This is a collaborative post
Selling a home is a complex process. There are a whole range of things you’ll need to keep in mind, and it can be a notoriously time-consuming issue to navigate, taking months and months if you pursue a traditional sale.
For those looking to sell their home as quickly as possible, a lot of people choose to go with a cash sale. That being said, how quickly are cash sales in practice? We decided to take a look, and explore some of the nuances of fast cash sales that home sellers should be aware of.
The fastest sales
The fastest a cash buyer can purchase your home – from start to finish – is in about 7 days. That being said, this will mean taking a big financial hit on the amount that you make from the sale.
While with most cash sales, you can expect to get around 20% under market value, with a sale that’s completed in just a week, you can expect that to drop to around 50%.
This is primarily because the buyer has to take on a huge risk. There won’t be time to get a survey done, meaning they’ll be buying the property based on your pictures, with a huge sprinkle of trust involved.
If you really need to sell the property as quickly as possible, this might be worth it. In most cases, however, you’ll want to wait a little longer to get a fairer price for your home.
A more reasonable timeframe
In most cases, a cash sale can be completed in around 3-4 weeks. At that speed, the buyer will have time to do their due diligence, allowing them to carry out searches and surveys. This has the effect of limiting the risks that they need to take, and typically leads to an increase in the offer they’re willing to make.
It’s worth the wait
No matter how desperate you are to sell, it’s almost always worth waiting an additional couple of weeks to get 30% extra from the sale.
Whether you’re being rushed by your bank or by family members, it will normally be enough to contact them and explain the situation, showing that everyone will benefit by exercising just a little extra patience.
Even if your bank isn’t happy about a slight delay, it will be far quicker than having to force the property out of your hands through the courts and then sell it themselves. Likewise, impatient family members awaiting their inheritance may be upset, but in a couple of weeks, receiving a bigger figure should assuage those emotions.
If you’re pursuing a cash sale, it’s best to take a measured approach and not try to rush it through too quickly. You can stand to lose a lot from the sale if you’re not careful in identifying the right cash buyer, and there’s typically no good reason not to just wait a little bit longer to get that right.
A massive thank you to the team at Property Sale Watchdog for their input on this article.
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post