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How to Sell My House Fast in Philadelphia
A complete guide on how to sell a house fast and for cash.
Selling a house is a big deal. It doesn’t come around very often in life, and when it does, you want to be prepared with as much real estate knowledge as possible. Whether you are preparing to sell a house for cash in Philly, an apartment, or even land, there are many factors to consider that will help create a smooth and successful property sale. If you have seen the signs advertising to sell a house fast in Philadelphia, you know there is a ton of real estate information out there. When you consider the large number of vacant lots in Philadelphia, it is not always clear how to go about actually selling your property. As a homebuyer with +8 years of experience purchasing homes in the Philadelphia area, we’ve seen it all. This is exactly why Brotherly Love Real Estate created this comprehensive and complete guide on How to Sell My House Fast in Philadelphia.
Since Pennsylvania is a huge state, we will focus on Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. We dive deep into things you can do as a homeowner to prepare for launch and sell your home fast with confidence. We buy houses for cash in Philadelphia, and we are excited to share our perspectives and experiences from the past few years. Go into the process equipped with all the tools, and feel good about selling your house in Philadelphia, PA. Buying property fast is what we do for a living. You can count on us for a smooth, easy, and stress-free selling process.
“Real estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Purchased with common sense, paid for in full, and managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. president.
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Can I Sell My House Fast in Philadelphia?
The first factor you need to identify when preparing to sell your house fast is the timeline. Do you have upcoming dates or deadlines that you must work around? That is not always the easiest question to answer. Sometimes we may not even be sure. Before getting started, if you know a definite date that you must move by or sell your home by, you can use that as a reference for determining your timeline. Are you relocating or moving out of town? Possibly a job change? There are hundreds of scenarios that spur homeowners to sell their property. First, let’s review 7 possible scenarios that prompt homeowners to sell a home fast in Philadelphia.
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7 Reasons to Sell Your House Fast
For as many stars as there are in the sky, there are just as many reasons that people want to sell property. And not all reasons require a fast home sale. Family and home situations come with different pros, cons, challenges, and benefits. Many reasons for wanting to sell a house fast are also area-specific reasons. Philadelphia is known for its harsh winters, encouraging many people to fly south for the winter, or good! Relative to Washington D.C. and New York City, Philadelphia also has more affordable housing prices, which encourages people to move to Philly. That’s not to say that the up-and-coming ‘cool’ neighborhoods in the City of Brotherly Love are always cheap. Areas like Fishtown, Point Breeze, Center City, Port Richmond, and Brewerytown are all rising in popularity, demand, and price. Here, you will find plenty of investors that want to buy homes for cash in Philadelphia. What situation is causing you to consider selling your home? Certain homeowners that are pressed for time believe the thought that they must sell their house fast Philadelphia or not all at. Other property owners can take a more lax approach and don’t need to jump at the first tantalizing cash offer. Now that we have identified the importance of a timeline, let’s uncover the reasons why it might make sense to sell your house fast in Philly.
If you need to sell your house fast in Philadelphia, our company is here to help. Contact us if you need to sell a house for cash in one of the following zip codes in Philadelphia County: 19120, 19124, 19111, 19143, 19134, 19149, 19148, 19104, 19140, 19145, 19139, 19131, 19144, 19146, 19147, 19128, 19135, 19115, 19141, 19136, 19154, 19152, 19151, 19116, 19121, 19132, 19114, 19138, 19142, 19119, 19125, 19133, 19130, 19150, 19103, 19122, 19126, 19123, 19107, 19153, 19106, 19129, 19118, 19137, 19102, 19127, 19019, 19093, 19092, 19101, 19099, 19105, 19109, 19108, 19110, 19112, 19160, 19155, 19162, 19161, 19171, 19170, 19173, 19172, 19176, 19175, 19178, 19177, 19179, 19181, 19183, 19182, 19185, 19184, 19188, 19187, 19192, 19191, 19194, 19193, 19196, 19195, 19244, 19197, 19255, 19190.
Our office is located in North Philadelphia in the East Falls neighborhood. Here is our real estate office address: 3502 Scotts Ln Suite 1921, Philadelphia, PA 19129
Here are several examples of houses we bought for cash in different Philly neighborhoods over the years. If you need to sell your house in Philadelphia, you can count on us legitimately buying your property fast and helping you enter that next chapter of life!
