Don’t Let Cash Home Buyers in Pittsburgh Take Advantage of Your Situation
There are many reasons why you might want or need to sell your home quickly. Perhaps you’ve inherited a property and want to get it off your hands quickly. Maybe you need to come up with some money in a short amount of time. You could even be moving to accept a new job.
Whatever your reason for wanting to sell your house quickly, selling for cash might seem like a great idea. Companies have popped up all over offering to buy houses for cash, and they make a lot of promises to get you to pick them.
However, it’s important to remember one thing before you decide to sign on the dotted line: Wanting or needing to sell your house quickly could make you susceptible to being taken advantage of.
The faster you want to sell, the more likely it is that you’ll end up with the short end of the stick. Let’s take a closer look at these companies operating as cash home buyers in Pittsburgh to learn why they like to prey on homeowners in tough situations.
Cash Home Buyers Can Put You at a Disadvantage
If you think about it, choosing to sell to a company that’s a cash home buyer puts you at a significant disadvantage when compared to selling your home through a traditional real estate agent in the Pittsburgh area. These companies are the only ones who see your house and the only ones to make you an offer, so you don’t have any leverage to get a better value for your home.
Plus, their goal is to buy cheap. The cheaper these “We Buy Houses” Pittsburgh companies get your house for, the more they can sell it for and turn a profit. This works in direct opposition to what real estate companies do for sellers, which is attempt to get you the best price for your home.
So, how cheap are these “Cash for Houses” companies in Pittsburgh? They often offer you only 60-65% of your home’s true value. That’s a huge chunk of money you lose out on when selling for cash!
Even if your house isn’t the nicest on the block, you still deserve to sell it for what it’s worth. These cash home buyers don’t go after cheaper houses; they go after homeowners who may be forced to sell their houses for cheap.
What These Companies Don’t Tell You
These cash home buyers take advantage of your situation by omitting a few very important details. Here are a few things you probably wish they’d tell you:
- Selling fast works to their advantage – not yours. Even if you want or need to sell your house fast, they also benefit from this need for speed. The quicker they buy the house from you, the less time you have to think about it or consider other options.
- They tout no commissions or fees, but they charge the biggest fee of all. These cash home buyers love to remind you about the fees and commissions you’ll pay when selling through a real estate company. But what they don’t tell you is that they’re only paying you 60-65% of your home’s real value, so they’re actually charging you a 35-40% fee in the transaction. That’s much more costly than any 6% commission or 2% closing costs you’ll see with a real estate agent.
- They might resell your house without making any improvements. While some of these companies will make updates to your house and flip it for a larger windfall, that isn’t always the case. By lowballing you, some of these companies can turn around and make an immediate profit by selling to the highest bidder.
Selling With a Real Estate Agent Is More Profitable
“Cash for Houses” companies know what your house is worth but pay you significantly less so they can turn a large profit. If they buy your house for $60k and turn around and sell it for $100k, why not cut out the middleman and try to sell your house for $100k?
When you work with a licensed and insured Pittsburgh real estate company, they work to pad your profits by connecting you with a buyer who wants to pay full price for your home. Real estate companies do this by listing your home on Zillow, Realtor.com, the West Penn Multi List, Facebook, and other places to drum up excitement about your home.
The more people aware of your house being for sale, the more likely you are to sell it at full price–or even above full price. Even once you account for fees and commissions, you’ll make a bigger profit selling with a real estate services company than by working with a “We Buy Houses” company.
