Locating and Working With Investors Who Buy Homes

Select real estate markets in the United States will always be hot, but a large number of home sellers in all of the other markets will inevitably feel like they are going through a slow death when they try to sell their homes. Selling a home through traditional channels involves listing the home with a realtor, staging the home for showings, and waiting for a lender to approve a prospective buyer's mortgage application. A quicker and more effective home sale strategy is to sell the home to an investor who buys homes. Locating and working with a home investor is easier than you may realize.

The real estate investment community in the United States is expanding rapidly. Investors often have access to private funds and are able to extend all-cash offers for your home. The offer price that you receive from an investor will likely be less than you might ask for the home if you listed it with a realtor, but your net proceeds after a sale to an investor are usually the same or even more than your proceeds might be after a sale through traditional channels. Investor offers often close within thirty days or less, thus reducing the carrying costs that you would incur while you wait for a sale to close. You will pay no real estate commissions and will have no obligation to stage the house or to update or repair any of its systems. In short, you can be out of the house and have cash in your pocket within a few days or weeks after you sign a sale agreement with an investor.

Most metropolitan areas have real estate investment associations that meet at least monthly to share ideas and sales leads. Your first step toward locating an investor should be to contact an association in your area. You might also see ads for people and organizations that buy houses. You should contact more than one of those organizations in order to get competitive bidding interest in your home.

The investor's purchase offer will probably look different from the type of purchase offer that you might receive from a retail purchaser. Investor offer contracts often include clauses, for example, that allow the investor to assign a contract to another buyer. The investor might also offer to take over payments and maintenance on the house in the near term with a final purchase happening at a later date. Don't be put off by the form of offer that you receive from an investor. Real estate investors are very creative and will often be willing to work with you to devise a purchase solution that works for all parties.

At the end of the day, if you are trying to sell your home and are having no success with traditional sales channels, selling to an investor who buys homes can be your best alternative to get out of your home quickly with the largest amount of net cash proceeds in your bank account.