You’ve decided it’s time to sell. You keep asking yourself if you should hire an agent to sell your house in San Francisco, CA. Do you want to pay large commissions? How long are you willing to wait for the house to receive an offer? How long will it take to close? What sort of repairs will you have to make? How does the house look when I leave for work in the morning? Are you available to show your house with 24-hour notice, or less?
Showings
If you decide to sell your house directly to a professional house buyer in San Francisco, CA, you will not have to worry about going through a roller coaster of emotions. There are no frustrating, middle-of-dinner phone calls asking if you are available to show your house. You don’t have to worry about leaving your house spotless every day before heading to work, just in case there is a showing while you’re gone. You don’t have to worry about possibly running into a buyer’s agent or their clients or dealing with them asking you questions that you really shouldn’t answer anyway. You also don’t have to worry about buyers arguing with you over which furniture you are taking and what you are leaving.
Commissions and Fees
Real estate agents are paid based on a percentage of the sale price of your house. If you do not use an agent, there will be no commissions paid to a buyer’s or seller’s agent. That means thousands of dollars in savings! The usual commission is 3% per side, so if you sell your house for $400,000, you would have to pay $24,000 out of your proceeds in commissions alone, along with the traditional seller’s closing fees and other possible transaction fees to the closing agent and the real estate agents office. Real estate investors typically do not charge commission or transaction fees, and if they do, it is extremely low in comparison.
Waiting Time Frame
Real estate agents have access to the multiple listing service, or MLS, which allows your property to be found in searches for certain features of a property. This may sound great, but how long will it sit on the market? How fast will you receive offers? Real estate investors and other direct house buyers typically have a network of other house buyers, so if your property doesn’t fit their portfolio, then it may fit one of their colleagues’ portfolios. Either way, this means very limited waiting time for an offer. Also, when you sell your house in San Francisco, CA directly to house buyers, they will typically close faster than traditional buyers and usually pay in full in cash. Traditional house purchases usually require qualifications from banks, mortgage underwriting time, and property inspection and the buyer may not end up qualifying in the end.
Inspections & Repairs
Professional house buyers in CA will usually purchase houses as-is. As a seller, this means you do not have to worry about repairs before closing or any other additional expenses you were not planning on. There are some companies that do not require inspections which makes it a truly as-is transaction. When you use a real estate agent, the buyer’s agent will almost always order an inspection of the property. If they find something wrong with the property structure, they may require you to fix it out of pocket before the property closes.
There are a lot of situations to think about when you are ready to sell your house. We can help you decide which avenue would be best for you.