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What are the pros and cons of selling a house privately to a real estate investor? You’ve seen the signs, maybe received a flyer in your mailbox but not all investors and not all situations are the same. Let’s take a look.

First, The Pros of Selling Your House Privately

Fast offer

While we can make offers quickly, it is not instant. We still need to see the home or at least photos or video to determine its condition, establish its value, and prepare our offer. However, it is still typically much faster than putting your home on the market or hiring an agent to sell it the traditional way.

Quick closing period

This is the real reason selling your house to an investor is fast. We don’t need to secure traditional financing. However, each of our lawyers should still review the offer and they will also handle the exchange of money and keys.

No Repairs, cleaning, or upgrades

The time, money, and inconvenience you save from not having to clean, repair, or upgrade is where our profit margin lies and also the biggest benefit for private sellers. Deciding to sell to an investor can save thousands of dollars.

Man in yellow shirt and brown pants wearing baseball cap backwards making painting the edges of an archway grey. There is a big red x across him indicating repairs and upgrades are not required

Our business model is to purchase houses at their current value and make improvements quicker and cheaper than homeowners could on their own. Selling the rehabilitated property at a higher selling price after making it move-in ready is our paycheque for the work we completed instead of the homeowner.

No Staging or storing items for viewings or open house which means less stress and inconvenience

Moving is stressful. Many of the reasons people choose to sell a home are stressful like losing a loved one, financial challenges, divorce, downsizing, illness, damaged property, etc. Adding the stress of storing your belongings to stage the home for sale can sometimes be the final straw. None of that is necessary if you sell privately.

MJS Properties specializes in helping those facing challenges. We have a lot of experience transforming distressed properties into beautiful new homes.

Cash buyer takes on any issues with the property

Listing a home that may have issues or obvious flaws can make it difficult to sell or expensive to fix to impress potential buyers. An as-is property sale is easy because a cash buyer doesn’t need an appraisal for a mortgage or insurance confirmation. Selling privately is a great option when you don’t know if there are issues or not. A skilled real estate investor will know what to look for and incorporate the risk of the unknown into their offer.

No commissions or DIY listing fees

Hiring a real estate agent to assist with selling your home means paying them a commission and the commission for the buyer’s agent. If you decide to go the FSBO (for sale by owner) route, you still need to pay to list and advertise it. Selling privately eliminates this expense and you keep that money in your pocket.

3D Image of golden 5 percent with red x across it indicating no real estate commission

No added expense to prepare the house for sale

Besides commission, preparing a home to list on the market costs money. Staging, cleaning, photography, advertising. Some of these expenses may be part of the agent’s services or you may have to pay for them separately depending on what method of listing you choose. This is another way to save money selling privately with no additional fees.

Total control over closing dates

You, the home seller, have the option for a quick close or you can schedule it further away depending on your situation. Want time to find your dream home? Need to settle an estate? Trying to avoid a power of sale? You are in complete control of the closing date with a private sale.

Sounds pretty easy.

If we are discussing the pros AND cons of selling a house privately, what’s the downside?

Low offers

Yes, a cash offer is typically lower than what an agent would value the home’s selling price to be. But earning that higher sale price also comes at a cost. The homeowner will have to make repairs, clean and stage the home, pay for inspections and commissions or fees. Not to mention the effort and inconvenience.

Even with a lower selling price, you can still make a higher profit.

When MJS Properties makes an offer, those costs aren’t necessary. You get to keep the entire amount with no further investment in your home or expenses to prepare it for sale.

Yellow ruled piece of paper sitting on a wooden table with writing and red pen on top. Written in black pen is Selling Price with agent less cleaning & repairs, less storage cost for staging, less inspection cost, less commission equals PROFIT circled in red. Also written in black is Cash offer equals ALL PROFIT circled in red & NO EFFORT.

Often when you compare both options, the amount you get to keep is pretty close without all the added time and hassle. If not, then it’s not the right solution for you.

Don’t get competitive bids

We’ve all heard the stories of bidding wars and over asking offers. In a seller’s market, that’s common. We are the first to admit it does not suit every house or situation to sell privately.

If your house needs minor work and is virtually move-in ready, by all means, find a great agent to list your home and watch the bids roll in.

Offers still not guaranteed

Even a private sale comes with some element of risk of the buyer abandoning the offer and not closing. Some cash buyers are wholesalers. They present an offer intending on finding another buyer to flip it to without doing much work to it. If they can’t find a buyer, the deal may not close.

To lower this risk, make sure you choose the right private home buyer.

Do your homework. Do they have the funds in place? Ask what their plans are for the home after the sale goes through. MJS Properties is excited to share its vision for the homes we purchase.

So how does it work?

An as is property sale is quite a simple process

Info graphic of 4 step process of how a private sale works with MJS Properties. 1 – provide some information. 2 – make an appointment. 3 – make a decision. 4 – get an offer.

Our goal is just as simple: to make selling your home easy.

Free Consultation

We can answer questions about comparable homes on the market versus the condition of your home. We would be happy to discuss the pros and cons of selling a house privately with you to determine if it’s the best option in your situation.  Our main priority is to leave you with more information than you had before we met.