Upsizing: Buy Your Next Dream Home
Philadelphia is infamously known for the very tall, yet extremely narrow, row houses. You can find a 3-story building that is under 1000 square feet on the inside. A true home for hobbits! Although Frodo enjoyed adventuring and exploring, you would not find him sitting in his house often. I digress. Many Philadelphia homeowners that are owner-occupants – meaning they live in the house they own – will eventually move to the suburbs or to a different city and find a larger home to live in. Family is important, front yards are nice, and backyard barbecues during the same are the absolute best. Maybe you recently completed a long, successful career and retired. There are countless reasons for wanting to sell your current home fast and purchase your next dream house.
In this case, your timeline is in your control, for the most part. If you plan to purchase the next house that you will live in when you upsize, the sale of your current house should be contingent on you finding and purchasing that next, larger house. This is an unfortunate bottleneck in the home-selling process that many have to deal with. Trying to sell a house and buy one simultaneously is harder to time perfectly, but not impossible. Brotherly Love Real Estate does its best to ensure a fast home sale process by leveraging our quick cash offers and speedy closing timeframes. If you could sell your Philadelphia property in 14 days for cash, wouldn’t you?
Tip #1 – How To Sell My House FAST
Find a knowledgeable Real Estate Agent that can help you with both sides of the transaction. Receiving letters in the mail on how to sell my house fast in Philadelphia will seem more relevant for this situation. Time is of the essence when you need to both sell a home for cash and buy a home in the same time frame. The fewer people involved, the smoother and quicker the process typically goes. Too many cooks in the kitchen can slow down real estate processes (a.k.a. the opposite of fast).
Downsizing Your Home
Similar to the last example of upsizing, many homeowners – also known as Empty Nesters, are ready for the next chapter and newly sized home. In this case, they are seeking a smaller place to live. Even with the advancements in electronics and home utilities, it can still be quite expensive to run, heat, cool, and power a large home. You can use a Nest to control your thermostat and automate temperatures. Still, when the humidity of Mid-July in Philadelphia rolls around, we all know that every single fan and AC unit is on full blast. Yikes! When Downsizing your home, the timeline is also in your hands. You control the sale of your current property, and can sell as fast or as slow as needed.
Control = Time
You decide when boxes get packed. You decide when the garage is emptied out. You decide when the attic is cleared. This is a huge benefit, but don’t forget the other side of this coin… you need to figure out your next place to stay, which is NOT fully in your control. We know that buying your next house is a potential bottleneck. Other options are renting a nice condo, or even going rogue and becoming a full-time RV Camper.
How to Sell My House for Cash
Whether it’s your primary residence or rental property, selling your house for cash comes with multiple benefits. Being a landlord is a full-time gig. Not to mention that the tenant-landlord laws in Philadelphia benefit the tenants in many ways. Which is a positive thing 90% of the time. The other 10% are rules that people occupying properties know how to bend and play with to their advantage. As a landlord, you may be looking into other possible investments and have a shorter timeline than others. Personally, if I needed to sell a house fast in Philadelphia and the property sale was delayed, I would be frustrated. There are countless scenarios that can negatively impact landlords on investment properties, and delay the sale.
Evicting a Tenant
Out of every 14 renters in Philadelphia, 1 of them will face eviction each year. The Philadelphia eviction process is not for the light-hearted. Philadelphia is known to be a tenant-friendly city, which is good. However, tenants typically know how to take advantage of this and work the system. We’ve personally had to evict tenants and eject squatters in Philly many times. The legal process is not fast. That’s why many homeowners come to us with troubling situations looking to sell a house fast and be done with it. Homeowners that have filed multiple evictions can eventually get fed up with the whole ‘real estate thing’, and give up on their rental property, driving them to sell. Depending on how the hearing goes, the eviction process in Philadelphia can take weeks. Your timeline is not only in your hands but also in your tenants’ hands.
