The Pros and Cons of Selling a Home with a Service Like Opendoor
How people sell homes hasn't changed much in decades. You hire a real estate agent, list your home, wait for an acceptable offer, accept it, close on the house. But a few companies have been shaking things up recently.
We've already given you the rundown on Zillow Instant Offers, but what does the newcomer Opendoor have to offer you?
Pro: You don't have to list your home
Be honest. You probably have dirty dishes in the sink, things stacked on your stairs waiting to be taken up when you go to bed, and smelly shoes piled by your front door. But when you're trying to sell your home all of that has to go away to make your home look like a picture in Better Homes and Gardens.
Using a service like Opendoor means you never have to show your house, so you're not trying to convince someone that they should live there. You're only dealing in hard numbers that say how much your house is worth and how much profit the company can make when they sell it.
Con: Can't hook a seller
The downside to not showing your home is that you're not able to make a potential buyer fall in love with it. Since the Opendoor representative won't be living in the house, they won't fall in love with—and be willing to pay more for—your home's unique charm, proximity to their work, or peaceful backyard.
Pro: You get a cash offer
We can't tell you how many horror stories we've heard from sellers who thought they'd finally sold their home only to find out the buyers financing fell through. Services like Opendoor are paying cash for houses. Not only does that mean you're very unlikely to have financing fall through, it also means the transaction is probably going to happen a lot faster since you don't have to wait around for a lender to process a loan application.
Con: You can't take advantage of a seller's markets
If you're not putting your house on the market, that means you won't have multiple people interested in it. If your area is in a seller's market, that could mean you're missing out on the chance to take advantage of a bidding war between interested buyers. And that means you could be missing out on a chance to make more money from your home sale.
Pro (and con): You can buy through Opendoor
Once Opendoor buys a house, the next logical step is that they have to sell it, right? Doing your home's sale through Opendoor will mean you're likely to close on the home sooner and won't have to deal with any drama from the home seller. On the downside, if you're only looking at Opendoor homes, that means you'll be limiting your search.
Is this the future?
Ten years ago you'd probably never think you'd be using an app to ask random people to come pick you up in their car and take you wherever you want to go. But today it's hard to imagine living without Uber.
The point is, people are always willing to pay for convenience and are more open to using technology to make their lives easier. So, while there will probably always be a place for traditional real estate sales, we'll also probably see more and more sales happening through this type of service.
Ready to get started buying your first home? Let us walk you through it.