for homeowners who want to sell fast and be done.
Get a Quote
Selling a house to a cash buyer can make your selling experience fast and stress-free. Request a quote and discover how easy it can be to sell your home to a cash buyer today.