You’ve probably heard it can take months to sell your home, and that’s after you prepare to list it on the market. If that timeline doesn’t work for you, there are ways to guarantee your house will sell fast. One option includes getting an offer without ever having to list your home.
Variables that can affect the speed of the sale include renovations, preparing to show the home, determining an appropriate price, waiting to connect with a buyer and finally closing the sale.
These variables are also juggled with your need to sell the house, such as timing for moving out or requiring financing for your next home.
With endless scenarios possible, houses can sell in as quickly as one week or after several months. This depends especially on the local market and comparable homes sold in the area.
If you don’t want to leave it to chance, you can request an instant home offer for your home online.
Instant offer companies, or iBuyers, are tech-based home investors that buy and sell houses, primarily to streamline the process, both for themselves and homeowners. It allows for the homeowner to save time and effort that wasn’t possible in real estate transactions before.
When selling to an iBuyer, the seller doesn’t put their home on the market, stage the home, do showings or negotiate an offer. Instead they sell directly to the iBuyer who will resell the home.
First we’ll look at the factors of your home that can help you sell it fast. Then we’ll explore options for selling your home fast with an iBuyer.
What Helps a Home Sell Fast?
The factors below can be used to compare your home to other homes that sold recently nearby. A great local realtor can help make the most of these. Gauge how your house will compete and how quickly your home might sell, based on the following:
- Price: You’ll need to be realistic about the price you can get for your home, making sure it’s priced competitively based on fair market value. Lower-priced homes can sell faster than higher-priced ones, but a house priced too low could signal something is wrong.
- Market: In a hot market, there are usually more buyers than sellers, meaning people are willing to pay more and act quickly on securing a sale. In a cooler market, buyers can take their time and choose from multiple houses, so this could slow the sale of the home.
- Location: Proximity to conveniences, as well as inconveniences, can affect how desirable a home is. A highway nearby might be a turn-off, so the seller will need to wait for the right buyer, or compromise on the price.
- Condition: Simple aspects can be customized after purchasing a home but knowing the house is generally safe and functional is valuable to most buyers looking for a move-in ready home.
- Time of Year: Depending on location, common sense can guide when buyers generally want to close and move into their new home. In the midwest, the warmth of summer makes moving easier than snowy winter months. A family might schedule their move around children’s school schedules or holidays.
Selling Your Home to an iBuyer vs Listing it on the Market
Below you’ll see a breakdown of the difference between the newer method of selling your home to an iBuyer, compared to the more traditional method to list your home on the market.
Selling Home to an iBuyer
You can request an offer from an iBuyer and complete the process for selling your house in about seven days, if the conditions are right. The process is outlined below:
- Receive initial offer from iBuyer after answering questions about the house online that help to compare your home to the local market and trend data.
- After agreeing to the offer, the iBuyer sends a home inspector to do a walk-through of the home and assess potential repairs. This could lower the offer to account for any required repairs needed before they can sell the house.
- If you and iBuyer agree, you chooses a closing date – as soon as seven days after receiving the initial online offer – and you can then receive your cash offer.
Listing Home on the Market
On average, a home spends 65 days on the market. This timeline varies, especially depending on the market’s condition where it’s being sold. Keep in mind, this estimate doesn’t account for the time you would spend preparing the home prior to listing it. It could take several more weeks to make needed repairs, clean, declutter, and stage the house to satisfy potential buyers.
Outside of the variables that affect this timeline, there are steps in the selling process that take a consistent range of time. Clever breaks this down from listing to closing in a traditional real estate transaction:
- Listing to Offer: This will vary greatly depending on your local market condition. On average, nationally, a home is listed for about one month before receiving a viable offer.
- Offer and Negotiations: After receiving an offer, you’ll respond within a few days, and negotiations can take about two days before agreeing to move forward.
- Inspection: It can then take a few days up to a week to schedule the home inspection and receive the inspector’s report.
- Final Negotiations: If any adjustments are needed after the inspection, you and the buyer usually take a couple of days to reach an agreement.
- Closing: On average, it takes three to four weeks from agreeing on an offer to closing, which includes preparing necessary legal documentation.
Guarantee Your Home Will Sell Fast
This articles gives you the tools to understand whether your home is in a position to be sold quickly on the market or if it would be a better option to sell it to an iBuyer.
Use this insight to choose the best method for selling your home, considering your own timeline for needing to close on a sale and move out of your house with minimum stress.
Recommended Reading
https://www.thebalance.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-sell-a-house-1799050
https://www.curbed.com/2019/3/21/18252048/real-estate-house-flipping-zillow-ibuyer-opendoor
https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/what-is-an-ibuyer-a-guide-to-ibuying-pros-cons-costs/