Selling your home can be stressful. Maybe you want to buy a new, bigger home, trying to finally buy that dream home. Or, perhaps you’re relocating and need to quickly find and buy a new home.
In both cases, and for potentially a variety of other reasons, you need to sell your current home as fast as possible, but you know there are a few dings here and there. So, the question is, “How do I sell my home as-is?” without having to invest any money to get it on the market.
In this article, I will give you the exact steps to sell your home as-is with the minimum investment, as fast as possible, and for as close to “top dollar” as possible.
Quick 10 Step Checklist for Selling a Home As-Is
- Can I sell my home as-is? What does selling a home as-is mean?
- Should I sell my home as-is or fix it up?
- What do I need to disclose if I sell my home as-is?
- Do I need a realtor to sell my home as-is?
- Should I have a pre-inspection done to sell my home as-is?
- Should I have a Comparative Market Analysis done
- What fixes, repairs or improvements make a difference in price?
- Identifying and avoiding needless upgrades
- How to effectively stage your home for a fast sale
- Effectively marketing your listing
Can I sell my home as-is? What does selling a home as-is mean?
You certainly can sell your home as-is. But, the question is often asked with some confusion.
There is an actual legal definition for selling a home “as-is” that is used in warranty law to disclaim a seller’s liability for any faults in the home. This, of course, then requires the buyer to accept the home as-is, with the understanding that the seller is not liable for any faults.
However, in most states (especially if a real estate agent is involved) the seller is still obligated to disclose any known defects. So, selling a home “as-is” is not necessarily reducing time and stress in your sales process.
In most cases, you don’t need to really sell your home as-is because we’re not talking about your unwillingness to sink a lot of money into new carpet, repainting, and granite countertops. Those are all updates and upgrades, but certainly not defects in your home.
If you do truly need to sell your home as-is because of some structural or safety deficiencies, your best option might be to consider an instant or cash home offer from a real estate investor. These types of buyers are able to give you good value and are willing to make the repairs and get the return later.
Should I sell my home as-is or fix it up?
Again, this is a question that bears understanding your true intent.
If you have a true defect in your home this becomes a combination of understanding the requirements and cost of fixing the defect and the potential market price after the fix. Once you do this math it will be apparent whether or not it makes sense to sell as-is. This means potentially having to sell at less than full market value or making the investment in the repair and selling the home for market value.
However, if this is just a question of whether or not to fix your home up and upgrade with some more modern features and fixtures, this is more a question of comparative market valuation. Will the upgrades actually increase the offers that I might receive in my particular market?
What do I need to disclose if I sell my home as-is?
In most states, you will need to disclose any known defects in your home, even if you sell under the legal definition “as-is.” This is particularly true if you are using a real estate agent because they are held to an even higher ethical and legal standard to protect consumers.
Do I need a realtor to sell my home as-is?
There is no requirement to use a real estate agent in any real estate transaction, but they are trained in real estate transactions and can often advise you on more complex transactions, both as a seller and a buyer.
A real estate attorney is another excellent source of counsel for selling your home.
If you truly need to sell your home as-is, your buyer is most likely going to be a more sophisticated real estate investor, not a consumer per se. Often these investors are making cash offers, which can be far less complex than a traditional home sale to another consumer or homeowner.
Should I have a pre-inspection done to sell my home as-is?
If you think your home has some defects that might require you to sell it as-is, it’s probably wise to have a professional inspection done. This will give you a clear understanding of whether your home really needs to be sold as-is or you just have a home that is a bit aesthetically outdated.
This is another place where getting an instant home offer can be a great tool. These offers from companies like Zillow, OfferPad, and OpenDoor often have a home inspection in their process of giving you an offer, but doesn’t cost you anything or leave you any obligation to accept the offer. So, you can potentially get this analysis done for free.
Should I have a Comparative Market Analysis done
A Comparative Market Analysis is a great tool for any real estate transaction. This type of analysis will give you an excellent survey of the market and help inform you of what, if any, updates or repairs you actually need to do to help your home compete and sell quickly in your specific market.
Often you will find out that you don’t really need to put a lot of money into your home to make it attractive in your market.
What fixes, repairs or improvements make a difference in price?
This is very much related to the homes that are available and have recently sold in your neighborhood or community. This decision is based on what potential buyers are seeing in other homes like yours.
I recommend actually looking through comparative online listings or visiting local open houses for homes like yours. See how your home compares? This is essentially a DIY Comparative Market Analysis.
Here is a great video that explains how to think through what, if any, improvements will make your home sell faster or for a higher price.
Identifying and avoiding needless updates
Often the most expensive updates – finishing basements, adding crown molding, upgrading to the most expensive countertops, and remodeling whole rooms – don’t really move the needle in your home values. Unless your home is outdated by decades, you’re probably not going to earn back a major investment in upgrading your home.
If your home is in need of a major overhaul, which is maybe why you’re considering moving and buying a new home, you might be better served by selling it as-is, for cash to a real estate investor that is an expert at getting their money back from those major renovations.
This is kind of like the decisions that homeowners on the Love It Or List It fixer-upper HGTV show are making.
How to effectively stage your home for a fast sale
Above making a lot of upgrades and repairs, staging your home is one of the best investments you can make in selling your home fast and for top dollar.
Even if your home is a little outdated, tidying up the landscaping and each room inside as well as reducing clutter and excess furnishings can really make your home feel like a million bucks.
Here is another great video, and this one is on how to stage your home for maximum appeal.
Effectively marketing your listing
Finally, make sure that you’re helping to market your listing. Again, this will depend entirely upon your situation. If you truly need to sell your home as-is you might want to just skip this step and expense, since you’re going to need to take a bit of a haircut on your sale price and go directly for a cash offer (or at least start there) from Zillow, OfferPad, and OpenDoor.
Otherwise, you need to get into the MLS, which requires a real estate agent or flat-fee realtor that has access to the MLS because this is where home buyers are looking.
Getting your home sold as-is isn’t that hard
That’s it, selling your home as-is can be a relatively easy process. If you follow this checklist you’re reasonably assured of selling for good value, with minimal investment, and still should be able to get your home sold quickly.
As we mentioned earlier, an instant home offer is often the best and fastest way to sell your home as-is. If you would like to get a fast, all-cash offer simply give us your address here at Simple Home Offer and we’ll get you a cash offer within 24 hours.
This quick questionnaire will help connect you to a Bolt & Beam expert who can get you introduced to the instant cash offer process: