Know The Reasons To Sell Your House For Cash

Selling a house for cash isn’t the norm. Most house sales (92 percent in 2009) depended on mortgage loans. Because it’s a less common way of doing things, comparing the costs and benefits of a cash deal means sellers might have to think things through without much outside advice.

With any sale, it comes down to whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

Three benefits of selling a home for cash

The speed, convenience and general security for selling a home for cash are interrelated. If you’re considering selling your home for cash, maybe these ideas can help.

Speed

There are a lot of reasons why someone selling a home might want to sell for cash rather than waiting for a mortgage loan to go through. A cash sale can close in one to three weeks, while a normal escrow period is 30-45 days (this shakes out to around four to seven weeks).

The speed of a cash sale can be attractive if you can’t make hefty mortgage payments and you feel the pressure of selling before the home goes into short-sale or foreclosure. It might also be an issue if you’re moving or have another timeline and your house just feel out of escrow.

If you’re in a hurry to get out from under mortgage payments or to move to a new location, speed might be the number one reason you’d choose to sell your home for cash.

Convenience

If you’re selling your home for cash, you don’t necessarily need to wait for home inspections or appraisals or for the lenders and buyers to work out the details of a mortgage loan. Most homes that are sold for cash are sold as-is to people who will flip them, so making repairs isn’t an issue, either.

Cash Sales are more secure

When you sell a home for cash, the sale usually doesn’t fall through. That’s due in part to the fact that most of the deals that fall out of escrow fail because the buyers couldn’t qualify for the loan they applied for.

If a buyer comes with cash, though, the question of being able to pay for the home isn’t an issue anymore. The deal usually closes quickly and smoothly.

One reason to reconsider selling a home for cash

Cash-only sales go through quickly often because the homes are priced thousands of dollars below fair market value.

If you’re not in a hurry to move and you can keep making payments, this might be one reason to consider listing the home on the traditional market rather than targeting cash-only offers. A home is an investment, and when you sell it, it’s always nice to see a return.

How a seller can get the most out of a cash-only deal

• Pay up-front for an appraisal, so you know what the fair market value is for your home before you try to sell it. This can give you an idea of where to start your pricing strategy.
• Besides getting an appraisal, look around for other comparables in your neighborhood. Most appraisal reports have around three comparables, but you might get a better idea of how to price your home if you check into a few more on your own.
• Hire a real-estate agent or another official to help you with the paperwork. This will speed up the process even more and give you the peace of mind of knowing that all the documents are taken care of properly.