Sell your house fast for cash in Alafaya
Q) If you live in Alafaya, Florida and need to sell your house fast, should you call a realtor or a real estate investor?
A) If fast means ‘4 months or less’ you need to call a real estate investor.
To find out why let’s look at this picture of a normal home in the suburbs that I recently visited. There is no realtor sign on the post because the post was just installed. The owner of this home followed traditional thinking and contracted a realtor to sell the house after having missed 4 mortgage payments.
Maybe 3 months is enough time to find a buyer and close in Alafaya but if no buyer comes to the table the homeowner could lose his house to the bank. Of course the real estate agent will be working hard to sell the house fast but a number of things could happen which would prevent that.
1) The first is that your real estate agent might give unrealstic expectations about a high price. If he lists this unrealistic figure on the MLS and the house is not sold in 30 days then the house receives the ‘kiss of death’. That is to say, even if the agent gradually lowers the house there is a negative stigma attached because it didn’t sell right away. In this situation buyers become overly cautious about what they perceive as a flawed property.
2) Often a buyer will tell the realtor about the visible damages and use that as a tool to get a lower price. With this in mind, you have to ask why a seller in preforeclosure status is using a realtor in the first place. A real estate investor buys a house for a lower price up front so he can do the needed repairs himself.
3) Realtors want to avoid the situation of point 2 so they ask you to pay for renovations yourself before the house goes onto the market. If your goal is to sell your house fast for cash and you have to spend $20,000 – $30,000 on repairs you will be disappointed.
4) Buyers in Alafaya that are introduced to your house through a realtor are extremely picky. According to a survey, 95% of regular house buyers searching the open market will only buy a house if it is a ‘turnkey’ house. This implies that they want to move in and not worry about repairs. They will buy a house fast that needs work but only on their terms which will cost you time and money.
5) If you do find a buyer on the open market things may look rosy in the initial stages. You need to sell your house fast and the buyer wants to buy it even quicker. But sometimes the deal won’t make it to the closing table because the buyer needs to sell his own house before buying yours.
Can you believe these houses are in the same city?
As a real estate investor I do a lot of door knocking and these two houses were on my radar. Can you guess the house of the owner that was motivated to sell fast for cash? It was the house to the right. That’s correct… the beautiful house to the right was headed for foreclosure and the owner didn’t want to lose it to a bank.
That leads you to ask why there was no desperation on the part of the other owner to quickly sell his dilapidated shack. The reason is because it’s out of sight and out of mind.
To give some background about that, the shack owner doesn’t live there and so he doesn’t have to see it on a daily basis. The house has been unoccupied for so long that the street address number on the front is different than the city’s tax records. That means that a rezoning of the area had happened and the owner was no more the wiser.
I of course left one of our door hangers on the front porch door. But honestly I don’t expect a response because there’s no motivation on the part of the homeowner to quickly sell it. Unless cities like Alafaya, Union Park and others in Orange County become more stringent about property maintenance, houses like this will remain an eyesore.
Can you now see why real estate investors are an important part of society? We will do our best to follow up with this homeowner for the long term just like many others in the area.
If we end up buying and flipping just a few of those houses we consider those transactions major victories. The sellers gets cash at the closing. We eventually make money on our investments. The values of the surrounding houses go up as well as the city’s overall standard of living.
Why not sell FSBO?
There are some homeowners that want to bypass realtors AND real estate investors in favor of selling FSBO (For Sale By Owner). Though this is not popular in Alafaya, you will occasionally see this in some of the lower income areas around River Reach Drive or Dylan Street.
This strategy could sometimes make sense but if you are in a situation where you need to sell your house fast you will probably be disappointed. The main reason is that an FSBO homeowner doesn’t understand how to effectively do real estate marketing. And if he does find a buyer, he will try to sell at an unrealistically high price.
What can you do with cash from the sale?
No doubt you are in a financial bind or in a situation which makes life overly complicated. Either way, cash in hand is a powerful thing which gives you freedom and security. You can live life on your own terms as you move towards prosperity in Alafaya. Until that time there are a few things you can do with cash from a fast home sale that you couldn’t do before.
1) Take a small vacation – Go someplace that you haven’t been since you were a child. Maybe you’ll be able to meet relatives there that you’ve lost touch with. Getting close with family is a powerful dynamic and will let you live a more meaningful life moving forward.
2) Pay off debts – The reason why most people aren’t well off is because of the interest from their debt. If you can pay the debt off you will be free to save more of what you earn.
3) Plan for retirement – Selling your house fast can be a lifeline towards your future. You will be able to put more money into a 401K or IRA. No more testing different credit cards at the register to see which one will allow your to buy groceries. No more embarrassment at restaurants when the waiter comes back to tell you that your credit card has been declined.
4) Move to a better area – Maybe you’re living in a distressed home on Wiles Way and are concerned about your safety. For years you’ve had your heart set on living in a nicer house on Jamaica Dogwood Drive but your finances have held you back. By simply calling us to receive an offer for your Alafaya home you can begin the groundwork for selling your house fast.
5) Dream – Through the simple process of a quick house sale you open the door to dreaming again. You can quit your job and use this time to find something better, giving you a lot more income. With nothing holding you down you can even move to another state and start over. Financial freedom from cash at the closing can allow you to dream and reset your life.
Coronavirus Reset
Maybe you were one of the many who lost their job during the coronavirus pandemic. It didn’t matter how well you did your job or how long you worked there. One day you found yourself out of work and you are realizing that you need to bounce back. Selling your house fast can reset your life and give you options to get a better job than what you originally had.
The unfortunate part of life is that crisis is always just around the corner. Being flexible is important if you want to recover. What we can do is give you an offer based on your property tax records and some sale comparisons of surrounding homes. When we come to a number that works for us we will submit that to you. Of course this initial quote will be based on other things like the condition of your house that you describe to us.
If you decide to work wit us we will inspect the house and take pictures. After having physically seen the inside we can be sure of our offer and you can decide if you’d like to move forward. The mourning period in the wake of the coronavirus doesn’t have to be long and you can bounce back by starting with a quick sale of your home.
Conclusion
The reasons for a homeowner in Alafaya, Florida to sell a home fast are numerous. Some situations are born from years of willful neglect; others happen through no fault of the homeowner. In either situation we are here to help reset your life so that your next chapter is even better than what you’ve experienced.
In this article a special emphasis was placed on the 3 options of working with a realtor, a real estate investor or just selling FSBO. A homeowner that is pressured to sell quickly could be placing himself in jeopardy if he were to choose the wrong venue. Doing enough research before making this decision will put you in a better place after the sale.