There's a newer trend in town on a very convenient way to Sell Your San Antonio TX area home. Suffice it to say, I won't specifically name each company, but as a whole, they are called iBuyer's and offer you, the home seller a quick and efficient way to get your home sold without the hassle of preparing your home to sell, showings and anxiety of when the sale will take place. You can ask for an offer on your home, they will make one and if you decide to take it, walla, just pick the closing date and your done, (a little more
complicated than that, but that's the gist of it).
On the surface, this seems like an ideal way to get your home sold. No fuss, no muss, just get it sold and get on to the next adventure. The problem is, convenience like this is costly and may have you leaving a ton of money at the table as one would say. Now, obviously the first point is, they are not going to offer you what you could sell it for with a traditional listing agent. I'm assuming that you understand that. Again, most individuals understand that these iBuyers are going to turn and sell your home and want to turn a profit.
The second point is that they are going to charge you, the seller, traditionally MORE than a typical Listing Broker, meaning that you are still paying typical Broker fees to the other selling agent when this company lists and sell the home AND, for the convenience of selling your home to them at many times, BELOW market value, you are also paying them a Broker fee. Perhaps, you figured that as well and you're "ok with it". Again, you understand that convenience can and will come at a price.
The Third point however, is that once they offer and you accept, they are going to inspect the home and then more than likely charge you the home seller some repair costs. I've heard that number is anywhere from $2000-$8000 dollars.
We did a test on one of my team members homes and it looks like for the convenience of selling her home, it would cost her about $30,000 of her equity and that's using the minimal numbers on repairs, etc. One company offered her a minimum of $10,000 Under Market Value (meaning she could probably get $15 or 20K more in Today's market).
But I digress...what if, that's ok with you? The convenience of selling your home quickly, knowing that it's done with and you can move on can be quite tempting, EVEN if you have the extra money to give to these companies.
By the way...many of these companies exist and are doing the same thing in the places that you are moving to.....
If you are looking to purchase a home owned by one of these companies you have a new set of issues, such as:
They OVERPRICE the home and do not negotiate especially if the home is newly on the market...even after price changes they rarely negotiate lower.
Do not do the repairs that the seller gave them money for. They may pop in some new carpet and maybe slap on some paint but that's about it. (By the way...where's the disclosure for these inspecions? Whole 'nother post)
When and if you get to an agreed upon price, you may have issues with the negotiations of those repairs and, if the home doesn't appraise, then it's back to the drawing table, costing YOU time and money for inspections, appraisales and aggravation, (they don't like to sell at the appraised value)
These companies have a lot of capital that large hedge funds have thrown money to. They can afford to let a home sit there for months with no action. This, in the future, may cause neighborhoods to devalue and turn those homes into investment type properties in the San Antonio TX area. I have done the numbers on one company in particular and they have over 200 listings that haven't sold or have come back on the market in the past 6 months. They are just sitting there...vacant and overpriced.
Does this happen with EVERY iBuyer experience, no, not at all; however, if you're looking to Sell Your Home, I'd advise you do all the research you can before just opting for convenience. Grab your offer, then CALL ME, and do the comparison. Let me show you how I can Help You Findurwayhome and keep your money.
Convenience Can Be Costly!!
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