The Benefits Of Selling Your Fixer-Upper To A Cash Buyer

Getting your house showroom ready is a daunting ordeal. Investing in advertisements, realtor fees, home inspections, cleaning, staging and photography all take time and money. If your home needs some extra TLC, weigh your alternative options.

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Before you make your to-do list to get your home ready for market listing, it is important to weigh the question: do I fix my house or sell it as-is? Will I get a higher offer for fixing it up myself? Can I even afford all the fixes? Or should I just sell it now and skip all the work? If I decide to sell it as-is, how do I even do that?

Renovating A House With Too Many Repairs

Potential homebuyers willing to pay listing or above listing price but that requires getting your house in tip top shape. That means the whole nine yards: cosmetic touching up and updating appliances. A non negotiable is the bigger picture updates: structural defects and roofing.

More often than not, these major repairs surface only through a professional home inspection.

Every house has defects, Jack M. Guttentag, Professor of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania states. Some obvious and some hidden.

As you try to sell a house fast with repairs, it is important to evaluate what these hard-to-find repairs entail and how a potential buyer may perceive them. Many potential buyers are not willing to pay the asking price without a home inspection to ensure everything seen and unseen is in acceptable condition.

For many, selling a house fast with repairs is an easy route. But the trick to being time efficient is also being cost efficient. Hiring a contractor can quickly add up beyond your budget and it may take several contractors to address all your house's issues.

Unforeseen additional repairs can surface, further racking up your costs to repair your home to be market ready. The timeline you originally planned for will extend.

A floor plan that worked for you might not be what is popular today. Fixtures and appliances may age your home and bring the value down, despite being functional. By being unappealing to the average homebuyer, houses can stay on the market for hundreds of days.

Hiring contractors to fix up your house can also cause some friction between what you wanted done and what they recommend. The goal of selling quickly starts to melt away and all you see is contractor bills piling up. The transition period between listing your home and closing your house stretches further apart. Even if you hire a contractor who delivers everything you agreed to in a reasonable timeline, the day to day will disrupt your life and still require time and money.

Sell As-Is Or Repair?

Instead of spending thousands of dollars to address structural defects like replacing your roof, updating your deck or revamping your septic system, look again at selling your home as-is.

By taking on the renovation process prior to listing, potential home buyers are often put off. The list of decisions you must make as you choose paint and flooring, might not be what buyers want.

Investing your time to research and decide what material, colors, changes or updates to make can go under-appreciated by your new buyer. In fact, a feature or update you wanted might even be a turn off to a potential buyer. Homes are filled with emotional energy and attachment, making it hard to seperate oneself and make decisions that change what you recognized.

Selling With A Realtor As-Is

So what is the process to selling your fixer-upper? Many homeowners decide that choosing a realtor to help sell their house, sans repairs, is their only choice.

The traditional route of using a realtor to sell a house fast is a challenge in itself. Selling a house that requires repairs, particularly major ones, is seemingly impossible for even a real estate agent with years of expertise. As the 2020 housing market steadily increases, as predicted by Jonathan Smoke, Chief Economist for Realtor.com, home buyers have become more selective and picky, as the sheer amount of homes to choose from does not limit their options.

Smoke predicted that 6,000,000 homes will be sold in 2016, marking it as the highest number of homes sold in a single decade. Such a high supply of homes demands fierce competition and the side effect of longer market listings.

When selling a house that requires repairs, agents will often recommend decreasing your asking price to counterbalance the house's time on the market. This makes sense. As your house sits on the market, the more you will pay in fees, taxes, utilities, insurance. Additionally, you will sit longer in limbo.

Using a realtor also means that their priority is selling your house and making their commission. Often, your asking price and the details surrounding closing cost are lost in the race to close.

Hiring a realtor comes with unforeseen fees, commissions, and unwelcome advice. Money Wise estimates that even after paying the buyer's commission generally 3% For Sale By Owners (FSBOs) cut selling costs by thousands by avoiding their own broker's commission. Taking a realtor out of the equation can save you thousands.

A Stress-Free Solution

Choosing to go with a contractor to sell a house that needs repairs fast will come with a cost: additional fees, tax, paperwork and the energy to interact and delegate. Alternatively, choosing to hire a realtor and sell without making repairs will result in even heftier fees due to commission, extended time on the market and dealing with a third-party for every decision.

Skip the contractor option and skip the realtor option: look for a cash buyer instead.

You may be the first of your friends circle to go the 'untraditional' route of selling without an agent. It is actually becoming more and more common. 2012's Investment Issue of Forbes Magazine says about 30% of homebuyers used 100% cash when purchasing their home. This number is only growing.

Accepting a cash offer cuts all the extra steps and stress you could face trying to sell a house the traditional method, via an agent. Cash buyers can offer a much faster close. Why? Cash buyers bystep the mortgage process. Without engaging with a bank, you can close and receive your payment within a week. Compare a week to the typical 30 days.

Selling to a cash buyer ensures stability. These cash buyers are usually pre-approved before they can approach with an offer. An interested cash buyer is a guaranteed, quick to close, locked deal for you.

What is the icing on the cake to accepting a cash buyer? They want your house AS-IS. The homeowner can skip repairs, formalities, advertisements, paperwork. The cash buyer will take your home just the way it is, at fair market value.

Want to sell a house fast that has a lot of repairs? Find a cash buyer. More security, more cash, without compromising your bottom line.

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