Pros and Cons of Selling Your Home to a House Cash Buyer

If you own a house and have decided to sell it, you have an option of utilizing the services of a realtor to sell it the traditional way, or you could choose to sell it to a house cash buyer. Going down the traditional route means you have to accept the real estate agent’s terms and may need to wait for several months to get cash from the house sale after spending money preparing the property for sale.

Luckily, you can avoid the hassle of repairing, cleaning and staging your home for sale, as well as cut costs involved in working with a realtor by selling your home to a cash buyer. This way, you get quick cash and can move on without any stress.

Understanding a house cash buyer

A house cash buyer is someone who can purchase your home outright with cash that is already at their disposal and does not need a loan or a mortgage to buy the property. Thus, a cash buyer can only be deemed so if they have the money available to them when making the offer.

Going by the description of a house cash buyer, any buyer who has to wait to sell another property to buy yours is not a cash buyer. Unfortunately, some realtors claim to have cash buyers for properties on sale, but the purported cash purchasers must first sell their current house to get funds, so they are not cash buyers.

Advantages of selling your property to a house cash buyer

Choosing the route of taking cash offers for your home has several advantages, including the following:

No need for home improvements

When you sell your house to a cash house buyer, you can be sure there will be no contingencies involved in the sale. Typically, such contingencies compel the house owner to make some improvements, such as repairs, to complete the sale. This means extra costs and adds stress for the seller.

The good news is that genuine cash buyers will buy your house as-is and won’t need you to carry out plumbing work, repair the roof, or do other things to improve the home. Such buyers do not ask for any improvements to enable them to negotiate for better prices and hence have better chances of making impressive margins.

Quicker sale process and offer more flexibility

Under normal circumstances, mortgage buyers take 30-45 days to close a sale, but a cash house buyer can do so in as little as a week or two. As a buyer in need of quick cash, you will benefit significantly from selling to cash buyers or companies such as Home Flippers than when you sell to buyers relying on a mortgage or other kinds of financing.

Selling to buyers who pay cash allows you to sell the home even as you live in it because there is no need to repair and stage it for sale. You could also sell houses that are not in great shape, for example, inherited properties and others.

Saves on real estate fees

Another significant benefit of accepting a cash offer for your property is avoiding incurring a realtor’s commission. Mostly, commission fees add up to 6% of the sale proceeds and result in a considerable amount deducted from the selling price.

Besides real estate agents’ fees, selling to a house cash buyer saves you bank fees and other processing costs. This is because most cash buying companies take on all the paperwork after the seller accepts their offer, and there are no buyers and seller’s agents involved.

Offer more certainty or avoid bad surprises

Buyers who rely on mortgages or loans are likely to pull out of the sale midway due to rejection of their application, or they may find another property while they are waiting for the funds. However, selling to a cash buyer avoids any such nasty surprises of the sale falling through because once the seller accepts the offer, the process kicks off and is closed in a few days.

The cons of selling to cash buyers

While selling to a house cash buyer has many advantages, it also has a few disadvantages, such as:

Possibility of being scammed

Although not an everyday occurrence, scams are more likely to happen when dealing with cash buyers due to the speed of executing the sale and the buyer not having their agent. However, with due care, sellers can avoid such scams.

A lower value for the property

Typically, cash offers make the seller end up with less than the market value for their homes. However, the reduced sale price is the price those who want quick cash have to pay. Having said this, it would be best to go into such transactions with the knowledge that your house could get a better price.

The bottom line

Selling your home to a house cash buyer is a great way to get quick cash, avoid repair and selling costs, and the possibility of the sale not materializing due to various issues. However, you should be careful to avoid any possible scams and try to get the best value for your house by bargaining and getting several offers to compare them and take the best.