Hi, this is Kyle McCorkel with Safe Home Offer. I want to talk to you guys about why you would sell your house to an investor. This is a question that we get very commonly.
“Why would I sell my house to an investor? I know a real estate agent, why can’t I just call them up and sell my house?”
And we’re going to be completely honest with you. In many situations, it does make sense to sell using a real estate agent but let’s get into, why would you sell your house to an investor?
First of all, I want to talk about why would you not want to sell your house to an investor, like most people who would traditionally call up a real estate agent.
Why you SHOULDN’T sell to an investor
1. If you want to sell for top dollar, if you know you have a number and this is the price that you want to hit, and the houses around you are selling for that much. If that’s your bottom line and you’re not willing to go any lower, you probably won’t want to sell to an investor. Real estate investors are in this to make money and so we generally are going to be offering a little bit lower than market value so we can make our profit. But if you have that top dollar in mind, you probably don’t want to be selling to an investor.
2. Another reason that you would not want to sell to an investor is if you don’t mind paying a real estate agent. Real estate commissions are typically 6%. For a $100,000 house, that’d be $6,000. You can understand how the numbers would add up. If you don’t mind paying a real estate agent that money, then you might not want to sell to an investor.
3. If you also don’t mind performing repairs for a buyer. Most transactions that go through a real estate agent, the buyer will ask you to perform some repairs. If you feel like they asked you to put in a new roof or a new furnace, and it could be a couple thousand dollars and you don’t mind doing that, then maybe you don’t need to sell to an investor.
4. If the property is in perfect shape and if it’s in a highly desirable area, if you live in a great, nice neighborhood, there’s a ton of nice new houses that are rehabbed and properties are just flying off the market, and if your house is like all those other houses that are flying off the market, you probably don’t need to sell to an investor. You can sell it through a realtor and you’ll be able to sell it pretty easily, probably.
5. Lastly, why you would not want to sell to an investor is if you’re not in a hurry. So if you’re willing to wait around until you get that perfect offer, you probably don’t need to sell to an investor. You can list with a realtor and you’d be willing to wait three to six months to get that property closed, then you probably don’t need investors.
Why You SHOULD sell to an investor
Okay? So let’s talk about why you would want to sell your house to an investor.
1. The first reason is if your house is in bad shape, or if it’s in a bad area. If it needs a lot of cosmetic work, needs a new kitchen, needs new bathrooms, needs to be painted, it needs new floor. If it has a lot of mechanical issues, has roof issues, HVAC issues, electrical issues. Just all these things would deter the average home buyer. So that would make it harder to list with a realtor and get an offer from the average home buyer. But us, as investors, that’s what we specialize in. We see that as an opportunity. That could be a perfect reason to want to sell to an investor.
2. If you just want to be done with that house and you just want to sell it as is. If you don’t want to deal with any buyers asking for repairs, doing inspections, doing appraisals. If you don’t want to deal with any headaches or showings, negotiations that would come from other agents coming in. If you just want to be done and sell that house as is as, easy and quickly as possible, then you probably want to sell to an investor.
3. If this is a rental property and if you have some uncooperative or bad tenants, and maybe they’re messy. And tenants can be uncooperative with showings, so that could make it really hard to sell through a realtor. But investors, we know how to deal with tenants so that could be a perfect opportunity to sell to an investor.
4. If you don’t want to pay a real estate agent. We talked about the 6% that you typically pay if you deal through a real estate agent. If you don’t want to pay $6,000 on that $100,000 property, could be a perfect reason to want to sell to an investor.
5. If you just want to sell with convenience and low hassle. If you sell through a realtor, most buyers, they’re just going to be your average buyers and they might even be first-time buyers. First time buyers come with a lot of risks. They don’t know how to close on properties. Whereas investors, we close on properties all the time. So those first time buyers, they need to qualify for a loan. Their lender might require them to do an inspection. Most time they’re going to do an inspection, anyways. They might be asking you to perform repairs on the property that could be thousands and thousands of dollars. Or they could back away entirely. So if you want that certainty that you’re dealing with someone who knows what they’re doing, knows how to buy houses then you want to sell to a real estate investor.
6. The final reason that you might want to sell to a real estate investor is if you are having financial issues that are causing you to need to sell that property fast. These examples might include foreclosure, a tax sale, bankruptcy, just any kind of financial issues that might cause you to need to sell that property as fast as possible and turn it into fast money. If you go through a realtor, most likely the buyer’s going to be going through a lender, which can cause that closing to take one to two months. Versus if you go with a real estate investor, investors typically close in cash. And so that means all we got to wait for is the title to clear and that pretty much only takes 10 to 14 days. So, 10 to 14 days and a lot more certainty than waiting around for an appraisal and a loan to close, which can take one to two months.