So you want an instant offer? No doubt you have heard about open door at this point, but Zillow and Amazon also have programs that allow you as a home seller to get an offer without any showings or contingencies. Check out the full video for all the details!
It is terribly convenient to just sell your home to an internet company. As they say on their commercials, there are no showings, no contingencies, and you get to look over the pricing details before you make a decision. If this all sounds too good to be true, it’s because it usually is.
These companies are in the market of buying homes to make a profit when they re-sell them. This means you are selling your home for less than you would get if you listed it with a realtor almost every time. They want to pay wholesale for your home, do a couple repairs, which likely means paint, and then they re-list it at the price it was worth in the first place.
Zillow
We have a great example of this. this offer below was presented to the client of an associate of mine. He needed to sell quickly but also wanted to be sure he was getting what his home was worth. He called his realtor to discuss what his opinion was and they needed up selling the home after 3 days on the market, for 6% commission at $550,000.
Had the seller chosen to go with this Zillow offer he would have left more than $100,000 on the table. Most the examples that we see aren’t this extreme, but in almost every case the seller could have received thousands more dollars if they had listed with a Realtor.
This model will of course work for some people, if you need to just sell and timing is more important than price, this is a great option. Just make sure you discuss everything in detail with a Realtor so you know all of your options.
Open Door
Another issue we see with Open Door specifically is the way they send over offers can be very misleading. They don’t charge a real estate commission but they do charge a 7% service fee (also known as a commission). They also over-estimate the time on market and time for closing, and lastly, they assume you will be paying 3.5% in seller concessions. You may have to pay some concessions for a buyer but this is rare, negotiable, and should not be thought of as a guarantee.
For this example the seller should have $18,000 more selling through a Realtor, but we don’t know what the home is actually worth either so they could have received even more. Again, it is very important to talk to a realtor about your home before you make any decisions.
If you have specific questions about your home and what it is worth, please reach out to us directly. Or if you want an instant valuation click here. You can also see our other real estate videos over on Youtube. Or our other posts HERE
We will talk to you again soon!