Life has a way of throwing all of us curveballs—am I right? When you least expect it-life can bring unexpected changes that leave you searching for solutions. As a homeowner you know houses constantly need care and feeding. You might be in a situation where your house has fallen into disrepair and it has become far beyond your capacity to get the work done.
If you find yourself in this situation, you may be asking yourself, “How can I sell my house in Massachusetts when it needs so much work?” The good news is you can still sell your house, even if it’s in rough shape!
In this article we’ll cover the options you have available to you. A traditional listing with a real estate agent for this type of property is usually not the best option. This is because you won’t attract most ‘typical’ buyers, and homebuyers would have a hard time getting a bank loan to purchase your house. Also selling your distressed home through the MLS can take a very long time and it turns out to be too costly by the time you sell.
Is A Professional House Buyer A Good Choice?
There are always two sides to every situation and this certainly holds true when considering how to sell a distressed property in Massachusetts. Let’s explore using the service of a professional cash buyer when you’re selling. The greatest benefit to selling this way is that you eliminate two very significant problems. If you’d like a comparison of using an experienced and legitimate house buyer, read through our comparison chart here.
First, because a legitimate house buyer is offering you cash for your house, there are no banks involved. You’ll benefit time-wise because of the ability to perform extremely quick closings. So if you’re interested in selling your house without the typical waiting period of 3-4 months, this could be the way to go. For example, here at Summit Buys Houses, we buy houses in Massachusetts all the time. We have made a cash offer to buy a house from a seller, the seller has accepted our offer and the sale closed with seller walking away with cash in hand in as little as 15 days!
Additionally, the sale of your house can be what is commonly called “As-Is”. Just as the phrase implies, you sell your house in exactly the condition it is in—you are not asked to do any repairs or even cleaning. Because of this, there won’t be any downtime where you are waiting for the right buyer to come along. Most importantly you won’t be required to make the investment of your precious time and money in getting repairs completed. Depending on the condition of your house when you sell, this alone can save you $10,000 or more.
A third important advantage is you’re not carrying any legal risk regarding the condition of your property. Because you agree to sell your house as-is, the buyer is not holding you responsible for any problems they may find in your house. Here’s some more information on the disclosures you normally are required to make when selling your house.
To Stay Safe, Do Your Homework
So is there any downside to selling your home to a legitimate house buyer? Well because the professional buyer is taking all of the risks, and offering the advantages of a cash sale, their offers normally tend to be below the prices being offered in the current Massachusetts real estate market. So a word to the wise, before you decide to sign an agreement to sell your house, do your research on the company you’re dealing with. Regrettably, there are unscrupulous buyers who may try to take advantage of you in various ways.
One of the most common ways we’ve seen is that these shady characters will at first offer you a very high price to buy your home. But once you’ve signed the Purchase and Sale Agreement, they’ll come back to you and say they found problems that make it necessary to lower the price they originally offered. Don’t fall for this type of scam!
One way Summit Buys Houses protects you against this type of scam is our Profit-Lock™ cash offer. This means that when we give you our written cash offer, we guarantee the terms will never change. It is the best way we’ve found to give our home sellers peace of mind. If you’d like to see how the Profit-Lock™ offer has worked for other homeowners just like you, check out some of our customer reviews here.
Can’t I Just Sell My House Myself?
Selling a distressed property in Massachusetts on your own may sound appealing because you remain in charge of the process from beginning to end. And of course, you can realistically look to save on real estate agent commissions or auctioneer fees. These costs in MA are typically upwards of $15,000 to $25,000 depending on how much you sell your house for!
This certainly impacts your bottom line on the sale! So if you’re knowledgeable on marketing and all of the legalities involved, while you may need to invest a great deal of time, you can definitely save a great deal of money by handling the sale of your property by yourself. The timing of your sale is important as well. Some months in the year are historically less likely for a buyer to come your way. For example, there normally are far fewer home sales in December. Follow this link for some quick tips on the best time of year to sell your house.
But there’s a word of caution here before you run off and put ads on Craigslist to sell your house. If you have no experience in marketing and no knowledge of the legal details, selling on your own can lead you to serious failure. You could end up not getting the right price for your house or you could end up with legal problems because you didn’t follow all the laws Massachusetts has around real estate sales. That could put you squarely in a legal nightmare with no way out. So the best way to sell your property on your own is to do an extensive amount of research before you begin.
What About An Auctioneer?
Property auctions rarely imitate art, where fantastic prices are realized in movies and on television. Avoiding the headaches of showing your property is one of the favorable aspects of auctions. Additionally, these properties close within 30 to 40 days and sell as-is, so you won’t need to continue to pour time and money into repairs and upkeep of your distressed property in Massachusetts.
While there are advantages to using a professional auctioneer, keep in mind the usual fee for their service is a rather high 10 percent of the final purchase price. Should the bidder be responsible for the auctioneer’s fee, lower bids overall are incentivized. Otherwise, you’ll be responsible for their fee, absorbing additional costs. Due to the nature of auctions, the outcome isn’t guaranteed, you may be up against the issue of low attendance. There is also innate competition when a high volume of properties is up for auction at the same time, leading to lower bids.
In Conclusion…
When it comes time to sell your house, no matter which method you finally choose, make educated decisions by taking the time to understand all of your options. As in many things in this life, your knowledge gives you power! And power will help you sell your home in the best way that benefits your current situation. We invite you to speak with us. And please keep in mind, we buy houses in Massachusetts all the time.
You’ll find “The Local Guys” are informative and low-pressure. We genuinely hope to help you sell your home, even if you don’t sell to us! Would you like to learn more about how we can help you sell a distressed property in Massachusetts? Just call Summit Buys Houses today at (978) 254-3800 or send us a message any time!