If you’re considering selling your house in Lincoln, Nebraska, you’re probably also considering all of the costs involved in doing so. Selling your house on the open market comes with all kinds of pre-listing costs, staging costs, cleaning costs, and marketing costs. And then when you do sell your house you’ve got to consider real estate commissions and closing costs. When you add them all up, it’s enough to make you wonder if you’ll even turn a profit on the home sale.
However, there are alternatives when selling your house that can severely cut down on the costs involved. By selling your house as-is to a professional home buyer, you are using a process that not only eliminates many of the built-in costs of the home buying process but also saves you lots of time. Here are seven ways that a professional home buyer in Lincoln can save you money.
How A Professional Home Buyer Can Save You Money
No Real Estate Agent Commissions
Assuming you are represented by a real estate agent in Lincoln in order to sell your house, they will take a commission fee for services rendered. That fee usually ends up being around five or six percent of the final sale price, depending on where you live and which agency you work with. So if you sell your house for $400,000, the agent will take around $20,000 to $24,000 and then split that with the buyer’s agent. That’s a pretty big chunk of money, even if your eventual sale price ends up being less than that. When you sell your house to a cash buyer, you avoid any kind of commission fee because the transaction doesn’t require a real estate agent.
No Repair Costs
Even if you’ve maintained your house well, if you sell it on the open market you’re probably going to need to make some repairs in order to appeal to buyers. You can put off repairs and damage while you live there in order to deal with it later, but that won’t fly for buyers considering whether or not to buy the house from you. You’d have to pay a few hundred for a pre-inspection report to identify any potential repairs or damage that you’ll need to fix or have good answers for. You may find that the repairs you need to make are simple but you might also find out about major damage you didn’t know about, such as mold or water issues. As for the costs involved with repairs, that can range from a few bucks to thousands, depending on what needs to be done.
The best part about selling to a professional home buyer is that you’re selling the house as-is. No need to make any repairs. No need to fix anything. No need to even clean up. They will buy the house in its current condition for cash and not require anything else from you.
No Home Staging Costs
When you sell a house on the open market, you have to appeal to the widest set of potential buyers, many of whom have a different style to you. That’s where a home staging company comes in. A stager makes your house look as appealing as possible for the widest audience. That means everything from rearranging furniture to bringing in new furniture to altering your home decor. Costs involved often range between $2,000 to $3,500. People pay it because a large number of people in real estate say it makes a difference and helps a house sell faster on the open market. But when you sell directly to a professional home buyer, you don’t need to stage your house. They will buy it as-is, no need to change anything.
No Professional Photography Costs
The same goes for photography. Listing your house on the open market means getting a strong listing and you need professional photos to make your listing pop. The difference between pro photos and amateur photos is staggering, so it’s always worth the money to get your house photographed in a way that showcases its positives and accentuates all of the interesting angles. Of course, when you sell to a cash buyer, you don’t have to worry about any of that. They don’t need to be wowed by great photos, they’re interested in the potential of the property and are happy to but your house in its current condition.
No Landscaping Costs
Getting your house ready to sell on the open market in Lincoln isn’t just about making sure the inside looks good. It also means making sure the exteriors look as good as possible as well. Curb appeal is absolutely critical when you’re listed on the open market because you never know when a potential buyer might stop by or drive past. That means painting, landscaping, repaving, new fencing, or any number of other things. You’d want to hire professionals to do the best job possible. Depending on who you hire, you’re looking at anywhere from a few hundred and as much as a few thousand dollars. Of course, you don’t have to do any of that when selling to a cash buyer because they buy your house in its current condition.
No Concessions
When you enter into negotiations with a buyer on the market, you’ll often find that there is a give and take involved between both sides. While seller concessions aren’t a “cost” in the traditional sense, they are things that you give away that cut into your profits from the eventual sale. They include things such as paying for inspection fees or title costs, waiving certain fees, and lowering the price in order to agree to a quick sale. It’s hard to say how much these concessions will impact your bottom line but if you’re selling your house in a buyer’s market you can expect to make plenty of concessions. There are no concessions when you sell your Lincoln house directly to a professional home buyer because there are no negotiations. They make you an offer and if you accept they pay you in cash. That’s it.
No Closing Costs
Closing costs vary but almost always include insurance fees, appraisal fees, survey fees, credit report fees, transfer taxes, and title fees. Then there are issues such as loan payoffs, prepayment penalties on previous mortgages, and HOA dues, amongst others. According to Finder, the average home sale in Nebraska includes between $1,009 and $4,034 in closing costs after taxes.
You don’t have to worry about many of those costs when you sell your house to a professional home buyer like Element Homebuyers. In fact, they’ll often pay for the closing costs themselves so you don’t have to worry about them. You don’t have to worry about title fees or transfer taxes as they’ll get sorted out as part of the transaction.