Pros and Cons Of The Three Options For Selling Your House

If you want to sell a property there are three ways you can go about it. Selling with an agent (Conventionally), selling a house yourself (FSBO), and selling to a cash house buyer.

As you probably know, selling a house conventionally (using an agent or selling yourself) usually takes a while. Even selling a house in California can take 3 to 6 months (or longer in some cases). We’ve put together this mini-guide for you to determine what strategy will be right for you. Everyone is different and every situation is unique, so take a second to find out if our service is right for you.

1. Working with a real estate agent

Today this is the most popular way to sell a house, and generally, if you don’t mind waiting, fixing the place up, and possibly a few headaches along the way this could be the right route for you. Here’s the typical process:

• You contact an agent and they visit your house to find out what it might sell for.
• You sign a listing agreement with an agent (usually for 6 months), which gives them the right to exclusively represent you. If you already have someone interested in the property make sure to let the agent know if that someone buys the property they do not have the right to collect commission. This is called an exclusionary clause.
• After you clean the house, update or fix it, the agent will typically list the property on the MLS and market it. He or she will typically have potential buyers walk thru the house, hold open houses, etc..
• If a potential buyer decides to make an offer, and assuming it works for both of you, the agent will take care of paperwork etc.. After closing, the agent will collect their fee of around 6% and split it with the agent bringing the buyer.

Pros: The final selling price is usually higher than FSBO or a cash buyer route. Agents also know the market well and have access to the MLS. If you’re not in a rush, your house is in good shape and updated, and don’t mind paying extra fees, this might be the right choice for you..

Cons: Selling this route also has the highest transaction costs, and might take longer. As an example, if you’re selling a $200,000 house, after agent fees, escrow costs and buyer concessions you might end up paying close to $20,000 in back end fees.

Timeline: 3 on the faster side to 12 months on the longer side.

2. Selling a property yourself (FSBO):

Recently, selling a house yourself has become pretty popular, especially with sites like forsalebyowner.com, craigslist.com, etc.. It’s fairly easy to list a house online nowadays. Here’s typically how a FSBO transaction works:

• Determine the market value of the house. You can use sites like redfin.com, zillow.com or trulia.com to help you out. This can be a bit tricky sometimes. Paying for an appraisal or broker’s price opinion (BPO) will usually give you an accurate value. Just make sure whoever gives you a value is local.
• Take pictures, fix the place up, and post pictures online.
• Show the place yourself, gather offers, and negotiate the sale.
• Submit the paperwork to an escrow company and close the transaction.

This is a good choice if you’re a good marketer or familiar with the process of buying and selling real estate. Also, if you’re in no need to sell quickly, and don’t mind fixing a place up this could be a good option for you.

Pros: You save on commissions, and sometimes closing costs depending on how you structure your transaction. You have complete control over the process.

Cons: If you’re not experienced in marketing or sales, it could take a while to sell it, even more than the traditional agent route. If you’re not a people person you might find this difficult.

Timeline: 3 on the faster side to 12 months on the longer side.

3. Selling to a Cash Buyer

A third option can be selling to a cash buyer. Working with a local cash buyer will cut your time to sell down to 7 to 30 days (or really whenever you’d like to close). Every reputable cash house buyer should references if you ask them. A good way to check to make sure they’re reputable is to ask them for the addresses of the last couple houses they bought. The typical process goes as follows:

• Contact a local cash buyer (like us) and submit you’re property information.
• The cash house buyer will come up with a fair offer and if it works for you they will come down to the property and have a look.
• After the cash buyer has a look at the house, they will open escrow at a reputable title / escrow company and close the transaction.

There are no costs when selling to a cash buyer, and the time to sell the house will usually take about 7 to 30 days (depending on when you’d like to close). The main cost when selling to a cash buyer is they cannot pay full market value. If you were someone who doesn’t want to hassle with the house, repairing it yourself, and waiting a long time to sell this would be the best route for you.

Pros and Cons of Selling To A Cash Buyer In California

Pros: A cash buyer can purchase quickly, doesn’t need appraisals, and you don’t have carrying costs like you would if you had to wait 3-12 months selling conventionally. You’re not paying for escrow fees, commissions, buyer concessions or holding costs. (Which can add up to more than 10% of the property’s value.)

Cons: Cash buyers usually do not pay full market value. However, you’re not paying for escrow fees, commissions, buyer concessions or holding costs.

Timeline: 7 to 30 days depending on when you’d like to close.

If you’d like a cash offer, contact us, or fill out the form below. There are no obligations to accept any offer.

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