Are you thinking about selling a home in Sacramento, CA?
If so, you have a number of options at your disposal. There is more than one way to sell a home.
But what if you need to sell a home fast? What’s the best way to get a home sold if you don’t have a lot of time? For example, if you’re facing foreclosure, going through a divorce, or have inherited a home you don’t want, how can you sell it quickly?
We’re here to provide answers to your questions and solutions to your problems. Keep reading for everything you need to know about how to sell a home when time is of the essence.
Consider Working With a Realtor
There are pros and cons to working with a real estate agent to help you sell your home. If you’re hoping to sell a home fast using the traditional real estate market, you’ll need a competent agent on your side.
They can help you prepare your house in a way that makes it more appealing to buyers. They also have marketing and advertising resources to help you list your home for maximum exposure. These traits, mixed with their experience with local real estate will help you get your home sold quickly.
However, hiring a real estate agent is expensive. Most realtors charge a 3% commission fee for their services. If you’re selling your home in Sacramento for $350,000, your agent will take $10,500 out of your earnings.
Furthermore, understand that most real estate negotiations end with the seller paying for both realtors. This will bring your total real estate agent fees to 6%, or $21,000. This is a massive blow to your overall revenue.
Fortunately, selling a home without a realtor is an option. You can sell the home by yourself and do all the leg work. Alternatively, you can sell it to a cash home buyer (which we will talk about down below).
Determine the Condition of Your Home
Selling a home in Sacramento will be much easier if you know the condition of your home. For example, if you have any damages, outdated features, or other notable issues, they need to be covered in your home listing.
Otherwise, unsuspecting buyers will come to your home expecting everything to be move-in ready. Discovering foundation problems, water damages, or a roof in disrepair can be a major turn-off. Many buyers will walk away from a home upon these types of discoveries. Not many people are willing to buy a house that’s going to need a lot of work before they are comfortable with it.
We suggest getting an official home inspection to identify any problems your home might have. Home inspections are generally a requirement for lenders. They won’t back their client (the buyer) if the home’s condition isn’t verified.
Getting a home inspection will also give you time to make necessary repairs or updates. If you have any red-flag issues, it could significantly delay or prevent the sale of your home.
Decide What Repairs and Updates You Want to Invest In
Most homeowners do everything they can to please potential buyers and sell a home fast. This includes everything from updating the electrical to completing roof repairs.
However, these types of repairs and renovations are costly. Did you know that the average home seller spends more than $21,000 preparing their home for the market? Many homeowners spend even more than that if their home needs major repairs from problems that have gotten worse overtime.
If you can’t afford these costs, you’ll need to list the home for sale as-is. Unfortunately, as-is homes are in low demand. Most people are looking for homes that don’t require a ton of work.
Yes, you’ll save time by not hiring contractors to complete a bunch of renovations on your home. Yet, this means listing your home to a smaller buyer pool, which could end up taking more time.
Conversely, you could sell your home to a cash buyer. We will give you a cash offer for your home, no matter what condition it’s in.
Identify Your Home’s Value
Whether you’ve decided to make updates and repairs or sell your home as-is, you can now determine its fair market value. If you want to sell a home fast, you must list it at a competitive price.
You can go online to real estate listing sites to get a general estimation of your home’s value. If you’re working with a real estate agent, you can also have them conduct a comparative market analysis. This process compares your home to other properties in the neighborhood that have sold recently to establish a reasonable asking price.
If you want to sell your home traditionally, however, you’ll need to get an official home appraisal. This will provide you with the most accurate value of your home. It’s also required by most buyers and their lenders.
Prepare Your House for Buyers
Finally, if you’re selling a home in Sacramento traditionally, you’ll need to start getting your home ready for walkthroughs and open houses. For most homeowners, this means decluttering and deep cleaning. If possible, we recommend moving out of your house.
Moving out of your home is the most practical option, as it will make it easier to keep the home in show-ready condition. All of your belongings will be out of the house and you won’t have to continuously clean up after yourself. However, this can quickly become a problem if your home doesn’t sell quickly. You could end up stuck paying two mortgages at the same time.