Squatters
Unfortunately, this is quite common in Philadelphia. It has become so common, that landlords are becoming accustomed to selling homes with squatters in them already. Known as the ‘squatter special’. Typically, the house is discounted a few thousand dollars on the sticker price in exchange for the cash buyer dealing with the hassle. There are several strategies that are used to get squatters out of your properties in Philadelphia. Fortunately, houses can still be sold fast with squatters in them, however, you may scare away potential buyers and that could slow the process of your home sale.
Vacant Property
“If a tree falls in the woods, but there is no one around to hear it, does it actually make a sound”? Vacancies are a blessing in some respects since you aren’t dealing with squatters or bad tenants. That also means no one is paying you to live in the place that you either paid for at one time or are still paying for. Not good! Depending on the layout of a property, the demand for living in the neighborhood, the economy, and countless other factors – it can be hard to find solid tenants to fill your units. Prolonged vacancy periods can lead homeowners to cut their losses and get rid of their property. Sometimes selling is easier than trying to fill a unit that is not desirable. It is all situational. Having trouble filling a unit? You can pay property management companies in Philly to take care of that part of the process for you.
Of course, the major plus to selling a vacant property for cash is just that – it’s vacant. You can slap a lockbox on that puppy, place the key inside, set the code, and throw your property on the market. Experienced Philadelphia cash buyers are happy to show themselves around on their own time. This not only saves you time running back and forth for showings, but it will also increase the speed of your sale because home buyers can inspect the entire house – not having to worry about disturbing tenants. This gives investors a more exact idea of what they could pay for the property based on their renovation cost estimates since they can see every inch of the property on their walkthrough. What does that mean? Fewer buyers backing out later in the selling process, making each step fast and easy! The more control in your hands, the more time in your life.
Hold up! You might be wondering how fast can I sell my house if I am not on any type of timeline. Great question!
21 days used to be the fastest we have seen. Now, the quickest we’ve bought a house in Philly is 14 days! We specialize in providing a fast, smooth, and stress-free home-selling process for Philly homeowners. The 14-day timeline typically comes from a cash buyer, like us. They are not using bank financing, meaning there are no financing headaches or bottlenecks. Buying in cash comes with a quick closing. Overall, the average closing for Brotherly Love Real Estate is 21 days.
Pre-foreclosure
If you find yourself behind on mortgage payments and need to sell your house fast, you may be approached by the City of Philadelphia. The process differs depending on what payment you are behind on. Nevertheless, this means that an action is needed by them. If payments are not satisfied by a particular date, then they may have the right to sell your property for cash at the Sheriff Sale. Per size, Manayunk has the most pre-foreclosed homes at 1 in every 2909. There are still options, such as a short sale, where homeowners can sell their property to the bank before the Sheriff Sale. Less foreclosures are happening in Philadelphia recently. However, with the currently economic turmoil, this statistic could increase.
Inherited A House
Life is incredibly short and precious. It is terrible to lose someone in your family or someone that you love. Often, a parent’s goal is to build up wealth and assets, to then pass these down to their children so that they can have an easier and more fruitful life. Although owning real estate is great, not every person wants to own a house. Homeownership is a massive responsibility. Philly also doesn’t make being a landlord easy. If you are a new homeowner in this situation, you have options. You can place an ad on your social media accounts asking how to sell an inherited house, and see what feedback your inner circle gives you. In addition to owning property, not everyone wants to be a landlord. HGTV makes real estate out to be easy as pie, but it can be challenging.
Over the years we worked with many people that have said I need help to sell my inherited house fast in Philadelphia, but I don’t know where to start. The good news is that the ball is in your court, and the timeline is in your favor. The best place to start is figuring out what things in the house you want to keep. You can’t get sentimental items back once they are gone. Brotherly Love Real Estate works with Philadelphia families to provide ample time to collect belongings out of inherited homes. We close fast, but on whatever timeline you and your family need.
Tip #2 – How To Sell My House for Cash
Use local home movers to help you with the process if you place to save a large number of items. Once you figure out what you are keeping, you can sell fast once your schedule permits. Remember, the more control you have the more time you save.
