Differences between selling with an agent and a home buyer

When it’s time to sell their home, most people use a real estate agent to help them list and sell their home on the traditional real estate market (also called the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS).  Depending on the market, the house, and the agent’s abilities, this could be the way to sell a house for top dollar.  Right now, due in part to the shake-up of the housing market caused by the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic, our local Brenham housing market (and much of the country’s!) is a strong seller’s market, and there are lots of friendly agents available to help you list your property on the traditional market. 

But did you know that there are actually other ways to sell your home?  You may be familiar with “We Buy Houses” signs and ads around town – these are posted by professional home buyers.  Sometimes people who need to sell their house don’t want to go through the whole process of selling on the traditional market, so they will turn to a professional home buyer instead. 

So what are the differences between selling with an agent on the traditional market and selling to a professional house buyer?  If you are thinking of selling your house, you should be aware of this second option that’s available to you and the advantages it offers.

Selling to a home buyer is faster 

For some people, the biggest advantage with selling to a professional home buyer is that it’s much faster than selling on the traditional market.  For details on how this works, check out our post on How to Sell a House Quickly In Brenham.

Selling to a home buyer is easier

Not only is selling to a home buyer much faster, but it’s also quite a bit easier than selling on the traditional market.  You don’t have to go through the process of interviewing agents and figuring out which one will work the best for you.  You also don’t have to be constantly cleaning to be ready for buyers to drop in on short notice for a showing.  You might not have thought of it right away, but when selling on the traditional market it’s also important to keep your yard and landscaping meticulously maintained and mowed.  Curb appeal is very important to buyers on the traditional market, and maintaining it can be a lot of work!  When you sell to a professional home buyer on the other hand, you don’t have to worry about your yard.  

Finally, though certainly not the last reason why selling to a professional home buyer is easier, you don’t need to worry about repairs, getting rid of old junk, or cleaning anything at all!  They are able to take care of all of these things for you – you can leave any items you don’t want in the house, and they’ll handle everything.  Sometimes they are even able to provide help with moving if that is something you need.

Selling to a home buyer less stressful

If you are thinking of selling your home in Brenham or elsewhere, you might already be stressed out just at the thought of everything that needs to be done and the unknowns of how it all will turn out.  While there will likely always be at least a little bit of stress associated with selling a property, a professional home buyer can help alleviate a lot of the stress in many ways.  

To begin with, professional home buyers are experienced and can answer any questions or concerns you have about the process.  And, the fact that they are able to make the process faster and easier as discussed above goes a long way toward relieving stress.  

Another big factor is that with a quick, no-obligation offer from a professional home buyer, you know what you are getting right away and can take it or leave it – there’s no worrying about what offers you will get and whether buyers will ask for repairs and concessions, or back out of the deal entirely.  It’s not uncommon for buyers on the traditional market to fall through, or get delayed for long periods.  There are lots of reasons this can happen, including:

• Buyer gets cold feet about making a big purchase
• Buyer gets spooked by the inspection report
• The buyer’s loan gets denied
• If the buyer is using an FHA loan, the agency may require extensive repairs
• The buyer is unable to sell the other home they needed to sell in order to purchase your home

No surprise costs

The last difference that we’ll discuss here (though there are certainly more!) is that you won’t encounter any surprise costs when selling to a professional home buyer.  If you’ve sold a house on the traditional market before, then you are probably aware of the fact that you can expect to encounter many expenses associated with the sale and closing that really add up.  If you don’t have this experience, you will definitely want to find out what sort of costs to expect.

Check out our post on the costs of selling a house for a detailed description, but for now, know that they include :

• cleaning, staging, and marketing the property
• repairs before listing and after buyer inspections
• holding costs, or bills you still have to pay while waiting for the house to sell (utilities, insurance, property taxes)
• Real estate agent commission 
• closing costs (settlement fees, recording fees, etc)

If you are thinking of selling your home, you should be aware that there’s an alternative to hiring a real estate agent and selling on the traditional market.  If it’s important to you to sell your house quickly, putting cash in your pocket with minimal effort and stress, then selling to a professional home buyer might be the solution for you!  Oak Hill Home Solutions is a professional house buying company that serves Brenham, Texas and the surrounding areas (Bryan, College Station, Navasota, Somerville, Bellville, etc) – Contact Us today to learn more!