Selling Your Home As-Is: Why This Option Makes Sense for Many Homeowners

There’s an unspoken part of the home selling process: you have to make it look perfect before anyone will buy it. People spend weeks preparing their houses to go on the market, painting walls, swapping out light fixtures, renovating kitchens, patching old drywall, and replacing flooring. 

However, none of this is really necessary.

More and more homeowners are discovering that selling a house as-is is an acceptable option for property owners who don’t want to deal with all the renovations. Selling as-is means the seller does not make any repairs or improvements to the property before selling it.

What Does As-Is Mean?

When a property sells as-is, it means the seller won’t be making repairs before the buyer takes over. While this does not mean the seller can hide issues with the home as they see fit, many states still require sellers to disclose known issues with the property; most also allow buyers to complete inspections as a contingency before closing on the sale. An as-is sale simply means that if an inspection uncovers issues, that’s not the seller’s responsibility to resolve.

Instead, the buyer is accepting the property under these conditions and is responsible for taking care of any repairs or concerns. For the seller, this means no rushing around trying to patch a leaky roof before listing or draining their financial accounts in order to update those 15-year-old bathrooms.

Who Most Benefits from As-Is Sales

This option really works well for a few different types of property owners.

First, people who have inherited a home often find themselves in a position where they own a property they never planned on having and one they now need to sell. It might be located in another state, making it hard to complete renovations. They might have a house that belonged to older relatives who could not keep up with the required maintenance for decades.

Second, people who are financially challenged find that selling as-is helps them out in this area, as well. When money is tight, it’s hard to come up with thousands of dollars needed in order to renovate your property to list it for sale.

Third, people who are relocating for work may have had it with their home after years of living there, and they find this option helps them avoid dealing with an intricate renovation timeline or a repair list longer than they could ever imagine.

And finally, people going through challenging times like divorce or those suffering from other situations often find as-is sales give them one less obstacle or home-related renovation project to manage during an already challenging period of their lives.

The Cost of Renovating to Sell

Real estate agents will always tell sellers that they can get more for their homes if they make some updates before trying to sell. And while this seems like it could work in a lot of different ways, not every homeowner knows how expensive it is to complete renovations to receive maximum sale prices.

Remember that kitchen renovations can exceed $15K-50K. Bathroom updates are thousands of dollars each. Then you’ve got flooring, painting, and landscaping. We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars just to make some updates.

To complicate matters even more, those renovations do not guarantee that you’ll receive every single dollar spent back when selling the property. A $30K kitchen renovation might only get you an additional value of $20K in selling price.

A lot of other things go into pricing out homes. The neighborhood comps matter more than the actual worth of granite countertops.

Leap Properties is one of many companies that has made a business out of buying homes in their current state. For homeowners looking to sell as-is, this approach gives them a way out to avoid spending money on unnecessary renovations while still securing a cash offer for their homes.

This approach works great for homeowners who don’t have the luxury of time or who just want to avoid dealing with the intricacies of traditional home sales.

It’s A Time-Consuming Process

Selling a home the traditional way takes time. Even before placing your listing on the market, expect the average waiting period to be 4-6 weeks while you make all necessary updates. It then typically takes anywhere from two weeks to 3 months for your property to sell (the average time on this greatly varies by price range and location).

Once an offer is accepted, buyers still need time (average 30-45 days) for their loans and financing options to be approved and finalized. That means once all is said and done, we’re looking at an average of four months at least before someone can finally buy your house… assuming nothing goes wrong.

And things will usually go wrong. Property inspections will reveal issues with the home that will need renegotiating with buyers before they complete their sale agreements.

Selling homes as-is can sometimes cut the amount of time spent on the market by 50% or more. Buyers interested in such properties tend to close rather quickly when they see such properties on the market.

What Kind of Buyers Are Interested?

As-is properties attract a specific market of buyers who are already accustomed to purchasing such properties located all over the United States.

Real estate investors and flippers specifically look for such opportunities so they can make renovations on their own. They are the ones who best prepare cash offers for these properties since they do not need normal financing in order to purchase a home.

Regular homeowners also purchase as-is properties, but these buyers usually have backgrounds in construction or home renovations. They are not afraid of a renovation challenge since they see potential where others do not.

Making The Right Choice

Not every property needs selling as-is; however, other owners could personally benefit from making such an experience part of their sale contract.

Properties that are still in good shape even if old could benefit from minor updates before being sold; however, people who feel financially constricted still possess legitimate reasoning behind their desire to sell as-is. People who might be relocating could help save themselves time if they choose this option.

Additionally, homeowners experiencing other challenges in their lives should consider this opportunity realistically.

Although many property owners may feel inclined to increase the sale price by making small yet necessary updates throughout their homes prior to their departure from them, homeowners might even want a legitimate scenario that they could walk into instead should feel free to explore other options beyond selling as-is.

The best recommendation for homeowners is being honest about cash flow challenges that limit their abilities rather than greedily searching for as much profit as possible off the sale alone!

After all, sometimes knowing where one desires to be in life is more achievable after considering how much money can be put towards that goal than trying to gain every possible penny back after someone else has profited off them living their best lives!