Determining What Price To Sell Your House in Philadelphia For
Now that you have a better idea of your timeline, it is time to decide how much money you want to sell for and how much cash you want to put in your pocket. Of course, we all want to sell our property for one million dollars, or more! Now you may be thinking can I sell for my dream price and sell my house fast at the same time? Perhaps! You can sell anything at any price as long as you have a cash buyer who will meet you at that price. However, it may take longer to find a buyer if your price is higher than the market value of the property. Anyway, since the median home value for Philadelphia real estate is near $218,435, hitting the $1 Million mark may be tough. Before getting too deep into the numbers, let’s first figure out what costs you need to cover when attempting to sell your house fast in Philadelphia PA.
Can I Sell My House in Philadelphia with Liens?
Mortgage
Homes are commonly sold with at least one type of lien attached to them at the time of closing. Mortgages are typically the biggest lien that homeowners have on their property. If the neighborhood that your property is located in has appreciated since the time that you initially bought it and took out your mortgage on it, there’s a very good chance that you can sell your property for a higher amount than the current amount that you owe on the said mortgage. A common and effective way that homeowners upsize to their next property is by purchasing a home in an appreciating neighborhood while paying down the mortgage each month, and after the home has appreciated 20 – 30%, they sell that for a higher amount than what they purchased the home for and buy a larger home. Find out how much money is left on the mortgage before determining the amount that you’d like to sell your house for. You will want to be above that if possible.
Property Taxes
It is easy to fall behind on your property taxes when owning property, especially if you own multiple. You can view the estimated amount of property taxes owed on a property in Philadelphia through the city website. Philly has several ways that they enforce payment of property taxes, like selling a house at the Sheriff Sale, however, that process takes months for them to get to that point, and there are ways that property owners play the system and get around these rules. By doing so, property tax bills can increase steadily and can reach ranges of $10,000 – $20,000 of unpaid, overdue property taxes. Wild! These liens, among most others, do need to be paid for – usually by the seller – at closing. Review the online resource above, and know ahead of time how much, if any, is owed in property taxes on your home.
Unpaid Water Bill
This could be an entire topic entirely. I will hold back my tongue here and simply state that many property owners in Philadelphia do not keep up with their water bills. You used to be able to review water bills online, but they have recently done away with that online tool. Now, oftentimes, when Philadelphia property owners try to sell their home fast, they find out when the Title Report is run that there is $7,500 in unpaid, overdue water bills. Do your best to calculate this information beforehand, or even reach out to a local Title Company to pull this information for you. Our team can send you cash offers all day, but if you have huge unpaid debts and liens tied to your property, the home might be unrecoverable.
Other Liens
There are many other liens that also need to be paid for at the time of closing. Do your due diligence and calculate as many liens in advance as possible to help you decide how much cash you want to sell your house for.
Closing Costs in PA
If you are working with a we buy houses Philadelphia company, they typically cover closing costs for the real estate transaction. The same goes for working with Brotherly Love Real Estate. If it’s our first time buying a house with you and your family, we pay cash for your closing costs. This means there is more money in your pocket and you can avoid closing costs in PA.
Sell My House Fast and Buy A New House
Where are you headed next? Whether you are relocating to an entirely new city or state, you may need cash for your next big move. Researching the new area that you are moving to, especially if you plan to buy a new house there, is essential. Depending on your finances, you might need all the money that you can get from your current home sale to help fund your next home purchase. Research the neighborhoods and determine your budget. Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Rittenhouse Square, and Point Breeze are all fantastic neighborhoods where we buy houses for cash in Philadelphia. That may influence the amount of ‘walk-away’ cash you end up in your pocket after your home sale.
Sell Your House for Cash and Travel
Life is short and there are plenty of amazing places to travel to. Are you looking to cash out, put a pause on life, and travel the world? (sounds amazing to me right now…) Estimate your travel budget needed for upcoming travel, and factor that in. We understand you have places to go and people to see. For times when all you need is to sell my house fast Philadelphia, working with an experienced homebuyer with over 8 years of experience like us makes it easy. Selling a home for cash is your quickest option. There is no bank involved, which speeds up the closing process. Not to mention, you may even save money. Oftentimes, Philadelphia home buyers that pay in cash also cover closing costs in PA, which can be expensive. Book your plane ticket, and put your travel plans into action when planning to sell a house quickly in Philly and then explore the world.
How Much Can I Sell My House in Philly For?
