In the United States, nearly 5 million existing homes have been sold in the last year. Selling your house can be a stressful, confusing, yet exciting time. Perhaps you’re thinking of putting your house on the market and need some advice on how to do that?
There’s a good chance that you’ve given some thought to whether you should sell your house as is. Stick with this article to learn more about how that works, as well as the pros and cons of doing so.
Let’s take a look.
What is “As Is” Condition?
When selling your home “as is” you’re essentially committing to selling your home without making any repairs to its current condition to improve its value or aesthetic.
Buyers wanting to purchase the property will have to submit an “as is offer” that confirms that they are agreeing to buy the property from you in its current state. Any issues uncovered by the buyer during a home inspection do not have to be repaired by the party selling the house.
Misconceptions
Just because you’re selling the property as is, it doesn’t mean that you can just sell up right away without having to think about anything else. You still have to go through the usual disclosure procedures.
This means that you’ll still be required to inform any potential new buyers of any issues or defects with the property. The as is condition only allows you to leave them unfixed.
If you withhold any information from a buyer that should’ve been disclosed at this stage, then you could find yourself with legal troubles further down the line.
Choosing to Sell Your Home As-Is: The Pros
Now that you understand a bit more about the terminology behind an as-is sale, let’s take a look at the pros of selling your home this way.
The main perk of selling a home like this is that it can be an incredibly quick and stress-free process with very few steps.
Save Money
The fewer repairs that you have to make, the cheaper the process of selling your house will be. Repairs can run up a huge bill, especially the big ones. Once you opt to sell your house as is, you won’t have to commit to spending vast sums of money to fix every little problem with the house.
Save Time
Selling as is can also save you a good amount of time. If you want the process of selling your house to be as quick as possible, then this type of sale might be the best for you. There are fewer steps to selling this way, and you won’t have to sacrifice any time and energy to fix up the house before the sale.
If you’ve been sitting at home thinking “if only there were a way of selling my home fast‘, then an as is sale could be for you.
Less Stress
Selling a home can be an incredibly stressful process, especially if you’re dealing with fixing issues and juggling loads of different contractors who are all trying to make those repairs.
Selling your house as is can reduce the workload of shifting your property and make for a much smoother and more enjoyable experience during the process.
The Cons of Selling As Is
While there are some great benefits in terms of saving time and money when selling your home as is, we should also take a look at some of the downsides to selling your house this way.
Most of the cons of selling your house as is come from the fact that you’re not going to be extracting anything close to the maximum value of the property.
While selling this way is great for a quick and stressful sale, you need to bear in mind the value of the house is going to be a lot lower than it would have been if you’d made the repairs.
Let’s take a look at some of the more specific cons.
Low Offers
Selling your house this way can quite make buyers think that you’re desperate to sell at any cost. So it’s likely that they’ll be tempted to pitch you a lot of lowball offers because they think you’re going to just accept the first offer that comes your way.
If you reject a lot of these though, you can get caught in a bit of a vicious cycle. The more lowball offers you reject, the longer the house sits on the market. The longer the house sits on the market, the lower and lower the offers are going to get.
Buyers Walking Away
Submitting an as is offer for a house is different from other ways of purchasing properties. The buyer isn’t actually locked into buying the property and most states allow for a grace period where the buyer can back out of the deal if they don’t want to go through with it anymore.
Getting the Right Price
Determining the price you should sell your home for is difficult no matter what kind of sale that you’re dealing with, but it can be a complete nightmare when it comes to selling as is.
Listing your house at either too high or too low of a price can drive buyers away. You’re also likely going to be missing out on all the extra profit that you could have had if you’d made the repairs to the house to be able to sell it at its full value.
Take Your Time Before Making Your Decision
It’s hard, but not impossible to sell your house as is. This isn’t a decision that you should take lightly. You should weigh up your budget and all your available options for how to sell your house before committing to one. It’s not an easily reversible decision.
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