Key Real Estate Terms to Know When You Want to Sell Your House Fast

You don’t have to be a real estate expert to sell your house fast. But you do need to know a little more about home selling than the average person. Most people selling homes are trying to sell their homes “within the next few months,” not as soon as possible. Because of that, they can take a back seat and let their real estate agent do most of the work. If you want to sell right away, you don’t have that luxury. Here’s what you need to know.

Cash Offer

For someone trying to sell their home fast, a cash offer is exactly what they want. A cash offer means the person has cash in hand to buy the house and isn’t relying on a mortgage. Although most people use mortgages today (and they aren’t significantly risky), mortgages can fail to complete in the middle of a transaction, and they can take weeks to get. A cash offer is going to close much faster.

Fair Market Value

This is the fair value of your home. Now, if you’re trying to sell your house fast, you probably have to make your sales price reasonable — maybe even a little lower than reasonable. This is because you don’t have as much room to negotiate when you’re under pressure. 

But that doesn’t mean you need to take a loss on your house, though. If you work with someone like a cash home buyer, you can get fair market value for your property fast.

FSBO

FSBO means “for sale by owner.” You’ve probably seen listings like this before but may not have known what it meant. FSBO means the person is selling the house themselves without an agent. And that means they’re saving a significant chunk of change.

If you want to sell your house quickly, you might need to drop the price of your house. One way you can compensate for that is by selling it without an agent. Agents take a lot of the final cost. If you’re selling to someone like a home buying company, you don’t need an agent at all.

Inspections

Before you bought your house, you probably went through an inspection process. But did you know that had the house failed inspection, your mortgage company would have pulled out of the loan? Your home will need to go through a home inspection for anyone to be able to get a home loan for it, and that might include expensive renovations and repairs. A cash buyer, on the other hand, doesn’t have to go through an inspection process.

MLS

The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is where real estate listings are posted. It’s exclusive: You can’t post a listing unless you’re a real estate agent. Not everyone uses the MLS to find homes today, but most real estate agents do.

But you don’t have to engage with a real estate agent completely to get an MLS listing. You can pay a real estate company for an MLS listing service. That means you can still sell your home on your own directly, but you still get a listing.

Short Sale

A short sale happens when you need to sell your house quickly, usually before foreclosure. You can ask your bank to “sell short,” which means you’re selling for less than you owe. If you owe $200,000 on a property and sell it for $150,000, that additional $50,000 is forgiven. You don’t have to pay it back to the bank. A short sale is one of the best ways to get out of an “underwater” home (a home you owe more on than it’s worth). 

Above all, you probably want to know what a cash home buyer is. A cash home buyer is a company that specializes in purchasing homes, including distressed, damaged, ugly, and old properties. Cash home buyers are willing to purchase your home for a fair price without going through the fuss of listings, showings, and working with agents. Contact We Buy Houses Oklahoma City today to find out more about what a cash home buyer can do for you.