Tips on calculating values to help sell your house for cash
In the age of technology, there are countless tools and resources available online that can help anyone with an internet connection get a decent idea of what their property is worth. We all know Zillow and Redfin. These online real estate platforms used to be better. However, now they mostly lead homeowners astray with ‘pie in the sky’ valuations of homes that they have never personally seen the inside of. Take Zillow’s Zestime with a grain of salt. The standard method used on these sites, along with the MLS, is to run comps. Basically, you want to find other properties nearby that are similar, and see when they sold and how much cash they sold for. Identical buyer financing is an important thing to note! Additional factors that are important to consider when running cash comps:
- Similar Size – number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, square footage, and layout
- Similar Condition – what does the inside and outside condition of the property look like and is it like yours
- Distance – properties that are of similar size and condition, as well as close by to yours. A standard is to search within a 0.1-mile radius and eventually expand that to a 0.25-mile radius. If you are struggling to find anything nearby, a 0.5-mile radius is sometimes acceptable.
- Status & Time – properties that have been sold within the past 1 year. Currently, active properties can look eye-catching with high prices, but often are overpriced and don’t sell for their listed price. Don’t let that skew your evaluation.
Local Philadelphia Real Estate
Take a walk and look around. What do you see in front of your eyes? Neighbors like Brewerytown have completely shifted in the past decade, and many cash investors have noticed. Factors to look for when evaluating a neighborhood:
- New Construction Happening
- New Businesses Moving In
- More People Moving In
Other neighborhoods, like Kensington, have a few years to go before it experiences booming appreciation. Refer back to your timeline, and ask yourself this – do I need to sell my house fast? Can I wait it out to see if the neighborhood appreciations over time and my house increases in value to then sell? Consider the factors above when analyzing Philadelphia neighborhoods.
Selling a House for Cash in the Philadelphia Market
Led by the iconic William Penn, Center City Philadelphia has completely taken off. Comcast is building skyscrapers left and right, and many jobs have been created. There’s no doubt the Philadelphia real estate market is on the rise currently in 2023, minus a few bumps. The actual unemployment rate of a city can be a great indicator and metric to use when determining if a city’s real estate market is doing well or poorly. With those statistics in mind, how do you know when it’s a good time to sell your property? For any of those who have thought ‘can I sell my house in Philadelphia for cash’, now may be the best time to do that. Determining when you can receive ‘top dollar’ for your property is impossible to guess. Cash offers from companies like ours don’t last forever. Consider them if they are what you are looking for!
How is the Real Estate market doing?
The United States economy has been on an upward trend from 2010 – 2020. Overall, the real estate market has followed suit. Even if the market dips in the future, you can usually count on it to bounce back eventually. Don’t worry too much about macroeconomics. Focus more on the local Philadelphia market when gauging market conditions. Real estate is very ‘market-by-market’ when it comes to being impacted by the national economy.
Which strategy should I use to Sell My House Fast?
Now that we have a better understanding of your timeline and price to sell your house fast, we can work on the ‘how’. There are 3 primary strategies used to sell a house in Philadelphia. Each comes with pros and cons. The amount of time that you have on your hands will play a role in this decision. Realistically, all 3 strategies take TIME, but some take less than others. Let’s review these strategies in-depth and highlight which benefits make the most sense for you and your family’s situation.
Sell My House Without a Realtor
Riding solo! Also known as for sale by owner, or FSBO. This is a common route that homeowners take when they have the time to do it. Reference our guide to selling a house by owner in Philadelphia to learn more. However, to leave you with a few real estate tips here…
Tip #3 – How To Sell My House FAST
Dust off your computer and list your home on Craigslist. This old-style platform may seem outdated, and it is, but it still draws tons of traffic to houses that are being rented out or sold. Many cash investors in Philly still use it. Utilize this tool – while being safe – and it will help get the word out about the property you are selling. Let it do the marketing for you. However, if Craigslist is your only selling strategy, don’t expect a fast home sale. Let this platform add to your other ongoing efforts! Make sure to update the posting, and include high-quality photos and descriptions. Maximize every tool and resource available when selling a house with a realtor. Alright, now back to it!