If you can’t move out of the home, ask a friend or relative to borrow some storage space so you can significantly declutter your home. This will make it feel cleaner, more spacious, and more inviting to potential buyers. If you can’t find anyone who can help, rent a temporary storage unit to house your extra belongings until you move into your next home.
Choose Cash Home Buyers for a Faster, More Convenient Sale
Now, let’s talk about how to sell a home fast if you don’t have the time or money to complete the steps in selling a home listed above. Did you know you could sell your home in a matter of days by accepting an offer from a cash home buyer?
But what are the benefits of selling to a cash buyer and who is this option for?
Who Can Benefit From Accepting a Cash Offer?
There are a number of reasons why you might want to sell your home to a cash buyer. Anyone who wants a fast, hassle-free sale can choose to accept a cash offer.
However, cash buyers also provide services for people who need an immediate sale due to a complicated problem in their life. For example, if you’ve inherited a home you don’t want or can’t afford, accepting a cash offer will get it off your hands before it begins to be a detriment to your bank account.
Conversely, if you have an exciting new job opportunity in another location, you might not have the luxury of waiting around for your home to sell. Selling to a cash buyer will help you tie up loose ends so you can move on to bigger and better things (without your old mortgage). Paying two mortgages for a long time will put you in a worse position overtime than if you just sold your home quickly to begin with.
Some homeowners fall on hard times and have trouble making mortgage payments. After a few months of missed payments, the bank will threaten to foreclose on your home. If you’re in a scenario like this and need to sell a home fast, a cash buyer can help you avoid a foreclosure, which would otherwise destroy your credit score. It’s much more graceful to sell your home quickly when you need to adjust to a changing financial situation than waiting and regretting it later. People usually end up walking away with more money than if they let it foreclose.
What Are the Perks of Selling to a Cash Buyer?
A quick or immediate sale might seem too good to be true, but there are several benefits and advantages of selling to a cash buyer. As noted earlier most cash buyers will give you an offer for your home, regardless of what condition it’s in. It doesn’t matter if you have mold problems, foundations issues, or water damage.
If you decide to sell a home fast, it means no cleaning, decluttering, or tidying up after yourself to make your home show-ready. Furthermore, when you sell to a cash buyer, you won’t have to suffer through endless buyer walkthroughs, open houses, or negotiations. This can save you a ton of stress and frustration, as buyers can be incredibly demanding.
While it may not seem like a big deal, selling to a cash buyer also allows you to skip the official home inspection and appraisal. Each of these services can cost up to $450. Therefore, you could be saving close to $1,000. You also don’t need a real estate agent who will take a large percentage of the final sell price. And if you sell your house to BiggerEquity homebuyers, you could be saving thousands on any repairs that would normally need to be taken care of before putting a home on the market.
And you don’t have to worry about as much paperwork in the long run. Selling a home for cash is usually a lot simpler than the traditional way.
The Closing Process
Finally, let’s talk about the closing benefits if you decide to sell a home fast to a cash buyer. Cash buyers have a guaranteed closing process. Once you accept their offer and sign the paperwork, you can consider it a done deal. No delays, no waiting on people to make a decision, you can move on to your next house as soon as possible.
By contrast, a traditional home sale can fall through, even on the last day before closing. This could be because the buyer backed out or accidentally disqualified themselves by using credit, accepting a new job, etc. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already mortgaged your next home because you thought the deal you had was already said and done.
Just as importantly, cash home buyers allow you to choose the closing date. If you want your home to close as soon as possible, we can make it happen in a few short days. Conversely, the traditional closing process takes one to two months.
Need to Sell a Home Fast?
Waiting around for interested buyers to make an offer on your home can feel like an eternity. Even after you have an offer on the table, you still have to go through negotiations. Then, you must wait 30-45 days for the closing process, which can be derailed for any number of reasons.
And all of this is assuming you’re in the position to spend time and money on the traditional home selling process. Why not skip the hassle and all the extra expenses?
Contact us today to get a free cash offer for your home. No matter where you live, how much your home is worth, or what’s wrong with it, we will help you sell a home fast.