If you need to sell your house fast, for whatever reason, there are a few ways to do it. It all depends on your situation, how much equity you need to get out of your house, and how flexible you are with the terms of the sale.
Here are the top 3 ways to sell your house fast, in any market:
1. Sell your house for cash to an investor. This is by far the fastest way to sell. You’ve probably seen the signs on telephone polls with “We buy houses cash” type wording. Or maybe you’ve even received some kind of mailer or postcard asking you if you want to sell for cash quickly.
The Pro’s to selling to an investor are you get cold, hard cash usually in under 30 days regardless of what condition your property is in. This is usually a good deal if your house needs lots of work and you don’t have the money or time to fix the property yourself. This is also a good idea if you need cash in your hand immediately to pay for some kind of emergency like a death in the family, medical bills, or even the taxman breathing down your neck.
The Con’s of selling to an investor are you need equity… lots of it. Most investors will only offer 50-65% of the market value minus repairs. So if your house would be worth $150,000 all fixed up and the house needed about $30,000 for repairs, the most you could expect from all cash investor would be around $60-70,000. Now, obviously, you would need to have a mortgage balance less than that amount otherwise you would have to cover the rest yourself at closing.
2. The next strategy for selling your house sell my house now is listing it with a Realtor or an agent, however, you would price it a good 10% below what the other listings similar to your house were going for. This allows buyers to immediately consider your property first, since it is priced the lowest when their agent pulls up listings for the area.
The Pro’s of selling this way is that you can usually get a buyer pretty quickly since, as mentioned, your house and listing would show up as the lowest price pick out of a bunch of homes for sale. Also, the prospective buyer would have an easier time getting their loan to close since the appraisal will generally show it being worth more and the lender would be much more comfortable making a loan on a under valued property.
The Con’s of selling at a lower price through an agent is, well, you’re getting much less than your property is worth. And you also have to consider the cost of selling. If you include the buyer’s agent and seller’s agent’s commission, closing costs, and other fees, that can set you back at least a further 12%. Meaning, you would typically net about 78% (10% from the listing discount minus 12% for the cost of selling) of the fair market value of your house. This is definitely a fast way to sell, again, if you have the equity to cover the discount, otherwise you would need to bring additional money to the closing table to get the house sold.