This selling strategy requires the largest time commitment from you as a homeowner, no doubt about it. If you have a surplus of time and are okay running the show and handling the responsibility of each step of the process, you can successfully sell your home fast in Philly. Also, if you have a very high price point to hit when selling, you need to be all hands on deck for the marketing of this property. It is not impossible, but it can be more difficult to maximize the sale price when selling this way. 99% of the time, For Sale By Owner properties are sold off-market to real estate investors like Brotherly Love Real Estate. Since you have full control over the process, you can spend as much as you need to find the top cash home buyer in Philadelphia. Very occasionally you will see a FSBO property listed for cash on the MLS.
|
Home Values in Philly |
Total Realtor Fees |
|
$218,435 (median) |
$13,100 |
|
$300,000 |
$18,000 |
|
$400,000 |
$24,000 |
The average realtor fee that agents charge is 6% of the total sale price of a home. As noted in this table (commissions chart), you would pay a realtor $24,000 in total commissions (fees). Wouldn’t you rather keep that cash in your pocket? You can sell a house fast in Philadelphia without a realtor and save thousands of dollars. Contact us to get cash for your house and save money in the process.
Using a Realtor to Sell Your House Fast
There are thousands of active realtors in Philadelphia PA. Wow, how do you even go about finding a good realtor or real estate agent? One simple word… reviews. Do your research online, and start with resources like Yelp and Redfin to start your search. Here are several questions to ask yourself when considering hiring a real estate agent:
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- How many reviews do they have?
- How many 5-star reviews do they have?
- Which cities, neighborhoods, and zip codes do they have experience buying and selling properties in?
- What types of real estate – commercial, residential, or land – do they specialize in?
Once you answer those questions and feel confident about the agent, we recommend meeting them in person to make sure that it is a good fit. Explain your end goals, and clearly define your priorities about the property. Do you need to sell your house fast? Or is selling your house for a profit more important? Maybe you are just worried about how much the capital gains taxes will cost after you sell. Regardless of your goals, wants, needs, and desires, make sure that you and your agent are both on the exact same page.
Back to your timeline, the major benefit of working with an agent is that they do most of the work! That is why they get paid. When selling a home in Philadelphia, homeowners typically pay 4-6% in total commission to get their place sold. If you don’t have much time yourself, utilizing an agent, and outsourcing the leg work required to sell your home for cash can be critical to a successful sale.
Tip #4 – How To Sell My House FAST
Leverage the brainpower of the agent when choosing this home-selling strategy. Experienced agents know how to market a property and highlight the selling features of the property. A huge detail that is overlooked by many is the layout of a house. This can affect the market value much more than homeowners expect. Do you need to walk through bedroom #2 to get into the living room? That might not seem like a big deal to a homeowner who has been used to living there for 25 years, but to a potential buyer that can seem like a big turnoff.
When preparing to work with a real estate agent, put everything in writing. The last thing that you want is to involve a real estate attorney in a dispute that you are having with an agent that was supposed to be helping you. Be smart, and put pen to paper. Documenting everything you sign, such as a purchase agreement, when trying to sell a house fast for cash in Philadelphia is crucial for protecting yourself in case something goes wrong.
Sell Your House for Cash to an iBuyer
This is not common in Philadelphia, yet. But it could happen in the future with the way technology is headed. iBuyers are real estate companies on the internet that buy properties for cash online. As these become more mainstream, there will be more opportunities to sell your home through your computer. Companies like Opendoor operate nationally and purchase homes online by emailing homeowners cash offers. They do not currently buy homes in Philly.
Cash Home Buyers
There are different buyers for different parts of Philadelphia with different buying criteria. For example, if you own property near Center City, and are saying to yourself I need to sell my house fast in Point Breeze, you will probably receive cash offers from real estate investors since investors frequently buy properties in that area. If you think your property is better suited for a real estate investor as your end buyer, you are in luck. Being quick is the name of their game. The homeowner can disregard any worry, such as I need to sell my house fast in Philadelphia because investors are known for closing quickly. Typically, investors buy houses as-is and in any condition, meaning you don’t need to do any cleaning, repairs, or staging before selling your property for cash. Even if you did decide to clean or do repairs and the real estate investors plan to fully renovate the property once they buy it, those efforts that you put in would not make a difference to them – and therefore, would not increase their offer amount.
