The rise of modern technology has undoubtedly had an impact on the real estate world. With this new landscape, comes the opportunity to sell your home online, rather than reaching out to a traditional real estate agent.
Online platforms provide tools to make it easier to get your house in the selling market by assisting you in listing your homes, take questions and inquiries, and haggle on the price of your choice – all without speaking to a real estate agent. This change is significant as sellers now have more control over the selling process–and typically do not have to pay for a high price of commission to their real estate agent. This notion is very enticing and leaves many sellers to say, “Heck yeah, I want to sell my house quickly and efficiently online.”
Selling homes (entirely) online is notoriously known for not yielding the best results, and it often results in less cash for homes than if homeowners were to work through a traditional real estate agent. Simply, there are some things that are done incorrectly, which will lessen the price you get for your house–these are seller mistakes. You may not know how to market your house properly, what is legally allowed for you to do, and you may not price your house accurately (most homeowners always place a too high of a price on their houses).
Another option many people discuss is having homeowners sell their house for hard cash. Investors or “we buy houses companies” often give sellers a cash offer on their home.”
Understanding Online Home Selling
Digital platforms have truly changed the way we sell homes. Much like the name suggests, sellers will post their homes on the internet for prospective buyers to view. The internet is accessible to many so you will be able to reach more people than you would have otherwise. Websites serve as the digital hand that buyers and sellers internationally can use to sell real estate, with interactions conducted on a way higher frequency than any normal day at the office.
Sellers will typically post an introduction of their homes as well as list the characteristics in the descriptions. On some platforms, sellers need not worry too much about the virtual tour as both the buying and selling functions come in pairs with the VR function, therefore optimizing the user experience for her.
Most property postings last for a period of 90 days and on most services, sellers will be able to close the deal at $80/transaction~. These “freelance” agents with DIY mentalities can prepare the documents themselves, so they pay once and the deal is done.
Advantages of Selling Your Home Online
Homeowners stand to save quite a bit of money in selling a home online. Traditional home selling often involves a commission, which might be around 5% to 6%. This savings, in particular, gives everyday homeowners the potential to avoid paying significant fees for the privilege of real estate selling.
The process gives homeowners a little more control. Homeowners can create listings, set their prices, and further market, as needed. This pricing strategy takes home selling to a new level for most homeowners.
On some platforms, there is the potential of reaching a wider audience. Many people looking to sell a commission-based home pay quite a bit of money to a real estate agent. Selling a home online prevents the need to pay these big fees. Every homeowner looking at selling should consider these unique opportunities.
Disadvantages of Selling Your Home Online
Selling your home online comes with one big binary caveat: You won’t have professional help, and going it alone could cost you. Real estate agents play many roles: sales expert, legal navigator, and superhero of sorts. They are jack-of-all-trade service providers with experience in one of the more complex asset classes. They help ensure that you don’t forget to switch hats and apply the correct sales strategy or overlook an important legal clause.
Many people who choose to sell their homes themselves do so because they have an aversion to the time it takes to market and show a home. Data suggests that time is the governing factor to how likely you are to get top dollar for your home on the open market. If you are not equipped to spend your work week plus overtime dealing with paperwork, zoning laws, photography, digital marketing, phone calls, and broker tasks, you should buck and hire an agent right now.
Further, you are not an expert in local market trends. Real estate is a local game. Knowing the name of a neighborhood can instantly raise the price of a sale. In San Francisco, for example, the more prestigious the neighborhood, the more likely the home will have absurd amenities. This is really all I have to say. Top agents sell homes for a living. And they sell similar homes often. Odds are, they will sell your home faster, easier, and for more money than you will selling on your own. After all, selling homes is”their” job. Sure, you could cover the sale of your home like an “agent.” But I know very few people who have made more than minimum wage playing agent at the casino that is American real estate.
