While the real estate market may still be struggling to find a firm foothold in some parts of the country there are investors out there who will pay cash for your home and be willing to close quickly. Should you take it?
Of course someone offering to pay cash for your home now and who can really close in a matter of days if you wish may not be offering you 2005 peak of the bubble prices. Then again we are no longer in 2005 and 2012 holds a completely different set of challenges for those selling a home. Not only can it be incredibly difficult to find an interested buyer, betting on a buyer who is relying on getting a mortgage loan to buy your home if you really need to close on time is taking a big risk. Not only that but take a look at the math and it is easy to see selling a home by yourself or using a Realtor may not fetch you much more.
While real estate agents definitely come in handy sometimes paying 6% or more in commissions and having to wait and hope, for possibly months to see if they can find you a worthy buyer may not net you more money in your pocket at the end of the day.
What about selling a home yourself? It can certainly sound like an appealing idea in order to save commissions at first but once you start adding up the real cost are there actually any savings? For a start, you can no longer just stick a sign from Home Depot in your yard and expect calls from qualified buyers. You may get a few scam artists interested in you signing over your deed but if you plan on selling a home any time in the near future you are going to have to take a proactive approach and do some real marketing. Other homeowners are building websites to promote their homes, taking out newspaper ads week after week, using social media, running open houses on the weekends, printing fliers and a lot more. You are going to have to keep up with that or do better in order to stand out.
Then total up the additional expenses of selling a home yourself like taking time off of work to show the property to people who may not even qualify, traveling to the home if you no longer live there. Plus what about the stress and sleepless nights which can have a big toll on your family and work? That’s even if you have time to try all this before being foreclosed on.
What’s your best move? For sure cash in your hand today or spending a lot in hope of some money in a few months from now?