Sell My House in Philadelphia to an Owner-occupant Buyer
According to the United States Census Bureau, Philadelphia consists of 53% owner-occupied housing in 2018, meaning that more than half of the homeowners in Philadelphia live in that specific home. That is great news since there are more owner-occupant buyers right? Not exactly. It is hard to answer how often someone buys a new house in their lifetime, but according to many forums, it is not often. That means when a potential buyer is shopping for homes, they are picky! How picky, you ask? Owner Occupant buyers prioritize the little things:
- Where is the staircase located?
- How much countertop space does the right side of the kitchen have?
- Why is the basement so tiny?
- Have the bathrooms been renovated recently?
That’s right, be prepared to please the masses. When selling your home fast to an owner-occupant, you’ll want to make sure that the property is presented to attract them, and set up to tell a story. Can they see themselves living in this place for 20 – 30 years? Raising a family there? Growing old there? You will need to satisfy more desires, but selling your home to an owner-occupant comes with benefits too. There is a good chance, depending on current interest rates, that an owner-occupant can pay slightly more for your property. Owner-occupant homebuyers also typically use a mortgage (financing) to purchase homes. Mortgage approval is one part of the process that makes it drag on compared to getting a cash offer. It’s an uphill battle trying to sell a house fast to an owner-occupant buyer paying with a mortgage. They aren’t as concerned about statistics like ARV or potential cash flow if they were to turn the house into a Rental Property later on. These buyers are usually more concerned about the here and now.
Tip #5 – How To Sell My House For Cash
If you plan to paint your house, use neutral colors, such as grays, whites, and blacks to attract a larger number of owner-occupant buyers. A fresh coat of paint throughout the interior of your home will attract more offers, some of which will be cash.
Should I Clean Before Selling My House?
After determining who your potential buyers are, use that to decide whether or not to do a deep clean of your home before preparing to sell. Cleaning never hurts, but it helps much more when your buyers are owner-occupants vs cash investors. As a company, we buy houses fast in Philadelphia regardless of the condition, meaning no cleaning or repairs when selling to us. Most other real estate investors like Brotherly Love Real Estate don’t care about how clean a place is before buying it.
Take Photos & Videos of Your House
I leave out the word ‘professional’ when talking about photos and videos because Smart Phones are becoming a more common tool used to present and market a property. Again, this goes back to who the end buyer is. Investors are known to buy properties site unseen, meaning they will give you an offer before seeing the property in person. Sounds bold? We use these criteria when buying properties site unseen:
- Number of Cash Transactions in the Neighborhood
- Comps Sold Nearby
- After Repair Value
If you are selling to an owner-occupant in a very high-value neighborhood, like Roxborough, hiring a professional photographer and videographer will absolutely add value to your market plans, and will ultimately help attract the right buyers that will pay the price you are looking to get.
Should I Do Repairs Before Selling My House?
No! Well, sometimes. Always reverse engineer the home-selling process and start with the end buyer. Is the person buying my property going to care that there are cracks in the foundation, peeling paint, and code violations? If a cash investor can still make their numbers work, they won’t flinch at additional renovations. They simply factor it into their overall repair costs and adjust their offer based on what they can make work. On the other hand, an owner-occupant can be extremely picky about potential repairs that they will need to do after moving in. There are 3 routes you can take when deciding what to repair before selling your house fast in Philadelphia.
Do The Repairs
You can hire a local handyman or try out DIY tactics to fix them yourself. DIY home renovations can save you cash upfront but will cost you your time.
Pay For Them At Closing
You can estimate the amount it would cost to fix the repairs needed and deduct that from the total amount of money the buyer planned to pay you for the property. This is the more common choice.
Don’t Do The Repairs
If you don’t want to be bothered and don’t want to negotiate at closing, you can sell your property completely as-is, take it or leave.
Tip #6 – How To Sell My House Fast in Philly
Hire a staging company. Staging can add a true wow factor to your property. However, I don’t believe it’s meant for every sale. Are you selling a house in Fairmount? Hire a staging company. Homes sell for high dollar amounts, and most properties that get listed here are staged. To decide if staging is worth it, check to see if other recently sold properties were staged.
