Easy Ways To Sell Your Home For Cash And Not Worry About The Paperwork

You’ve finally reached age 65 and you’re ready to retire. You’re taking your shift in life stages very seriously and you are planning to do everything you never got to do because you had a family to raise and a career to attend to.

You want to travel, possibly even move abroad. You look around your house and you realise with your children gone, it’s just too much. Too much maintenance, too many taxes and it’s too large for your needs. 

You’re thinking about basking in the tropical sun, but before you can do that, you need to sell your home. The sooner you can do so, the better, as you want to be on your way. No complications, as little paperwork as possible and then you’re on your way with the money in hand.

Handling cash sales

After some thought, you’ve decided to sell your home for cash. You’ve done your research, cash sales can be completed in as little as two weeks compared to the 45-90 days for more traditional sales.

You have a choice between selling for cash as an owner, or selling to a home buyer. Each has its benefits.

In Memphis, selling to a home buyer is becoming increasingly popular because they can offer more for your home than you may be able to get from a private buyer. So if you are selling your house in Memphis at the moment, you might consider taking a cash offer. However, if you have time and don’t mind the back-and-forth negotiations, selling as an owner can also get you a great price. We’ll explore the benefits and details of both methods to help you make an informed decision.

Selling for cash as an owner

Selling for cash and selling as an owner combined can significantly reduce the time it takes to sell your home.

A cash offer means the buyer is financing the purchase with their own money. This means that there are no bank requirements to satisfy, so you cut out a number of steps that a bank would require for loan approval. You also cut out commission fees to a real estate agent and lower other ancillary costs, which puts more money in your pocket 

However, you need to understand that in a sale by the owner, you are responsible for everything concerned with the sale. You have to list, set your price correctly, market your home, arrange showings and deal with the closing process. This process is also called we buy houses flippers.

Selling to a home buyer

A home buyer is an individual or company that will buy your home and make a cash offer on it. 

A home buyer is usually the final purchaser for your home. If you need help selling your house quickly, this is definitely the way to go. Once they make an offer and you accept, you are freed from the inconvenience of stagings, multiple showings and repairs. 

You are also free from much of the paperwork of a traditional sale. Just to compare, here’s a listing of the documentation you’ll need for a traditional sale and a sale to a home buyer.

Traditional sale

Your original sales contract

• Home repair and maintenance records
• Comparative Market Analysis
• Listing Contract
• Preliminary Title Report
• Disclosures about the home
• Purchase offer and Counter offer
• Final purchase agreement
• Appraisal Form
• Home Inspection Report
• Final purchase agreement
• Deed

As a seller, you’re probably tired just looking at this list. Now look at the documents you’ll need to conclude a sale with a homebuyer.

• A purchase and sale agreement
• Statement of proof of funds from the buyer
• Closing documents

These, of course, are not exhaustive lists of the documents you will need for either type of transaction. They are an example of what would generally be needed. Still, you can see the vast difference in the number of documents you would have to process.

Other advantages of cash sales

Beyond reducing paperwork, cash sales confer other benefits on the seller.

1.With cash in hand, you can put in an offer, or even make a downpayment on their new home. So let’s say you’ve decided to move abroad. You now have the cash to purchase the home you’ve had your eye on there. 

With cash, you’ll be a more competitive buyer than another who is waiting on a bank to approve a loan for this overseas purchase.

For that matter, you now have cash in hand to do anything you need or want. You can pay off debts before you leave, deposit it in your account as savings or make some investments to generate income to help carry you through your retirement years.

2.You already have an idea of some of the money you’ll be saving because you won’t be paying a real estate commission, but there are other fees you won’t be paying as well because you accepted a cash offer for your house.

You won’t be dealing with fees for home repairs. Cash buyers tend to purchase “as is” because they plan to renovate and sell at a profit or tear the house down because they are more interested in the land the property is on.

You won’t only not be dealing with the inconvenience of stagings, multiple showings and the like, you also won’t have to deal with the costs. The expense of cleaning your home, removing and storing your furniture and hiring a staging company can be a substantial side cost to your sale.

3. You won’t be paying utilities. Even if you move out of your house, until the new owner arrives, you are responsible for the utilities. Your sale with a cash buyer can be wrapped in as little as 10 to 14 days. You won’t even be responsible for an additional month of bill payments.

4.You won’t have to pay for somewhere else to stay while your home is being sold. Living in a home while it is being shown to prospective buyers is irritating. The home must always be “show ready” and you must always be prepared for short-notice visits until the home is sold. 

This is why most people rent an apartment or move to a hotel/motel until the transaction is through. With home buyers, arrangements can be more flexible. You can negotiate to stay in the home until you have sorted out your affairs and can leave at no additional cost to yourself.

If you want to avoid mountains of paperwork and be out of your home quickly, a cash buyer situation may be better for you. Weigh all the advantages presented above and then make a decision.