What is this like? Why is this service useful? A Primer

Many people wonder what is the advantage of selling your house to a house buying company, is there a parallel sort of transaction that resembles this? The answer is that no, there is not a perfect like for like example, but trading a car into a dealer might be the closest.

With the dealer, when you trade in a car you know you are giving up some of the value, but what you get back is a hassle free experience and convenience. You don’t have to clean the car, fix the car, change the oil, market the car, take the calls, show the car, test drive the car, inspect the car, do the paperwork for the car, etc. Most of us are old enough to remember how that all worked. The dealer does all of that for you when you trade it in. Is that exchange worth it? I would argue that most people say yes.

To give more examples applied to this I will bring up a favorite activity for my daughter; story time. I will call this collection of case studies A Tale of Three Houses. For all of these houses below, feel free to give me a shout, call, text, etc. I would be happy to share exact numbers with you.

House #1: The As-Is sale

I met Mr. Miller, the owner of house #1 at his estate sale. I saw a sign for an estate sale while driving one day and decided to stop by and inquire about the house. It wasn’t a traditional estate sale, but he and his wife were retiring and moving to Sandestin, FL so were selling everything and getting ready to move. I asked him about the house and we struck up conversation while he showed me around. The house was nice, livable, but quite dated. Originally he planned on listing the house with an agent, but in the end we negotiated a price that was significantly less than what the agent promised him he could get, but he could pick the closing date and he could leave whatever he wanted and do everything else on his terms. He even left a Stingray Corvette in the garage after the sale of the house while he coordinated his move and figured out what to do with the car. That was the first house I bought directly from the owner. He didn’t care about the price, he was interested in time and convenience.

House #2: Don’t Sell It To Someone Like me, List it!

My father in law wanted to sell his house in Holly Hills, he had received various calls, texts, letters, etc. from house buyers but wasn’t sure what they did or how it worked so he came to me and asked what to do. His house was nice, super well kept, updated in places, and was period restored in others, so it was a turn key ready to move in house just waiting for a new family to move in. I explained to him that he would likely get far less from a house buyer versus selling it on the market. In the end he listed it and sold it for significantly more than the house buyers were offering him. It did take a few months, and they had to show the house and keep it clean, and organized while showing, but the reward make the effort worth it. The house was ready go to as it was, there was no need to discount it for a convenient sale, and the market agree

House #3: Update It, List It

This is the second example involving family, this is my parents’ own house. They bought it as a brand new construction from the builder in 2002. Over the years they put in a pool, landscaping, lighting, etc. and made it their own. Around 2021 they asked me what to do with selling it? They had brought up the subject many times before, but now it was serious, it was time to sell it. A 5000 sq.ft. house was excessive, the rest of my siblings had left town. While the the house was nice, it was functional but dated. Design trends change yearly, this house was close to 20 years old. My dad, without knowing how it worked, called a few house buyers over asked me about the process. I explained they would offer to buy the house for a discount from the market price, but since they had the time and ability to oversee the repairs and upgrades, they were better off doing so themselves and selling at the top of the market. It took them 9 months to do the repairs and updates, but in the end they netted a significant premium over what the house buyers were offering. Far offsetting the cost of the updates. They had time and the ability to oversee the updates of the house, in the end the return to them was worth it.

Most houses fall into one of these categories, so if you have a question about what is the best course to take, give me a call and I would be happy to talk you through the options as if you were my own family. This is a saturated business, there are tons of guys offering you “MOST CASH FOR YOUR HOUSE FAST NOW AS IS” and pushing you hard into their one solution, so I pride myself in being better and being able to offer you the best choices side by side. All you have to do is call me, meet with me, and decide what do you want to do.