Pros and Cons when Selling Your Home to an iBuyer
You’ve owned your home for a few years (maybe even a decade now) and you may be looking to get into a new living situation. Maybe your children have moved out, or the ‘less than pleasant’ neighbors have moved in nearby and you’re ready to sell your home. Regardless of the situation, selling to an iBuyer (or instant buyer) can be a good way to get quick cash for a home instead of putting it on the market, but there are some drawbacks with both routes.
If you’re thinking about selling your home this year, here’s what you need to know about the pros and cons of selling your home traditionally or to a real estate tech company.
iBuyer Pros
There are several reasons a homeowner might consider selling to an iBuyer – one of the biggest benefits of selling your home to an iBuyer is speed; if you want to get a quick cash offer for your home, an iBuyer is the way to go. On top of that, there are several other benefits to choosing an iBuyer over a traditional home sale:
With an iBuyer, you don’t have to worry about using a real estate agent for the transaction. The fact that there’s no real estate agent involved and the speed at which these transactions take place makes them a very efficient option for sellers.
The all-cash offer is another huge benefit to choosing an iBuyer over a traditional real estate sale because if you’re in a situation where you need to get cash quick so you can make an offer on another home, selling to an iBuyer is the easiest way to do that.
When selling your home traditionally, once you enter into contract and select your close date, generally you do not have much flexibility if you need to change it. However, with many iBuyer companies in the digital real estate space today, you can adjust your close date multiple times and even up to 90 days out to ensure a smooth transaction.
Another great part about iBuyers is the fact that you don’t have to worry about staging your home or making the repairs necessary to make it show ready. With iBuyers, all of those items are taken care of for you as they absorb majority of those repairs and costs.
iBuyer Cons
As is the case with anything, there are both pros and cons to using an iBuyer, so it’s important to weigh them against each other to decide if this is the right way for you to sell your home.
Perhaps the biggest con when it comes to using an iBuyer is the fact that you simply won’t get the most money you may get from a traditional sale. iBuyers have the advantage in the sense that they’re paying in cash, which means they can reduce their offers a bit. If you’re selling to an iBuyer, be prepared to receive a less of an offer on your home than you would if you sold your home the traditional way.
You generally can’t negotiate with an iBuyer, either. You’re simply given an offer that you can choose to accept or deny, but there’s not a lot of wiggle room – however, many companies have adopted alternate solutions like buy-back programs, home repair advance programs, and even working with in-house agents on getting your home sold on your timeline.
If an iBuyer does need to make repairs to your home to make it ready to sell, the cost of those repairs will be deducted from the price of your home.
And of course, iBuyers can’t help you rent your home. If you want to put a home or apartment up for rent to make a little money on the side, you’ll need to talk to someone else.
The Verdict
There are many pros and cons to selling your home to an iBuyer, so it can be tough to decide if an iBuyer is the right solution. What it boils down to for many is one of two things:
- Do you want/need to get out of your current home immediately and not worried about getting the maximum value for the home.
2. Are you not in a rush to sell your home and want to get the maximum value for your house, go through a traditional real estate sales process which may take more time than a cash offer.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy sale and don’t mind taking a little less money, an iBuyer is a great choice. But if you want to get the most value out of your home, you might want to consider a traditional sale. The choice is yours, but the 2021 real estate market is hot right now and is the perfect time look at cashing in and selling your home.