Review Cash Offers and Sell Your House Fast in Philadelphia
If you have made it this far, you chose the right path to sell your house fast in Philadelphia. Offers are coming in, all at different prices and terms. Some may even come with a handwritten, personal letter from the buyer(s). This part of the process is where things get exciting!
“Patience is a virtue.” – William Langland
Don’t jump the gun and select the first offer you receive. Review them and prioritize them based on your initial priorities to sell the house for cash. You also want to select the offer that you can count on closing. In certain places around the country, +10% of properties fall out of contract. You have come this far, keep sticking to your guns, and don’t give up! Here are several factors to consider when reviewing offers on your home.
Offer Amount
Are you getting the amount you wanted or needed for this property? Don’t be afraid to negotiate. Even if all you can think is that I need to sell my house fast in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, don’t give up too easily. Our team has been buying property for 8 years in Philly with cash regardless of what the housing market was up to. There’s a good chance the buyer is not giving you their “highest and best offer”. Whether you are selling by owner or with a real estate agent, you can always negotiate and ask for more.
Terms
Is the buyer paying in cash or using traditional bank financing? Oftentimes, real estate investors will not use a bank to purchase a property. At Brotherly Love Real Estate, we buy houses for cash in Philly. Here is the difference between cash buyers and bank-financed buyers.
Cash Buyers
Close quickly. It is standard for cash buyers to submit proof of funds and verify with the Title Company that they have the liquid cash ready to buy your house. Things happen fast with companies like these (a.k.a. us). Confirming this gives you the confidence that they can close successfully on your property and do it quickly.
Bank Financed Buyers
Homes are purchased all the time using a loan from a bank. Unfortunately, it comes with more unknowns. Since the banks want to limit their risk of loaning money to the buyer, they have strict rules and requirements for the buyer. The more unknown, the less desirable an offer is. Additionally, the timeline to close is typically longer when using traditional financing vs cash buyers.
Contingencies
Buyers, regardless of their method of payment, can have contingencies in their offer. Not all offers are made equal, even the cash ones. A contingency is something that the buyer needs to have to happen or needs something a certain way, and if not, the offer is now invalid. Certain contingencies, like walking through the property at least once to verify the condition, is common compared to others. An offer with too many contingencies may come with too many hurdles to overcome before selling your house. What you think is a fast home sale might be slow and arduous because of the contractual contingencies written in the agreement. The fewer contingencies, the better! Again, avoid offers with more unknowns and variables.
Once you are confident in the cash offer that you selected, and feel like you have negotiated as much as possible to get your desired price, you can accept the offer and begin the closing process.
Sell Your House for Cash With Ease
There are several strategies to consider for homeowners when preparing to sell. It all starts with the timeline. Are you asking yourself how to sell my house fast Philadelphia, take that into consideration. The best way to start is to first figure out your situation because each is different. Determine your cash price as well. From there, decide how involved you’d like to be in the process and how much time you can devote to selling your property. Get second opinions on things, put everything in writing, don’t go with the first offer or agent you come across (unless both fit what you are looking for), and most importantly enjoy the process of selling a house because it doesn’t come around very often in life.
Get Cash For Houses in Philadelphia
Do you need cash for your house today? Give us a call to receive a quick offer. We make the process incredibly smooth and simple. 21 days is the average time that it takes us to buy a home, regardless of what the housing market is doing – but it can be as fast as 14 days. You can sell your home online in minutes by filling out our simple form. Our excellent customer service is shown through the reviews of previous homeowners in the area that we worked with. Brotherly Love Real Estate is here to help you with any type of real estate situation. Avoid listing your house with expensive realtors, open houses, cleaning fees, and paying high commissions. Sell your house for cash in Philadelphia Pennsylvania to us without having to complete renovations or deal with headaches.
If you are curious about what your property is worth, and would like to work on a strategy to get your home sold, give us a call (215) 769-9875. We buy houses for cash in Philadelphia PA in any condition and close on the date of your choosing. Brotherly Love Real Estate keeps things simple. Enjoy a clear and simple home-selling experience. If you need to sell your house fast in Philadelphia, our company can help.
Sell Your House for Cash
We close in 21 Days or less! Call for a cash offer today! Sell your house fast in Philadelphia to a trusted homebuyer with +8 years of experience.