When selling your house as-is, you want to go for the best buyer option available. In order to make that happen, reviewing the various options available to you is critical. There’s a chance that an option you thought was ideal has a clause you might not like.
Similarly, there may be certain options that you’re not aware of. For instance, it’s possible that you’ve heard a lot about getting a cash offer. However, that’s not the only option there is. Selling your house as-is comes with two main options:
- Selling as-is on the open market
- Selling as-is for a cash offer
Selling As-Is On the Open Market
This option mainly applies if your home is in somewhat excellent condition and you’re looking to see if you can get a buyer on the open market. The process is somewhat similar to a traditional sale as you would have to list your home — alongside disclosures you’ve prepared and a pre-listing inspection.
To get a fair price, you would probably have to do the very basics — some little fix-ups and cleaning. In some cases, you can choose to do nothing at all, especially if there are no major issues and simply put it up for sale that way.
Now, when selling as-is on the open market, you can there are two sub-sale options available to you:
- Using an agent with selling as-is experience
- Selling your house as-is by owner
Using an Agent With Selling As-Is Experience
In this scenario, it won’t simply be enough to work with an agent who’s very familiar with traditional house sales. You want one who’s also familiar with sales aimed at investors — basically, an all-rounder of sorts.
The agent would examine the reputations and capabilities of the buyers and try to get ahead of them regarding ways they might use to cut down your home value. They would also serve as an advisor to you — the seller, and guide you toward making the right calls.
However, you should recall that they would charge a percentage or flat fee as a commission. Also, if you’re looking to sell my house quickly or sell my house for cash fast, this option may not be ideal. You can choose this option if you’re ready for all the hassle that accompanies the traditional sale process.
Selling Your House As-Is By Owner
Selling your house as-is by owner involves handling the sale yourself without help from an agent. In this scenario, you’re responsible for everything that the agent should have taken care of including pricing, organizing showings, and negotiations.
So, what you’re basically doing is taking on the stress of the home sale, possibly in a bid to avoid paying a commission to an agent. The downsides to this option are two-fold:
- First, there’s a chance that you might not handle the negotiations properly seeing that you’re not a professional and there’s no guiding metric (like an ARV). This implies that you may end up getting significantly less for your property
- Second, this option offers zero convenience since you would have to juggle the entire process of the home sale with other activities going on in your life. By the time you potentially reach a sale, you might be overly stressed and just want to end the sale process — which implies you may agree to some concessions you typically shouldn’t.
Selling As-Is for a Cash Offer
When selling as-is for a cash offer, this implies that you simply want a direct sale and cash outright. There are three sub-options that you can explore:
- House flippers
- iBuyers
- Cash homebuyers
House Flippers
House flippers are known for buying houses for cheap, making all the renovations and repairs, and putting them back on the market to sell for profit. Most house flippers work like poachers, getting to the seller before they decide to list on the market.
Now, you can get a cash offer from a house flipper, however, there’s a good chance that the offer you get would be a low one. As such, you would likely not get a good price that you think is commensurate to your home value.
iBuyers
These are online platforms that make cash offers on houses. These buyers usually want houses in great condition and are not interested in others that would potentially need significant repairs.
While they do allow you to experience convenience and speed during the sale, the catch is that you have to pay a fee. This fee can sometimes be as high as that charged by an agent. So, at the end of the day, you may be significantly short on your expected sale amount.
Cash Homebuyers
Some real estate outfits base their operations around making cash offers for homes, and then fixing them up to sell or rent. When exploring this option, it is ideal to go with a local cash home buyer. They would price properly since they are familiar with the market, and you can relate with them easier too.
For instance, if I want to sell my house fast SF Bay Area or sell my house for cash fast, going for a local buyer would net a quick offer and fast closing too. In addition, using a buyer who prices your home based on the estimated value after repairs is ideal.
This is because you can confirm the values as well, and be certain that if you want to ‘sell my inherited property fast’ or ‘sell my probate property fast’, you would at least be getting a price that you understand.
Also, since you’re selling as-is, you get to skip repairs and all the other little things that just become a hassle at the end of the day. Given that very few parties are involved, there shouldn’t be any snags along the way as well.
Final Thoughts
While selling as-is is supposed to be the easy way out with respect to speed and convenience, going the wrong way can take those out of the mix. So, choosing who you sell to is just as critical as choosing to sell as-is.