Sometimes we find ourselves needing to sell our house fast depending on what life situations we are dealing with at that time. If you find yourself in one of these life situations and you’re wondering “How long does it take to sell my house with an agent vs selling to an investor?” then this blog post will guide you through the answer…
You want to sell your house, and perhaps you need to sell in a hurry. Chances are, you arrived at this blog post because you’re hoping to find the best solution for you that sells your house as quickly as YOU want.
Before we get to the answer, it’s important to understand the difference between what an agent does and what an investor does:
When you sell your house with an agent, you ask the agent to represent you in a sale to find the right buyer for you. In other words, you’re selling THROUGH an agent to a buyer. They are the middle person in all of this.
When you sell your house with an investor, you are actually working directly with the one who will be buying your house. In other words, you’re selling directly TO an investor (they are the buyer).
Now that you understand the difference, here’s how long it can take…
How Long Does It Take To Sell My House With An Agent Vs An Investor?
The Agent…
An agent needs to show your house to prospective buyers and try to convince them to buy it. Therefore, they’ll want your house to be in pristine condition, throughout the entire process. That means by the time you sign the agreement with the listing agent, it needs to be ready to go so they can bring someone in to take pictures.
Once the pictures are completed, the listing should go live in their system. Once the system goes live, then your home will need to remain in pristine condition for every single buyer showing. They will need to visualize themselves living there and it’s hard for them to do that if the house is a wreck.
With all that being said, it can take weeks or even months for you to fix up your house before an agent feels that it’s ready to list. In this crazy market we’re in, good (and affordable) labor is hard to find on top of the supply chain issues with materials. These two things alone are causing a slowdown in renovation times.
And once the agent lists your home, it could still take months before you finally close and collect your profits. And even though we’re in a market where buyers are easy to find, doesn’t mean you will close quickly. There are so many things that can go wrong in that transaction. They still need to get an inspection and once they do, the buyers will be showing you that report expecting you to fix most of those items.
If you both come to an agreement on repair items, then you have to worry about the buyers qualifying for their financing. THAT’S RIGHT!! Just because they showed you a pre-approval letter from their lender when they submitted their offer, doesn’t mean they are qualified for financing. Lenders only require paystubs and a credit check when they qualify buyers. They go into MUCH more depth once that buyer is under contract.
And I’m not finished….You still have the dreaded appraisal to worry about. All lenders require an appraisal and if it doesn’t match the buyer’s contract price, then it’s left open for negotiations yet again.
So not only can it take months to sell your house through an agent, but it’s also not guaranteed that the agent will find you the right buyer – it all depends on way too many variables.
How Long Does It Take To Sell My House With An Agent Vs An Investor?
The Investor…
This part surprises most people: an investor can buy your house very fast – some investors can even buy in as little as 7-10 days if that’s what you want. That’s because the investor is the buyer (so no showings are necessary) and many investors (including us here at North Texas Cash For Homes) buy houses in any condition so you don’t have to fix up the property either. To make it even sweeter, we don’t qualify for financing through a traditional bank which allows us a lot more freedom. Since we don’t go through a traditional bank, the lenders we use don’t require the seller to make any repairs and they also don’t require any appraisals! It’s a much more simple of a process and much faster!!
So, should you sell through an agent or sell to an investor? That’s up to you. An investor is faster so if speed is important to you then you may want to think about selling to an investor.