The Role of Real Estate Agents
Many people may not know much about selling homes. So, there is only one thing that they can do: hire a real estate agent. Real estate agents make great negotiators. The real estate agent’s primary job is to get a client the best deal possible — and that skill is worth sticking the for-sale sign on your property. Selling a house is often a very emotional process. What real estate agents add to this is a level head. Rather than riding blind on a rollercoaster of emotions, a good real estate agent keeps a client grounded by telling them what is likely to occur during the home selling process.
The second reason why a person might decide to sell through an agent and not a FSBO property is the ridiculous amount of paperwork agents do. You don’t want to do it. I have seen it before and it doesn’t look fun. Talk about contracts, and disclosures, and other contracts, and paperwork no one understands, and more required disclosure paperwork. … To put it succinctly, the paperwork is massive and could confuse or intimidate some FSBO sellers.
Real estate agents know how to market listings better than an owner does. It’s true. And slightly funny. There are many more resources at the disposal of a real estate listing agent than there are at the disposal of a homeowner. Homeowners can’t put homes in an MLS database. Homeowners can’t buy as many ads as REALTORS® can. And homeowners can’t buy giant “for sale” signs, balloons, visual tours, or professional pictures, all of which can help to sell a home from the “for sale” sign in the front yard.
Selling Your House for Cash
A home sale for cash is exactly what it sounds—it’s a transaction where a buyer is able to pay the full amount for a house upfront, meaning there’s no need for any kind of mortgage financing. The simple fact that this is possible can potentially short-cut the process by a long shot, and homeowners can expect to have deals closed in a matter of a few days or a week, rather than a month. The simplicity of the transaction, even regardless of the speed, makes for a much less stressful process. None of the ups and downs that can come in a financed deal with entering loan approval or an appraisal are issues here.
That said—the answer to the obvious “why wouldn’t everyone sell for cash?” question is that you can expect to see significantly lower offers in cash sales than you might on the market. Cash buyers, usually investors or the companies buying houses for cash that we’ll cover below, are buying with the intent to sell at a profit later (known to many as “flipping” a house). This is basically saying that they’re expecting to buy on sale. So, while a home could sell very quickly on this market, the actual price of the sale might not be what homeowners are hoping for.
One might wonder how to actually find cash buyers. There are also a lot of websites and apps out there that can be used as tools to buy or sell a house for cash specifically. These are algorithms and sites that connect you with the types of investors in this landscape who might be looking for an investment exactly like your property, turning the homeowner’s resources into opportunities as they navigate through the journey of the buyer and listing their house somewhere the algorithm and other investors can see. Guys, really simple formula here. Here are a few options below. Scroll through them, and use the ones that you think might help you the most.
When you’ve got a home for sale, your two main options are to sell it online, or with a real estate agent. Both have their pros and cons so let’s go over both right here.
Online, these house sales platforms will have lower fees. You’ll have much more control over the process because you can set your price and no one else can change it but you. If you like control of the situation, this will be your best option. You will need to work a bit harder though because there’s no one to help you with all of the dirty work. Communication, paperwork, negotiations, will need to be done by you.
If you’re okay with handing over a commission of your sale to your real estate agent, they’re going to help out a lot. If you’re new to this, they’ve probably done this many times and know the ins and outs very well. You’ll also meet fewer people because he can contact all his potential buyers and, with good communication between you and the agent, he can probably get the sale at a higher price, to you.
We all have our house sales websites that we like, so for different reasons, go around these websites and look at them, then see what you think. You might find cool features like the inside of the house you want to walk into (known as a virtual tour) or a new advertising strategy because you don’t get more offers on your online ad if you don’t put it somewhere high-traffic.
Some of you might be very busy, so if you just want to get your sale over with, you probably went with our “We Buy Houses For Cash” option. This is the only option that’s quick and easy to understand. If it suits you, go for it, meet the guy for a while, show him your house, sign your papers, then get on with your day because you’ve got better things to do, like maybe a better house to plan for upstairs, or how you’re going to renovate a newly bought house!