I Want to Sell My House Fast, What Are My Options?
The stress and challenges that come with selling a house can never be underestimated. To show the seriousness of this, a recent report from Daily Mail stated that the stress involved in selling a home may be bigger than the stress brought on from divorce, bankruptcy, or even the death of a loved one.
This stress goes up a notch if you find yourself in a situation where you need to sell your home quickly. In trying to sell your home fast, you will find yourself questioning your every decisions and face disappointment if, at the end of everything, you sold the house at a price less than its market value.
You need to, first of all, be aware of your options so that you can confidently be able to sell your home fast. This will provide you with the knowledge you need to make the necessary decisions before going ahead to put your home on sale.
Here are the 5 options available for homeowners with the question: I Want to Sell My House Fast.
I Want to Sell My House Fast, Should I Find a Real Estate Agent?
Statistics put the percentage of home sellers that list their home through a real estate agent at 89%. The figure is this high because homes listed by Realtors sell at a higher price than any other selling options.
As stated in NAR’s (National Association of Realtors) “2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers” report, agented homes sold for a median 98% of the final listing price with sellers getting an average profit of $43,100 in equity. These figures apply to all sellers, including those that want to sell their homes within a short period of time.
In a situation where time is a major factor, homeowners that want to sell fast tend to remove selling via an agent from their list of possible options due to the fact that the average home sold via agent takes 3 – 6 months.
One agent explains: “In MOST cases, homes fail to sell because they are not properly priced. The market will not let a property be sold under market value. In our market (a big time buyer’s market with home values declining 20-30% this year (2008 housing market)), we have about 20% of the homes selling with multiple offers. The other 80% are overpriced and sit there. The 20% are selling in 2-4 weeks, the others are AVERAGING 140 days on the market…and losing value because the market is declining.”
(Fortunately, our present market seems robust and able to take the increase in mortgage rates in its stride due to supply and demand of housing inventory. However, the principle of best pricing practice is still relevant to how quick a house sells!)
The Perfect Real Estate Agent?
A real estate agent serves as an advocate to a home seller. Aside from helping you avoid mistakes that might cost you time and money, an agent can help you in deciding which offer to take in order to have a smooth and fast transaction.
In order to have a fast agented sale, it is crucial to hire a highly professional real estate agent. You can begin your search for the right Realtor by making enquiries from family and friends. This is due to the fact that 64% of sellers found their agent through a referral (NAR’s 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers). Your next step after this will be to check the stats of these agents and compare them with those of other top agents in your area.
So is listing with an agent the fastest way to sell your home? No.
Selling your home to an investor is statistically the fastest option!
I Want to Sell My House Fast, So Is FSBO the Way to Go?
Either in the case where you are selling your home below its market value or at a lesser price to an investor, the main point is that you are going to get less cash if you are looking to sell quickly using the FSBO method.
Why?
Selling a property successfully to make a profit, whilst navigating all of the ins and outs of negotiation, legal issues, and closing on the sale involves years of experience and training.
- A homeowner will likely not have experience or understanding of their local market.
- A homeowner will lack the skills necessary to price their house in the right bracket.
- A homeowner still has to make house repairs and renovations with or without the advice of an agent.
- A homeowner usually lacks in marketing skills and also may be unused to marketing online, navigating search engines, and making a good description/sales pitch for their house.
They will not have the ability to spread the word on or offline to get their house in front of as many people as possible. And while they may get their house listed on some websites or send out flyers and do open-home events, do their list of talents also include:
- Interior decorating?
- Staging?
- Photography?
- Digital Graphic Design?
…to name just a few of the skills and experience that a professional realtor will bring to the table to sell your house.
Do You Have Realty Experience? Legal Qualifications? Sales and Marketing Experience?
If the answer is no – then, perhaps you should reconsider whether or not to sell via FSBO. And to be blunt, due to many homeowners lack of experience in the Realty niche, they will NOT sell their home quicker than going with an agent…
On the up side, selling via FSBO method means that you don’t have to pay for the services of a real estate agent, preventing you from losing 5-6% of your equity.
However, there are high chances that the buyer would already have their own agent who is capable of overseeing the transaction. Therefore, it may be necessary for a seller to hire a real estate agent.
