There are numerous reasons to sell your home for cash as-is.
For some homeowners — like those in probate, divorce or foreclosure — selling their home is complicated, costly, and time consuming.
Looking to sell your home fast for cash as-is?
Consider an all-cash investor. A cash investor will purchase your home as-is, in any condition. That means you don’t have to worry about fixing it up, going through the process of listing your home, and paying all of those real estate agent fees.
Cash buyers will give you a reasonable offer based on a percentage of your home’s after-repair value less any costs to repair the property.
Our company, the Dolinski Group, provides both the traditional route and an alternative process to selling your home. We buy houses Lansing and Detroit.
We buy houses companies will purchase your property to fix up and resell or they may add it to their rental inventory. Unlike your average buyer — who needs to go through an approval process and can be picky — we can buy your home with cash. Allowing us to close quickly or on your timeline.
This can be extremely beneficial, especially if you’re looking for cash quickly or you want to move on with your life faster.
Here are the top reasons to sell your home to a cash home buyer, like the Dolinski Group.
No Realtor Fees
Realtor fees can be expensive. Most often sellers will pay two different fees: the commission and a transaction fee.
It’s standard in the industry for a real estate agent to charge 6 percent of the home’s sold price. If the home sells for $200,000, then you will pay $12,000 in commissions.
This is the standard practice, but varies based on your location, the condition of the house, and the price point you’re selling in.
For example, in the Lansing real estate market, it’s common practice for homes under $100,000 to have a commission of 7 percent. On the other hand, in Downriver, a 5 percent commission is fairly common.
Real estate agent commissions vary and can be negotiated. Either way, 5 percent can still be a large fee.
Second, real estate agents often charge a transaction fee on top of the commission. This can be anywhere from $200 to $700.
Example: let’s take a $200,000 home that Sally inherited and needs to sell. The agent will charge 6 percent commission and another $500 for the transaction. Sally’s total realtor fees are $12,500, or 6.25%.
With an investor cash buyer, there are no realtor fees.
Close On Your Timeline
Traditional buyers often need to close by a specific date. The reasons are plentiful.
For starters, loan approvals have an expiration date. For example, a buyer who is conditionally pre-approved is only approved for four months. If they don’t find a home and close in four months, the lender will need to rerun their credit and reexamine some of their financial information.
When you sell your home the traditional route, you are often working on the buyer’s timeline.
On the flip side, with an investor, they can work with your timeline. They are a lot more flexible.
Need to close in two weeks? No problem. They can arrange that.
Need to close in two months? They are happy to do that, too.
No Need To Make Repairs
A top reason to sell your home to an investor is you can sell your home as-is for cash without fixing it.
No need to pick up a hammer. No paint brushes. No getting your hand dirty.
Investors will buy homes in almost any condition.
You can sell your home as-is going the traditional route. It’s harder, though. And, more expensive.
When your home is a “fixer-upper”, most buyers will pass. It will attract investors.
The problem comes when investors make the same offers they would have if there wasn’t an agent involved.
The home sells for the same price, but you end up paying more to close. All of those realtor fees eat up any potential profit you could have made.
One Showing. Not Several
As a licensed Michigan real estate agent, I like to provide my clients with expectations. From my data, the market, and current conditions, it takes about 6 to 8 showings to get an offer.
This can move up or down based on the home or the market conditions. A highly desirable home in a hot real estate market can get an offer for every showing. A rundown home in need of several repairs and has city violations will need 10, 12, or 15 showings before it gets an offer.
With a cash offer, you do one showing. You show it to us, a we buy houses company.
You don’t have to show your home to dozens of strangers and open yourself up to risk and liability. You can show it to us and be done.
No Concessions Or Repair List After Inspection
It’s common after a home inspection for buyers to ask for repairs or monetary concessions. As a buyer’s agent, I always try to ask for repairs to be done or a price drop. It never hurts to ask. Plus, I’m doing my duty to represent my clients the best I can.
Nearly all real estate agents feel the same way I do.
