How to Sell a House Fast When There Are Too Many Repairs?

The benefits of selling your fixer-upper to a cash buyer

Selling your home can be headache-inducing. Advertisements, Realtor fees, and home inspections are both time-consuming and costly. If you’re attempting to sell a house that needs a lot of work, getting your home in showroom condition might not be worth it financially.

In preparation of selling your property, you must be able to answer this question: will I receive more money once I fix a house or sell it as-is? If finances are lacking and major repairs are necessary, the question becomes how do you sell a house when you cannot afford to fix it?

Renovations and Frankenhouses

Making your home attractive to potential homebuyers is necessary for a top-dollar sale. While cosmetic issues – like wall color, replacing appliances, and chipped floors – are cheap and might not hinder a sale, structural defects are expensive repairs that must be made. Sometimes, the most major repairs are only unsurfaced after a thorough home inspection.

“Every house has defects,” Jack M. Guttentag, Professor of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania states, “some obvious and some hidden.” When attempting to sell a house fast with repairs, you need to consider these hard-to-find repairs and what it might mean to a buyer. Most buyers aren’t willing to pay the desired asking price on the assumption that everything they can’t see is in peak condition.

In many cases, it’s easier to sell a house fast with repairs. But how do you make structural repairs without bleeding your wallet dry? Some sellers utilize contractors. While many contractors are equipped to handle minor damage and short renovations, too many have transformed beautiful homes into ugly Frankenhouses.

According to CNN Money’s staff writer, Les Christie, Frankenhouses are homes that feature badly renovated, odd eyesores “like pipes running through living rooms, bedrooms strung together like garlic cloves, and fluorescent floors”. They offer the buyer dysfunctional floor plans, outdated finishes, awful color schemes, and downright thoughtless room repurposing. They’re unappealing to the average homebuyer and, thus, stay on the market for longer periods of time.

Using contractors to help sell a house that needs a lot of work comes with a steeper price tag and longer transition period between listing and closing. Best case scenario: your contractor does exceptional work within a guaranteed allotted timeframe. To fix those major structural defects – like replacing your roof, deck, or septic system – means shelling out thousands of dollars before even listing your home.

Renovating your home with contractors before selling can also deter potential buyers. When confronting cosmetic and particular major repairs, homeowners are faced with home-altering decisions. A variety of these improvements are highly stylized and, consequentially, require the right individual tastes that can differ among neighborhoods, regions, and time periods dependent on what’s in-style. A feature that you love could be the deal-breaker for a buyer.

Selling with a Realtor As-Is

So how do you sell your fixer-upper if making repairs is necessary but the thought of hiring contractors and owning a Frankenhouse is unsavory? Many homeowners decide acquiring a Realtor and selling their house without making repairs is the only option.

Going the traditional route and using a Realtor to sell a house fast with repairs is tough enough; but selling a house that needs repairs, especially major ones, is seemingly impossible for even experienced real estate agents. As the 2016 housing market steadily grows, as projected by Jonathan Smoke, Chief Economist for Realtor.com, buyers have become more selective with a plethora of homes for sale. Smoke predicts that six million homes will be sold this year alone, the highest amount of homes sold in a decade. With that kind of supply, sellers must expect more time on the market and fiercer competition.

When selling a house that needs repairs, Realtors often suggest lowering your asking price to shorten your home’s time on market. In theory, this is great. The more time a house spends on the market, the more time a homeowner spends paying the home’s utilities, taxes, and insurance. However, your Realtor is more concerned with selling and receiving payment than selling your home at top price to the right buyer. Sometimes, using a Realtor means giving up your home’s best chance to sell.

Using a Realtor also comes with unexpected fees, commissions, and unwanted advice on how to manage your property. Yahoo! Finance’s Mandi Woodruff estimates that even after paying the buyer’s commission – generally 3% – For Sale By Owners (FSBOs) cut selling costs in half by avoiding their own broker’s commission. With a median household cost, cutting out a Realtor saves thousands!

A Stress-Free Solution

If you’re looking to sell a house fast with repairs by using contractors, expect heavy fees, paperwork, and other hassles. If you’re wanting to hire a Realtor and sell without making repairs, expect even heavier fees, more paperwork, a longer time on market, and other complications due to third-party involvement. But if you desire a simple, stress-free solution to selling your house with too many repairs, consider a cash buyer.

Considering a cash buyer might seem unorthodox, but it’s quite common in today’s market. According to 2012’s Investment Issue of Forbes Magazine, roughly 30 percent of homebuyers used 100 percent cash when purchasing, with some estimating that percentage even higher today.

Accepting a cash offer eliminates many struggles sellers face when trying to sell a house fast with repairs, and especially without them. Cash buyers offer a much quicker close. This is due to their ability to skip the mortgage process completely. By avoiding banks, selling to a cash buyer means closing and receiving payment within a week – as opposed to the typical 30 days. This speed of sell means more money in your pocket sooner.

Cash buyers also provide more stability for sellers. They are usually pre-approved before making an offer on your home. So when a cash buyer is interested, there’s a sureness of sell that cannot be matched elsewhere.

Arguably the best advantage to accepting a cash buyer is their desire to buy your home as-is. Homeowners needn’t worry about fixing major repairs, updating outdated finishes, or appealing to the average buyer. A cash buyer wants your home just the way it is, and is willing to pay fair market value for it.

So how do you sell a house fast when there are too many repairs? Avoid costly renovations and contractors, skip the Realtor and their associated fees, and seek out cash home buyers. They offer you more security and money without settling for less.

Sell Your House Fast in San Antonio to Danny Buys Houses

Instead, why not sell your home to Danny Buys Houses! When selling a house that needs lots of repairs, Danny can give you a fast sale and cash. All you need to do is fill out the form to get the process moving. Danny is in the San Antonio area so he can make you a cash offer within 24 hours. In just a few days, you’ll be free of your house and able to move on with your life. You’ll have quick cash and can immediately begin prioritizing your financial goals. This is how to sell a house fast in San Antonio.

Testimonials: Click here to read testimonials from some of our customers

Sell Your House to a Cash House Buying Company

Another option is to sell your house to a house-buying company. This gives you the best of both worlds! You won’t have to worry about any repairs, you save on commission costs and you can receive a quote in just 24 hours.

Danny Buys Houses gives you a cash offer within one day and you can close it whenever you want. Your house can be sold in a week!

If you need to sell your San Antonio area house fast and would like to get a no-obligation cash offer, call us now at 210-610-2511. Whether you decide to sell your house to us or not, we would like to help answer questions you might have about the process.