Tag: #realestate

As I pointed out in my recent blog post “When is Selling Your Home Without a Realtor Easier in Phoenix?” (or “… Portland?”), working with a realtor is just that – a lot of work! And expense and time on your part, especially compared with accepting an offer from a cash buyer without fixing or preparing the property.

What are the costs and risks of selling your house through a realtor? A reputable, professional realtor has their place in the housing market, and many do an excellent job of putting home-buyers in house of their dreams. But if you just want to sell your house as-is, without marketing to buyers expecting a move-in ready house, a realtor has costs and risks that are important to consider.

Significant costs include:

• The realtor’s commission is the highest direct cost, customarily 6% off the top of the sales price. Regardless of whether you sell at a profit or a loss, the realtor gets the contractually-agreed 6% of the sale.
• Once you add closing costs of 3% to 8% of the sales price, the total cost with realtor’s commission can be up to 14% of the sales price.
• Marketing to buyers wanting an attractive, move-in ready home without major issues can mean costs in the thousands to prepare the house for sale through a realtor.

A major risk to the seller is the unknown amount of time it takes to sell through a realtor.

• Average marketing time is often about 120 days, with another 45-60 days for closing.
• If you have made high-dollar investments in preparation and staging and your house sells in as little as 30-60 days, you are still waiting for 2 months, often much more, until closing.
• The longer the time to close, the more likely market prices and interest rates can change, affecting the entire selling strategy and your final closing proceeds.
• The longer the time to close, the more chance for something to go wrong with the house that is costly to fix, and may affect the sales price or selling strategy. You can fix a water heater and go on as you were, but a major thunderstorm that washes away half the yard is another matter.
• While you are waiting you must continue to make the mortgage payments, as well as meet the other ordinary expenses of upkeep.

Time, in short, represents an important risk – a risk markets and interest rates change, demand changes, the house needs a costly repair, and of course continuing to pay interest and principal on your mortgage loan. Added to the costs that are already part of a realtor contract, working with a realtor can be quite costly with no promises for your dreams of “top dollar” on your sale.

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Question or Prompt for Response – open ended, relevant

What is your greatest concern if it takes longer than you expected to sell your house?

Call to Action

Do you have real estate (house, lot, or land) you’d like to sell fast?  Fill out our Sell Fast Form and get a cash offer within one hour of us viewing the property. https://patient-liger-dev.10web.site/sell-house-quick/we-buy-homes-bring-us-a-deal/

My blog post “The Top 3 Mistakes When Trying to Sell Your Home Fast Through a Realtor” gives details on what causes disappointing results for sellers who were hoping to get top dollar through a realtor sale, without putting much preparation into their house.

Why is it that buyers looking at MLS houses sold through realtors, and often working with a realtor themselves, so rarely see the possibilities and make an offer on a house with minimal, if any, marketing preparation? Why don’t they believe they can get a better sale price if they will put a little work into it themselves?

Traditional home-buyers who work through realtors are usually not experienced or comfortable with “fixer-uppers”. They look for move-in ready homes for themselves, and want an attractive house they can proudly show their friends and family. Such buyers are likely to be intimidated by the idea of getting into fix-it projects, and they have other choices that aren’t so demanding.

The kinds of buyers who are most willing to make an offer on houses in poorer condition do so only because they have experience and knowledge such houses. Professional house-flippers understand what they are getting into and have low-cost strategies for fixing it up and putting it back on the market to consumers.

But professionals who value “fixer-uppers” tend to avoid working through realtors because they want to keep their costs lower. Not only could avoiding realtor commissions increase their profits, but the lower buying cost also helps keep a cushion against surprise defects that will cost them more than they planned. They anticipate unanticipated problems, as it were. When the unforeseen problem happens, they may not make as much on the house, but they aren’t as likely to lose money.

For these reasons it isn’t realistic to list a “fixer-upper” with little preparation through a realtor and expect good offers to come in quickly. Traditional home-buyers working through realtors shy away from big projects, and prefer attractive, move-in ready houses. The professional buyers willing to take on such projects often avoid working through realtors to keep their costs down. If you understandably just want a quick, fair offer without having to invest in marketing preparation, going straight to the cash buyer or wholesaler market – especially to PDX Renovations – is your best bet.

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Question or Prompt for Response – open ended, relevant

Of the people you know who are not house-flipping professionals, do you think they would be willing to take on a major fix-it project for their next home?

Call to Action

Do you have real estate (house, lot, or land) you’d like to sell fast?  Fill out our Sell Fast Form and get a cash offer within one hour of us viewing the property. https://patient-liger-dev.10web.site/sell-house-quick/we-buy-homes-bring-us-a-deal/