There are different ways to sell your house. You can sell with a real estate agent, sell it yourself, or sell to an investor.  There are pros and cons with each of those three choices. Many people fearing that their house won’t sell with an agent end up losing homes to foreclosure (i.e. bank or tax sale) or lose a considerable amount of money because they were not aware of their options. The most common way that people tend to think of when selling a house is to go to a real estate agent. Real estate agents offer a valuable service, however, depending on your specific situation, may not be the best option.

Please know that you have options.  Below are pros and cons  of each choice for you to consider when it comes to selling yours or your loved one’s house.

Real Estate Agent

Pros:

  • Access to the Multiple Listing System (known as MLS)
  • A skilled agent will help you to come up with an accurate price that will get your home sold as quickly as possible.
  • Can sell your house at the going market price
  • A good agent will walk you through and support you at each stage of the sales process.
  • An expert agent will negotiate strongly to get you the best price.

Cons:

  • You will need to pay the agent a commission, which is deducted from your profit. Commissions for the transaction typical total 6%.
  • You will need to bring money to the closing table to pay transfer taxes, recordation taxes and other closing costs
  • Your buyer will likely request financial concessions from you (like closing cost help) or make requests for repairs prior to purchase
  • Depending on your market, it can take as many as 6 months (or more) to get an offer. Once you receive and accept an offer, it’s typically another 45 days to closing. During this time, you will need to continue paying for the upkeep of the property including mortgage (if applicable), taxes, maintenance costs, and utilities.
  • Your house will generally need to be in sellable condition to garner the maximum price or close to it. This means that it must be fairly up-to-date and in livable.
  • This one’s a catch-22: If you’re lucky, you’ll have lots of people coming in-and-out of your house for showings. The downside: you’ll have tons of people walking in-and-out of your house at all hours, which can get really old really fast.
  • All in all, you can expect to have approximately 11% of your profits deducted at closing due to the above. For example, if you are selling a house for $100,000 and owe $25,000 on the mortgage, you will profit $75,000 before the deductions and $66,750 after the deductions. That does not factor in the amount spent to upkeep the house while waiting for a sale.

Who Is This Best For?

Selling with a real estate agent is a good option for you if you are not in a time crunch to sell and want to sell for full market price. This is a good option if you’re able to wait 6-12 months for a buyer to make a full market price offer. It’s also a good option if you have enough money put aside to cover real estate agent commissions, closing costs, and paying for concessions requested by your buyer.

Sell It Yourself (For Sale By Owner):

Pros:

  • You can take a hands-on role and negotiate on your own behalf.
  • You will avoid real estate agent commissions.
  • If you’re detail-oriented enough and have the time to handle the intricacies of real estate, you will save thousands of dollars.
  • There are websites where you can post your property for maximum exposure such as Zillow, MLSmyHome, Craigslist, and Fizber.

Cons:

  • Statistically, for-sale-by-owner homes sell for less than those sold with the help of an agent.
  • You must be detail-oriented to handle the intricacies of real estate transactions.
  • You will, ideally, remain in control throughout the entire process.
  • You will need to come up with an accurate price that would be attractive to buyers. Zillow is known to be highly inaccurate in many areas.
  • You’ll need to spend money to make repairs or stage the house to give it the best chance at receiving an offer.
  • You will need to continue to pay for the house’s upkeep. That includes paying for utilities, maintenance, and home insurance. If the property is vacant, you will need to find a way to secure it seasonal weather threats as well as against vandals, thieves, squatters, and other intruders.
  • Routine elements of the sales process can upset you as the seller because of any emotional investment in the property.
  • Here’s that catch-22 again: If you’re lucky, you’ll have lots of people coming in-and-out of your house for showings. The downside: you’ll have tons of people walking in-and-out of your house at all hours, which can get really old really fast.
  • You will need to bring money to the closing table to pay transfer taxes, recordation taxes and other closing costs.
  • Your buyer will likely request financial concessions from you (like closing cost help) or make requests for repairs prior to purchase
  • Depending on your market, it can take as many as 6 months (or more) to get an offer. Once you receive and accept an offer, it’s typically another 45 days to closing. During this time, you will need to continue paying for the upkeep of the property including mortgage (if applicable), taxes, maintenance costs, and utilities.

Who Is This Best For?

This option is best for someone who doesn’t need to sell a house quickly and/or has no urgency to be out of the house. It is also best for someone who is detail-oriented, not emotionally invested in the house, and who has a strong comfort level with negotiation, handling contracts and financials.  This option is also good if you have a financial reserve that will cover your day-to-day living expenses plus the costs of maintaining the house such as mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities, and maintenance.

Selling to An Investor (We Buy Houses)

Next Chapter Property Solutions, LLC is an investment company that buys houses. We are unique in the way we do business because we strive to build strong relationships with our clients and deliver solutions to solve your specific problem. We do not make one-size-fits all “lowball” offers. Our goal is to create a win-win solution for everyone involved.

Pros:

  • Next Chapter Property Solutions buys houses as-is in any condition.
  • You will receive an all cash offer within 24 hours of submitting your property to us.
  • We will take the time to understand your specific problem and come up with fair offers that resolve that problem.
  • We can complete the entire transaction from offer to closing in 30 days or less.
  • You will not pay any real estate agent commissions.
  • In many cases, you will not pay any closing costs.
  • We will not ask you to spend any money on making repairs or even cleaning out the house.
  • We will pay delinquent balances on mortgages, property taxes, or other liens as part of the purchase.
  • We can also take over loan payments on a property if you are struggling with an unmanageable mortgage or are underwater.
  • We will hold your hand through the entire process and make it as easy and hassle-free as possible.
  • And here’s a really good one: You won’t have to worry about tons of people walking in-and-out of your house, multiple times, at all hours of the day. We’ll do a brief visit to assess the property at the beginning and maybe one more trip out before we get to closing.
  • We are a registered company and have successfully completed transactions with individuals and families just like yours. Click here to see our testimonials.

Cons:

  • Unfortunately, there are a lot of scammers in the marketplace who misrepresent themselves and what they’re able to do.
  • You will be selling the property at a discount to the market price.
  • There’s no barrier to entry, so anyone can decide to hang a shingle and call themselves an investor.

Who Is This Best For?

Selling a house to an investor is best for someone who is in a time and/or money crunch and needs to sell a house fast with little hassle and stress. It is a great option for you if you don’t want to, or cannot pay for repairs, cleaning, and upkeep of a property. This is also a great option if you need to sell in days or weeks vs. months.

Before you sign a contract or hire a realtor, click on Get An Offer to find out how Next Chapter can buy your DC, Maryland, Virginia home quickly and for cash.