How to Prepare Your House to Sell

How to Prepare your House to Sell vs Companies that buy houses for cash!

Is it time to sell your house but the task of getting it ready to sell seems daunting and you are considering companies that buy houses for cash? Please read below before making your decision.

There are two key areas to focus on when planning to sell your home. These are:

  • Marketability
    • This refers to your home being desirable to potential buyers and includes things like curb appeal, layout, colors, materials, cleanliness, and even smell. What your buyers see, touch, and smell all impact their impression of your home.
  • Salability
    • This refers to the ease or ability for your home to sell and largely refers to the condition of your home. If your home is in rough shape, it might sell but might meet the requirements of mortgage lenders. Location, such as being in a flood plain or other area that may require significantly higher insurance premiums can also impact salability. 
    • Different types of loans (VA, FHA, MSHDA, Conventional, etc.) and different lenders have different requirements regarding home condition that must be met before they will lend on a home. 
    • Home inspections, a typical part of the home buying process, involve a professional home inspector go through pretty much every aspect of the home to identify areas of concern. Unsatisfactory findings from these home inspections often result in further sales negotiations and also buyers backing out of a purchase.

You need to plan for both marketability and salability when preparing to sell your home.

Doing the work to prepare your home for sale and listing your house with a realtor will certainly yield you the highest sale price. However, that may not be for you and you may be willing to sell at a considerable discount to one of the companies that buy houses for cash. Either way, there are many things to consider. Plus, there is an alternative option today with EZE that may just be your best option.

Options:

  • Prepare your house and list with a realtor
  • Sell to one of the companies that buy houses for cash (aka cash house buyer)
  • Sell with EZE

How do they compare? Let’s take a look at some of the primary considerations you might be using in your evaluation. 

  • Time to get ready to sell
    • Do the work myself and list with a realtor
      • Preparing your home for sale yourself will likely take the longest if doing the work yourself; that is, unless the home doesn’t require much repair or you have the time/skills/money/resources to get the work done quickly.
      • The more work needing completed and/or the less motivation you have to complete the work the longer it will take.
    • Cash House Buyer
      • Companies that buy houses for cash typically buy houses in as-is condition and there may not be any ‘sale preparation’ time required. 
      • These transactions can vary significantly and are customizable, however, and there may be conditions to the sale such as having it emptied out and left in ‘broom clean’ condition. 
    • EZE
      • EZE partners with homeowners to help them through their home for sale. This includes coordinating with their network of contractors and service providers to help you get your house ready and at a reasonable cost.
  • Preparing for home inspections – it’s a good idea to be proactive and know ahead of time what issues a home inspector might identify and address those prior to listing your house for sale.
    • Do the work myself and list with a realtor
      • You may or may not be working with a realtor who has a significant amount of experience with the identification and remediation of inspection items. Regardless, realtors aren’t typically going to spend the time an inspector will to go through every piece of the house looking for potential issues. 
      • You can hire a pre-listing home inspection to help you identify areas of concern and come up with a plan to address them.
    • Cash House Buyer
      • Not typically applicable
    • EZE
      • Preparing for home inspections with EZE is similar to if you were selling your home directly with a realtor. The difference is that EZE provides another set of eyes in addition to the realtor. 
      • EZE will work with you and your realtor to identify obvious areas of concern and a plan to mitigate; EZE also offers to hire a pre-listing inspection.
  • Amount of investment ($) required prior to completion of the sale
    • Do the work myself and list with a realtor
      • You are responsible for paying for any needed repairs or services.
    • Cash House Buyer
      • Typically none.
    • EZE
      • EZE covers the costs upfront and gets paid back via the closing.
  • Staging / Aesthetics
    • Do the work myself and list with a realtor
      • Your realtor may have recommendations regarding how to declutter, decorate, and make your home show really well. You might also have these skills and be able to nicely stage your home on your own. Alternatively, you can hire an interior designer and/or a professional staging service to plan and/or stage your home for you. 
    • Cash House Buyer
      • Not required.
    • EZE
      • Basic home staging comes with EZE’s services and EZE can coordinate with you if you want to do some additional staging work yourself or work with a staging service to prepare your home. 
  • Amount of effort required
    • Do the work myself and list with a realtor
      • It’s really up to you. You can hire out the work or complete the projects yourself.
    • Cash House Buyer
      • Typically little to none, although every agreement is customizable and they may want you to empty out your house/property and/or leave the house in “broom-clean” condition.
    • EZE
      • EZE partners with you and can tackle 100% of the home preparation but will also partner with you if there are elements that you want to complete yourself. We work as a team, along with a realtor, to define the project scope with you in order to maximize your outcome.
  • Time to Sell – 
    • Do the work myself and list with a realtor
      • Once your house is listed, it comes down to finding a buyer and then getting through the transaction. Key elements of finding a buyer include marketability of your home and price. Keeping your price elevated above its market value can cause your house to remain ‘for sale’ indefinitely so working with your realtor to price it to sell is very important. Once you have accepted an offer, the primary factors impacting timeline are inspections and loan approval (if obtaining a mortgage). 
        • Typical time to close from the time an offer is accepted: 4-8 weeks.
    • Cash House Buyer
      • An actual cash house buyer (please refer to other articles concerning wholesalers) can typically close in as little as 1-2 weeks. Some cash house buyers use institutional hard money lenders that still require an appraisal of the property and loan approval. Others may use their own or private investment and not have these constraints. Either way, you will want the closing to be coordinated by a title company (if in Michigan) and they require several days to a couple of weeks to prepare their title work and prepare for closing. Companies that buy houses for cash are usually the fastest way to sell a home.
    • EZE
      • EZE works with you to list your house with a realtor once the house is prepared for sale. Timelines are typically the same although there are times when inspection repairs are needed and EZE’s network of resources can often get these repairs completed in an expedited manner.
    • Note: regardless of which method of selling your house, there may be known or unknown issues related to title that need to be resolved prior to closing and can cause minor to significant delays to the closing.