You’ve decided it’s time to sell. You keep asking yourself if you should you go about hiring a real estate agent to sell your house in Arizona or should you just sell your house directly. If you are trying to decide whether you should sell your house directly vs. hiring a real estate agent, there are some questions you’ll have to ask yourself. Do you want to pay large commissions? How long are you willing to wait for the house to receive an offer? How long will it take to close? What sort of repairs will you have to make? How does the house look when I leave for work in the morning? Are you available to show your house with 24-hour notice, or less?
We’ve thought about that for you. Here are some details to help you answer those questions.
Showings
If you decide to sell your house directly to a professional house buyer like Rusty and Susanna of Pinal County House Buyer in Arizona, you won’t have to worry about going through a roller coaster of emotions. There are no frustrating, middle-of-dinner phone calls asking if you are available to show your house. You don’t have to worry about leaving your house spotless every day before heading to work, just in case there is a showing while you’re gone. You don’t have to worry about possibly running into a buyer’s agent or their clients or dealing with them asking you questions that you really shouldn’t answer anyway. You also don’t have to worry about buyers arguing with you over which furniture you are taking and what you are leaving.
When it comes to showings keep in mind that before you are able to carry out these appointments with potential buyers, you should have already cleaned your house, stored your extra personal stuff, and made necessary repairs to make your house as pleasing to the buyers’ eyes possible.
Commissions and Fees
Real estate agents are paid based on a percentage of the sale price of your house. If you do not use an agent, there will be no commissions paid to a buyer’s or seller’s agent. That means thousands of dollars in savings! The usual commission is 3% per side, so if you sell your house for $400,000, you would have to pay $24,000 out of your proceeds in commissions alone, along with the traditional seller’s closing fees and other possible transaction fees to the closing agent and the real estate agents office. Rusty and Susanna never charge commissions; we buy houses in any condition and pay all closing costs.
Waiting Time Frame
Real estate agents have access to the multiple listing service, or MLS, which allows your property to be found in searches for certain features of a property. This may seem as an advantage when you go about hiring a real estate agent, but how long will it sit on the market or the MLS? How fast will you receive offers? Real estate investors and other direct house buyers typically have a network of other house buyers for a state like Arizona. So if your property doesn’t fit their portfolio, then it may fit one of their colleagues’ portfolios in Arizona. Either way, this means there will only be a very short waiting time for you to get an offer. Also, when you sell your house in Arizona directly to house buyers, they will typically close faster than traditional buyers, and usually pay the full offer amount in cash. Traditional house purchases usually require qualifications from banks, mortgage underwriting time, property inspection and the buyer may not end up qualifying in the end.
Inspections & Repairs
Professional house buyers in Arizona will usually purchase houses as-is. As a seller, this means you do not have to worry about repairs before closing or any other additional expenses you were not planning on. There are some companies that do not require inspections which makes it a truly as-is transaction. When you hire a real estate agent, the buyer’s agent will almost always order an inspection of the property. If they find something wrong with the property structure, they may require you to fix it out of pocket before you are actually able to sell your house through them.
There are a lot of situations to think about when you are ready to sell your house. We can help you decide which avenue would be best for you. I recently sold a home to a family without a hiring a real estate agent. Follow the link to read my experience, tips and tools to make the process easier — The Ultimate Guide to For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) in Arizona