Last Updated on March 12, 2024 by Nasir Hanif
Home sellers in the U.S. can spend up to 9 months preparing their homes for sale, listing them on the market, and closing the sale. Whether you’re a first-time seller or you’ve done it several times, this home selling process can be time-consuming and complex.
But with the rising number of cash home buyers and companies, you don’t have to wait months to list and close on your house. If you’re looking to expedite the process due to a job move, divorce, or more, you can sell homes for cash without any hassle.
Below is a guide with everything you need to about how to sell homes for cash.
Table of Contents
Determine If You’re Selling It ‘As-Is’
Do you want to sell the way it is or after repairs?
If you sell your house ‘as-is’, you won’t have to fix anything as part of the closing deal. This can help you save on the costs of repairs. When you sell the house without making repairs, you have a responsibility to inform cash buyers of the issues with your house.
You can also choose to fix your house before selling. While it may not be a good idea if you’re selling homes quickly, it can improve the value of the home.
Know the Value of Your Home
It can be hard to know the exact value of your home. This is because your house is exactly worth as much as a buyer is willing to pay for it.
But, you can identify a range of how much your home is worth on different websites. The websites will likely provide varied estimates. However, you can use them to get a price range for your house. You can also hire a real estate agent to determine how much you can list your home for. If you utilize traditional brokers to sell your home, it may be a costly, time-consuming, and difficult procedure. See cash offer for my house for further information.
Find Cash Home Buyers and Request an Offer
Once you know your home’s worth, you can start looking for a qualified cash buyer. Since you may want to sell your house fast, it’ll be more efficient to look for people willing to buy houses for cash online. It makes it easy to get qualified and competitive cash offers.
You can also market your home by placing a ‘For Sale sign on your property, attending real estate auctions to scout out buyers, or contacting a home-buying company
Review the Price and Terms of Your Offer
After getting different cash offers, you can start evaluating them. Although the process can be tricky, ensure you evaluate other factors besides the profit you’ll make. Assess to see if the offer is legitimate. Also, make sure you agree with the terms of sale.
Sign the Contract
Once you find someone to buy your property, you can start the process of completing a Purchase and Sale Agreement contract.
Verify Proof of Funds
Since your buyer is using their own cash to close the deal, you should ensure that they actually afford it. It can help protect you from fraudulent buyers.
You should ask for earnest money upfront— 1 to 2 percent of the sales price. In addition, you can request proof of funds in the form of investment statements, bank statements, and more. To ensure these statements aren’t forgeries, you can ask your real estate agent to help you with verification.
Hire Title and Escrow Companies
Depending on the state you live in, you or your buyer may choose the companies. A title company will help you with the following:
- Rechecking and correcting the property lines (and correcting them as needed)
- Checking for property liens—outstanding debts on the seller’s part
- Issuing title insurance
- Ensuring that the property owners truly changes
Apart from the title company, you should get an escrow company that can help you manage all the closing documents, facilitate the transfer of funds from the buyer to the seller, and complete the legal paperwork for the sale
Start the Home Inspection
It’s common for cash home buyers to have an inspection contingency when submitting an offer for the house. The inspection contingency states that the buyer will pay for the house inspection.
But they have an option of renegotiating the agreed-upon sale price and requesting repairs based on the findings. This protects and gives the buyers peace of mind
Review and Sign Closing Documents
Once the inspection and price negotiations are complete, you can start the closing process. There is a lot of paperwork you have to go through, even if you’re dealing with all-cash offers for homes.
Here are documents you have to review and sign when closing a house sale:
- Final closing instructions: It’s a detailed outline of the tasks your escrow company is responsible for completing
- Statement of information: This document shows that you are who you say you are
- HUD-1 settlement statement: Required by federal law, it’s a detailed accounting of every single cent involved in the house sale
- Certificate of title: When you sign this document, you swear that you have the authority to sell the house
- Title deed: This piece of paper officially transfers ownership of the house to the buyer
- Loan payoff statement: In case you have a mortgage on the house you’re selling, this document shows how much you owe as of the closing day
- Mechanics liens: Signing this document means that you don’t have any additional liens on your house from contractors or laborers
- Bill of sale: If there are any additional items included in the house sale like furniture, they will be outlined in the bill of sale
- Statement of closing costs: When you sign this document, you agree that you were informed about all of the closing costs and other fees and you agree to them
Sell Homes for Cash Fast and Stress-Free
Looking to get all-cash offers for homes?
You should follow the aforementioned processes to help you sell homes for cash quickly. To attract quality buyers, ensure you set a fair home price for the sale. For more insightful posts, visit the real estate section of our blog.
Read more: The Wonderful Benefits of Accepting a Cash Offer For Your Home
