If you were to sell your house today, what would you do first? You'd probably go find a good estate agent to guide, advise, and help you find a buyer. That is pretty much the normal thing to do, but as the average time homes stay in the market keep getting longer, some people are turning to companies that buy houses.
They're called cash home buyers, and they can complete the purchase of a house even at short notice. If you are facing foreclosure, are months overdue with your mortgage payments, or have a mountain pile of debts, you'll need to raise quick cash, and the fastest way to do that is to sell your house, which presumably is one of your biggest assets, to companies that buy houses.
Without having to depend on banks or any other type of lenders for funding, they have cash on hand that they can draw upon to make a direct purchase of any given property. They can close a sale within a few days if necessary, so if for example, you're facing repossession, then it's one of the only options you actually really have to stop it.
And besides, if you're buried too deep in debt, the only way to get out of it is to make one bold move. In this case, you may be losing your house, but what you should be thinking about is that you're taking back your life and starting fresh. But if you're really bent on staying on at your house, then you can find a cash home buyer that offers the option to sell and then rent back.
Even better, because there is no estate agent involved in the deal, the seller can save thousands of pounds he would have paid the agent in commission. Cash home buyers also buy houses regardless of the state they are in, so whether you have a house straight out of the set of The Stepford Wives or one that needs a makeover, they'll buy it.
The criticism against this type of sale is that sellers are not given the fair value of their home. But try selling to any buyer today and you're not likely to get any offers with an asking price that is based on what you think your house is worth or what agents say it's worth. In a market saturated with sellers and with too few buyers, they have the power to dictate the price, and the only way to be able to sell is to drop your asking price. And once you've accepted that reality, it only makes sense to sell to someone who can complete the purchase quick (unless of course you can afford to wait until the market recovers).
There's no exact science to pricing a home, it is one of the easiest mistakes any home seller can make. You have to compare similar properties that are being sold and have been sold recently, make adjustments for differences, and educate yourself about market movements.
Of course, if you choose to sell through an estate agent, they are going to make their own valuations. It is easy to be swayed by one who suggests the highest list price. Who wouldn't want to be able to make the most out of a home sale? Certainly, in this age of economic uncertainty, anyone would not pass up on an opportunity to earn big. But that is just one of the biggest mistakes a seller can make because in the present reality, the only person whose opinion matters is the buyer who makes an offer.
There is no reason to be afraid to list your house at a low price, it could even work to your advantage. Doing that can afford you to get multiple offers, and that should drive up the price of your house a little bit, giving the negotiating power back to you as the seller. There is very little danger in pricing too this website low, especially in today's sluggish market; the danger is in overpricing and choosing an agent based solely on a high valuation.
David Cuerden is a house buying specialist who can pay cash for houses or help to find creative and flexible solutions when you are looking for Companies That Buy Houses [http://www.quick-homesale-uk.co.uk/companies-that-buy-houses] when you can't sell due to negative equity or are facing repossession, visit Quick Home Sale UK