Is selling to a cash buyer a good idea?
Short answer
Sometimes. If your house is in good condition, your market is moving, and you are not against a deadline, listing it will almost certainly net you more, and you should do that instead. Where a cash sale earns its discount is when the house cannot be presented well or you cannot wait.
Whether is selling to a cash buyer a good idea comes down to one comparison, done properly. Not the headline price against the offer, but what actually reaches your account on each route, after everything comes out and with the months counted. Run it honestly and the answer is usually obvious, and it is not always us.
Six questions that settle it
Answer these before you talk to anybody. They decide the outcome far more than which buyer you pick.
Would a mortgage lender fund a purchase of this house today?
If the roof, the systems or the structure would fail a lender's condition requirements, your buyer pool is already limited to people paying cash. That changes the comparison before anyone makes an offer.
Is there a date you cannot move?
A foreclosure sale, a probate deadline, a job start, a closing on somewhere else. A conventional sale takes 30 to 60 days after a buyer appears, and that clock does not care about your date.
What does it cost you to keep it for three more months?
Mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, lawn. Write the monthly figure down and multiply. Sellers price the commission carefully and ignore this, and this is frequently larger.
Can you keep it presentable for strangers?
Showings need the house clean and available on a buyer's schedule. With tenants, with a house full of a relative's belongings, or from another state, that is sometimes simply not possible.
How would you handle a sale collapsing at week eight?
Financing falls through routinely. If that would be an inconvenience, list it. If it would be a disaster, certainty is worth paying for.
Is the money the point, or is ending it the point?
Worth answering honestly. For an inherited house nobody wants, or a rental that has stopped being worth the trouble, people frequently discover the last few thousand matters less to them than being finished.
When the answer is clearly no
A house in good condition, in a market where things are going under contract quickly, owned by somebody who can wait a few months. In that situation listing it will net you more even after commission, and a cash offer is buying speed you do not need.
We publish this because a seller who understands the trade-off is a better person to do business with than one who feels cornered, and because losing a deal to an honest comparison costs less than closing one somebody regrets.
When it is clearly yes
The house needs work you are not going to fund. There are tenants, or an occupant who should not be there. It was inherited and is full of belongings and shared between people who need one number to divide. There is a sale date on a calendar. You have already moved and are paying for two places.
In those cases the conventional route is not slower by a little. Frequently it does not work at all, and the choice is not between two prices but between a sale and a stalemate.
If you do go this way
Get more than one offer, ask each buyer what their number is built on, and ask what would change it between now and closing. Check that whoever you pick is actually the buyer rather than assigning your contract to somebody else. Those three things prevent most of what goes wrong.
Common questions
- What is the downside of selling to a cash buyer?
- Price. A cash offer is below what the house would fetch listed in good condition, because the buyer takes on the repairs, the carrying costs and the resale risk. If none of those apply to your house, you are paying for something you do not need.
- Do cash buyers rip you off?
- A below-retail offer is the business model, not a trick, and it should be explained to you in terms of comparables and repair costs. Being ripped off looks different: a number that drops late over something visible from the street, or a closing date that keeps moving.
- Is a cash offer better than a mortgage offer?
- It is more certain, because no lender can decline it and no appraisal can come in low. It is usually lower. Which matters more depends on whether you can absorb a sale collapsing at week eight.
- Should I get an agent's opinion first?
- It is a reasonable thing to do and costs nothing. Ask what they would list it at, what it would need first, and how long comparable houses are taking. Then compare that net figure, with carrying costs included, against the cash offer.
Point this checklist at us
Everything above is written so you can apply it here. We are the buyer, not a lead broker, so your details are not sold on. We will tell you the comparables and the repair figure behind any number we give you. And if listing would net you more, we will say so rather than take the deal.
Ask us what we would pay, then check us against this page
It takes about two minutes, there is no obligation, and there is never a fee. If we are not the right answer for your situation, we will tell you that too.