Your house could be immaculate and nine times out of ten, my clients and I are going to ask for something.
When you sell to an investor, you don’t often have to worry about this. These buyers understand that they are buying your home as-is for cash.
They are willing to assume the repairs right out of the gate. Of course, there are times when bigger issues are discovered and a deal falls apart.
Instead of having a 90% probability of having a request after an inspection, it’s closer to five or ten percent with an investor.
Close Faster
Any cash deal — investor or traditional buyer — will be able to close faster than any deal that is being financed by a bank.
The strict and arduous lending process can slow things down. Often, it’s the lending process that causes homes to take 45 to 60 days to close.
With cash, you can often close as fast as the title company can process the paperwork. Two weeks is the standard, but you can even move faster than that.
No More Holding Payments
A good share of homeowners we buy homes from are vacant. For example, they may have been inherited or sitting in an estate.
Every day that goes by, the holding costs are adding up. You may need to keep making insurance payments, property tax payments, mortgage payments, and more.
There is a real cost to holding your home and waiting for it to sell the traditional route. You can easily spend an extra 3 to 9 months trying to sell the home the traditional route.
Example: If the mortgage is $970 a month, insurance is another $80, and property taxes are $300 per month, that brings your total to $1350 a month. Holding it for six months totals $8,100.
That’s a real cost to holding your home and waiting to sell it the traditional route. You could save this money by selling it for cash fast.
Should You Sell Your Home For Cash?
That depends. It may or may not be the best option for you.
I have highlighted some of the best reasons to sell your home for cash. The biggest reason not to sell it for cash comes down to the total value.
From the perspective of sales price, you’re likely to sell your home for more by going the traditional route.
However, sales price doesn’t guarantee a better net profit. There are some significant costs to holding a home and fixing it up.
Let me walk you through a theoretical example.
Autumn inherited a home in Riverview, Michigan that has a market value of $138,000 in its current condition. The agent is confident she can sell it for that amount. It will take approximately 3 months to get an offer and another 2 months for the home — a total of 5 months.
Autumn will have to pay mortgage, insurance, and property taxes on the property for those five months. Bringin the holding costs to something around $3,750.
In addition, at closing she will need to pay 6 percent realtor fees, another 3 percent in seller concessions, and another 2 percent in transfer taxes and other items. She will pay 11 percent, or $15,180, at closing.
She sells the home for $138,000 but nets $119,070. Assume a cash investor has determined they can buy it for cash for $120,000 and close in two weeks. In this case, Autumn nets more money and is able to close faster.
Even if Autumn was only able to get $110,000 for the home, is going the traditional route still a better deal? Yes, from a financial perspective.
Value Is More Than Money
It depends on what YOU value. While she may make nearly $10,000 less if she sells to a cash investor, she doesn’t have to wait months to sell the home and there is less risk of a deal falling through.
It’s not uncommon for a deal to fall apart two months in because a buyer couldn’t get financed. In that case, she would have to start all over again with listing the house AND it would have negative market stigma.
The biggest drawback to sell your home for cash to an investor is that you will often get less money. But, the tradeoff may be worth it. You will close faster, reduce risk of the deal falling apart, save yourself the headache, and avoid the emotional burdens of listing and selling a home the traditional route.
We Pay Cash For Homes In Lansing, Downriver, And Wayne County
Are you looking to sell your home in Lansing, Downriver or in Wayne County? The Dolinski Group can help you in two ways. First, we can give you an all-cash offer for your home or we can list your home and sell it in the traditional route.
If you’re interested in closing fast, we can give you the peace of mind you’re looking for. Since we pay cash, we can often close in roughly two weeks. The above reasons are why you will benefit from working with our real estate investors. If you happen to be outside of our area, feel free to reach out. We have assisted clients in getting cash offers for their homes in markets we don’t directly serve.
Interested in maximizing the value of your home? We can help you there, too. The Dolinski Group is a real estate company with a primary focus on pricing and marketing. We believe these are the two major requirements to get a home sold. Price it right and then market the hell out of it.
