By Mashum Mollah
If you’re stuck with a home you no longer want and it needs repairs or isn’t in good condition, selling may be a costly hassle. Depending on the situation, you may need to hire a team of professional cleaners or hire contractors to execute expensive repairs. You’ll spend hours of your own time and incalculable effort getting the home ready for sale – and you might not even make back what you spend on it.
Instead, it may be better to sell a home as-is. But what does this mean, exactly, and is it always the right decision?
What It Means to Sell a Home “As Is”
Selling a home “as is” is, in some ways, exactly what it sounds like. Rather than fixing the home up to look prettier or appeal to specific buyers, you’ll be selling the home exactly as it stands, right now. If it’s in need of major repairs, that’s okay. If it’s full of furniture, that’s okay. If it hasn’t been cleaned in years, that’s okay too.
Typically, people and companies who buy homes “as is” are interested in the long-term potential value of the property. They specialize in fixing up properties, including decluttering, cleaning, repairing, and presenting properties to others. If you find one of these individuals or institutions, you can tell them about your property – and they might even be willing to buy it sight unseen.
In any case, the process will be quick. You’ll exchange information. You’ll negotiate a price. And in most cases, you’ll receive an all-cash offer for the home and hand over the keys in a matter of days or a few weeks.
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The Advantages of Selling As-Is
As you can see, there are a lot of advantages to selling a home as-is, including:
Less time spent
First, you’ll have to spend less time with the property. You won’t have to jump through hoops cleaning or repairing them. Instead of spending hours and weeks getting the property ready for sale, you can be done in the span of a couple of meetings.
Less effort spent
Don’t underestimate the amount of effort required to get a property in shape to sell. If you’re doing the work yourself, it can be exhausting for days or weeks on end. If you’re hiring someone else, you’ll still need to spend time managing them and coordinating them. Selling as-is requires almost no effort on your part.
Faster transaction closing
Generally speaking, selling a home as-is will close the transaction much faster than a traditional sale. Instead of waiting 45 days or longer for a buyer to get mortgage approval and go through the final paperwork steps, you’ll get a nearly immediate injection of cash. If you’re in need of capital, this is especially advantageous to you.
No third parties
When selling as is, you’ll typically work with a single party – the buyer. You won’t have to hire contractors. You won’t have to hire cleaners or home stagers. You won’t even have to worry about a real estate agent. Fewer third parties mean fewer variables that can go wrong.
No additional costs
It can be expensive to sell a home the traditional way. You’ll have to pay for cleaning, repairs, maintenance, staging, listing costs, and of course, the commission for your real estate agent. All those costs disappear if you’re selling the house as-is.
Peace of mind
Thanks to a combination of the above advantages, selling a home as is often leads people to have greater peace of mind. You’ll finish the sale faster and feel good doing it, rather than stressing about every little variable.
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The Disadvantages of Selling As-Is
Of course, there are also some disadvantages, such as:
Less buying competition (and fewer offers)
Because you’ll only be working with one party, you’re not going to enjoy the benefits of buying competition. You won’t receive competing offers and won’t have much leverage with which to negotiate.
Lower purchase price
Compared to listing on the traditional market with a real estate agent, selling as-is will typically yield a lower purchase price. Depending on the home and the deal you get, this could be financially disadvantageous.
Lost potential (in some cases)
Before finalizing the sale, you’ll get a chance to go through the property one last time. But if you miss something important, like a photo album or a work of art, it could be lost forever once the property changes hands.
So is it wise to sell your house as-is? That’s tough to say since the decision depends on so many variables. But if your home is in need of major repairs, if you don’t have time to manage the sale, or if you just want a stress-free experience, selling “as is” is something worth seriously considering.
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