At any point in time, selling a house can be extremely overwhelming. The standard procedure for selling a house usually involves putting the house in the best possible shape, so, you’d be looking at renovations, repairs, cleaning, and several other fixes.
However, there are certain situations where you want to skip all of these and just get the house off your hands. You’re not looking to spend any extra cash to fix it up, and you want to make maximum capital gains as well. This is where selling as-is comes in.
Selling As-Is Definition
Selling as-is in the simplest possible form refers to selling your house in the exact state that it is in at this very moment. This implies that you can skip repairs or improvements or any other measures that you would typically have had to go through if it was a regular sale.
In other words, the buyer pays for the house and gets the property in the same state that they met it. This option can be an especially excellent one when you’re selling your home.
Why Sell As-Is?
There are several reasons why people choose to go the selling as-is route. Here are four of the more common ones:
- Convenience
- Timeliness
- Financial Considerations
- Practicality
- Cash offer
Convenience
An overarching reason is the fact that the standard process of selling a home can be a hassle because of all the back and forths involved.
Negotiations take time and even before that, there is the stage where you have to vacate your home from time to time for potential buyers to walk through.
Open houses are also pretty inconvenient and when you finally get an interested buyer, the negotiation dance commences.
While using an agent does make the process a less stressful one, it is still stressful overall. This is particularly exacerbated by the fact that the entire home sale process could extend into several months.
Selling as-is takes away all the potential inconvenience that you would experience.
Timeliness
Sometimes, one of the main factors driving your home sale could be the fact that you’re working with a particular timeline or timeframe.
Selling the conventional way comes with no guarantees of wrapping up the transaction within a set period of time. As such, it might drag as a result of reasons like a slow market or the need for improvements and repairs. After listing, your home could remain on the market for up to 43 days without an offer.
If you’re in such a situation, and all you really want to do is unload your old home in record time, opting for an as-is sale can allow you to work with your timeline. So, if I want to sell my house fast SF Bay, as-is works best.
Matter of fact, it could expedite it such that you have more time on your hands. This way, you’re able to move on to whatever you want to do next. So, if you’re looking to sell a house fast, as-is is the way to go.
Financial Considerations
Selling a home in itself can be a pretty expensive venture. This is because homes in the best conditions get the best offers. So, in the process of getting your home into the ideal condition, you might find yourself spending thousands of dollars.
For starters, home improvement projects cost a pretty penny, and they are non-negotiable. This is because you could see your house value reduced due to credit requests if some serious issue is identified during the home inspection. For instance, a slightly faulty HVAC system could drill a hole in home value.
Similarly, if you want to switch out the roof, you’d be looking at up to $10,000 or more in expenses. This, of course, would have to come out of pocket. Recall that you would still incur all of the other charges that pop up during the home sale process such as realtor commissions, title insurance, and capital gains tax, amongst others.
Furthermore, while you may not get the price you actually want, all of these expenses still come out of what you get. Selling-as saves you the entire hassle of this process.
Practicality
Most times, selling as-is is usually the most practical option on the table. For instance, if I want to sell my inherited property fast or sell my probate property fast, the priority is speed of sale. Selling as-is allows you — the seller avoid the hassle of staging the house for the market.
Similarly, there’s a possibility that your house is in a state of disrepair and you can no longer afford to either live in it or even fix it up. Minimizing your financial investment in the house before selling is practical, especially if it wouldn’t make much of a difference with respect to property value.
If someone passed and left a house to you, and you really just want it off your hands fast, selling as-is is ideal. This also applies if the house has gone through foreclosure and is now the property of the bank.
Provided you’re not looking to invest any further cash into restoring the house to a decent state, the best possible deal can only be gotten from selling as-is.
Cash Offer
Another appeal of selling your house as-is lies in the fact that you get a cash offer right away. So, if I sell my house as-is for cash, I can access funds immediately especially if I’m in a tight financial spot already. You can take the cash from the sale to settle debts, invest, or even make a down payment on a new property.
A cash offer also implies that the home sale process is significantly expedited. It is crucial to note that the offer you would be getting takes into consideration all of the work that would have to be done on the property.
Final Thoughts
Selling your house as-is can be an excellent alternative especially if you’re in a situation where it is ideal. You get to avoid the long sale process that the traditional route promises, you access cash immediately, and you absolutely do not have to make any home improvements. If you want to avoid the home sale hassle, go the as-is route.