The duty of the agent of a buyer is to be the buyer’s agent and nothing more. In a case where the buyer views closing fast as important, during closing, the agent will place priority on their client’s needs and yours will play the second fiddle.
In addition to being your advocate, a real estate agent will be knowledgeable in all the tips and tricks to get you a fast sale from pre-listing through closing.
A fact you should note is that only about 8% of homes sold in 2016 were FSBO sales. Out of this 8%, only 54% of the sellers wanted to sell their homes quickly. Most of the homeowners that go for fast sale are able to achieve that because the buyer was either a relative, friend or neighbor.
FSBO methods or Agents do NOT achieve fast sales!
If you have made up your mind to sell your home by yourself, it’s important you become knowledgeable in all the documents you and the buyer need to successfully close the home sale. You will also have to hire an attorney and get a title company for the completion of the transaction.
If there is no expert to handle every aspect of the transaction, there’s a high possibility that the sale won’t go quickly or smoothly.
I Want to Sell My House Fast – Should I Short Sale?
NO! You have to note that in a short sale, “short” refers to money and not time. This means that if you’re selling short, you have made an agreement with your lender which allows you to sell the home at a price lesser than what you owe on it.
A general outcome for all instances of short sales is that they take longer to finalize than a regular sale.
According to Brad Wallace, a short sale expert who is among the top 9% of 8,627 agents in the Philadelphia area, “Though it’s called a short sale, it’s nowhere close to a short sale. The fastest short sale I had was probably about four months, and I’ve had short sales that took as long as two years.”
Aside from taking much longer to finalize, the majority of home sellers do not meet the requirements that enable them to short sell their homes. To be able to short sell your home, you must have a negative equity, be behind on your mortgage payment and are facing foreclosure. In a situation where you meet the requirements, there is still a possibility that your lender (or lenders, in case a where you owe debt on the property with several entities) won’t agree to a short sale.
A point to take from all these is that in trying to sell your home quickly, a short sale is not an option.
I Need to Sell My House Fast – Will an Investor Buy it?
YES! You will be shocked by the number of links and ads you will find when you type in the phrase “sell my home fast on any search engine. These links and ads show investors who are willing to buy your property and promise a fast sale.
The benefits of selling your home to an investor means that you can sell your home within weeks instead of months. In addition, they buy homes “as-is,” irrespective of its condition and their payout options are flexible (they offer cash payment).
While selling to an investor is one of the fastest ways to sell your home, it has pros and cons like all other options, depending on which “cash for homes” company you go with.
Although you will get a fast sale if you go for this option, many “cash for homes” sellers receive offers that gives them less profit from their house.
Why?
The reason being is that you won’t be asked to make repairs (the investor will take all the financial risk with that).
You won’t be asked for inspections and appraisals (the investor will take all the financial risk with that).
Instead of getting a partial payment and mortgage financing of your house by a buyer (you will get a FULL CASH payment of your house which could help pay off your bills, avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy, or help you relocate quickly allowing you to purchase another property with your FULL CASH payment).
Here at DFW Property Remedies we give fair cash offers and do not require you to make repairs.
We will help you get started up again in your new location with CASH from your house – get started today by filling out our form.
I Want to Sell My House Fast – Should I do a Home Auction?
You’ve got it all wrong if you think auctions are only meant for sellers who are in a critical situation and banks unloading foreclosure homes. An auction is open to all homeowners, and if you’re looking to sell fast, some believe this may just be the right option for you.
You will be exposing yourself to risk by auctioning your home because you can’t really decide the final sales price. You get to set the minimum bid price as the seller, which is usually 10-15% below the home’s current value (this is recommended to generate more interest among buyers). Once that’s done, whether to accept the final bid or not is left to you.
It’s not every property that is meant to be sold at an auction. It’s recommended by the NAR that before choosing to go for the option of an auction, sellers should first of all self-test the market, their home and their financial condition with the Two-Thirds Rule.
One of the major factors that help to determine whether to go for an auction is that you need to have an equity of up to 25% on your home, in order to obtain profit from the sale. Since you won’t want to sell the home at a price less than what you owe on it.
In the light of the fact that you’re now aware of the options available for selling your home fast, what is now left for you to do is to choose the one that best fits your situation. While it can be stressful and confusing, it is possible to sell your home fast. With the right information, strategy and guidance, you will end up losing less profit in order to have a quick sale.