Are you looking to sell a house in Atlanta, or anywhere in Georgia? Then this blog post will answer the question, “Would an investor buy my house in Atlanta for my asking price?” Keep reading to find out the answer…
I wanted to spend a little more time diving into explaining why working with an investor doesn’t mean you are going to be lowballed or short-changed. There are a lot of factors that homeowners don’t always consider when selling their house until after the fact.
When my wife and I sold our last house, we paid around $20,000 in closing costs and commissions, plus over $3000 in upfront repairs. Of course, we didn’t know that we would pay that much going into it!
Should You Sell to An Investor, by Agent, or By Owner?
When it comes to selling your house, you have a couple of options:
- You can hire a real estate agent who will list the home on the MLS.
- You can list it yourself and sell it “by owner”.
- You can work with real estate investors or direct home buyers.
The easiest way to go is to sell to an investor. You avoid much of the time, headache, and expense of using a real estate agency or trying to sell it yourself (do you want to answer all those phone calls?).
But sometimes homeowners are often hesitant about working with investors for a few specific reasons:
- They don’t understand the process.
- They don’t trust the investor, and feel like they could be taken advantage of. This is related in large part to not understanding the process.
- They feel they can get more money by working with an agent or by selling “by owner”.
These are misconceptions, and my goal with these blog posts is to help clarify our process and help homeowners feel safe and in control when working with us.
For this article, I’ll focus specifically on #3 – the thought that you can get more money by selling yourself or with an agent. Check out other pages on this site to learn more about our process, or read about our company to see more about how trust, honesty, and transparency are the backbone of our organization.
Why Investors Buy Houses
It is true that an investor will need to buy your house at a price that leaves enough value left over so they can spend money renovating the house and still make a profit when they eventually sell.
Otherwise, they could lose money on the house after they renovate and sell it.
So it’s understandable that as a homeowner, you may feel like you will be short-changed working with a real estate investor, but this isn’t always true. If your home needs a lot of repairs, you’re either going to have to spend the money upfront to fix it (like my family did), or you’re going to have to lower your asking price for someone to buy it.
Also, most end-buyers in the real estate market aren’t looking for a fixer-upper. They want something move-in ready. This means more time, waiting, and hoping that it will sell.
And – if you sell it with an agent or by owner – YOU have to pay all of the closing costs and agent commissions. All of this costs a lot of money, time, and energy.
If you sell it to an investor – you don’t have to deal with any of that stuff. You will sell at a discount, but what you don’t get in asking price, you will save in fees, commissions, repair costs, time, and stress.
The Cost of Waiting
They say that time is money, and this is definitely true in real estate. While you are waiting for your house to sell, remember that you have to pay utilities, insurance, and taxes on your property the whole time your agent tries to find a buyer, and then while the buyer qualifies for a loan. This can take months. The same is true when you sell by owner.
If the loan falls through, guess what – you have to start the process all over again!
An Investor Skips All of This
When you work with an investor, you skip all of this. You don’t have to fix up or clean your house so you can save thousands of dollars there. You don’t have to pay bills, taxes, and insurance for months while you wait for a buyer to be found and qualify for a loan, so you save thousands of dollars there. And you don’t have to pay commissions or closing costs because we do that.
Add it all up – you can actually save money and a lot of time by selling to an investor.
Summary
Selling to an investor allows you to sell faster and avoid all those expenses. While an investor might not be able to buy a house at your asking your price, the discount you might provide them is made up by the money and time that you would spend on all of those other factors that many people don’t consider at first.
Of course, this all depends on your particular situation. Do you want cash now? Or are you able to wait? Does your house need a lot of repairs? Do you live out of state, and the house is vacant? Do you have a full-time job and can’t answer phones from potential buyers during working hours?
We can help you analyze all of these factors to help you decide which route is best for YOUR situation. Every circumstance is different!