How To Sell Your Miami Home For Cash
Want to sell your home in Miami? Here’s why a cash home offer is better, and the best ways to get cash for your Florida home faster.
It may be a smart time to sell your home in Miami and liquidate your real estate assets in South Florida. There’s more than one way to do it. For a variety of reasons, a cash buyer can be far superior. Here’s why you want them and where they are.
Why Sell Your Miami Home For Cash
There are three main ways to sell real estate:
- To a financed buyer who needs a loan from a mortgage company
- By seller financing your home and taking payments over time
- To an all cash buyer
There can be some advantages of the first two options. If you have the luxury of waiting to sell indefinitely, and want to try to hold out for a higher price from a financed buyer who isn’t price sensitive in a fast rising market, that might work for you.
If you don’t have any other good plans for the cash from your home, then seller financing can be a viable option. If you don’t need any money to move to a new home, or you are having a hard time finding new investments, then holding the note on your old property can give you ongoing income, with a good return, on an asset you are already familiar with.
With these exceptions, selling for cash is almost always the superior option.
It means:
- Avoiding the risk of the deal falling apart due to financing
- No worries about appraisal issues
- Ability to close in just days instead of months
- Being able to cash out before the market goes down more
- Reducing risk of vandalism or natural disasters while waiting to sell
- Minimizing holding costs and liability
So, what are your options for selling your Miami home for cash?
Listing with a Realtor
It is possible to find a cash buyer through listing with a real estate agent and putting your home up for sale on the MLS. No doubt you’ll get many more offers from buyers needing financing. They’ll also want a lot of contingencies and clauses in the contract. That means you really don’t know if you’ll really get to close until what can be months later. If you don’t get a good offer for 100 days, and then schedule the closing for another 60 days out, you’re waiting 5 and a half months, with a high risk you’ll be starting the process all over again. When that happens your home value could be significantly lower, and you will have given up a lot in holding costs. If you aren’t careful, you may legally have to accept a full price offer from a financed buyer, even if you want cash. Or you could be in a lot of legal trouble.
Discount Realty Services
There are some real estate brokers who promote themselves as ‘discount’ service options. Typically, that just means they’ll throw your home up on the web and you hope you get a buyer. When you do, you’ll still have to pay the buyer’s agent commission. Everything else is much the same as a full service listing, minus the service.
For Sale By Owner
You could go the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) route. You can put a for sale sign in your yard. You can post on Craigslist and say “cash only.” You can build your own website and print and hand out flyers. Chances still are that you’ll be overwhelmed with buyers needing financing and Realtors begging for your listing. Even if a cash buyer is interested, you’ll probably miss them dealing with all of the dead leads.
Summary
If you are thinking of selling your Florida property cash seems the best option by far, with few exceptions. Cash buyers are far less of a risk, and may put more money in your pocket when you do all the math. There are several ways to how to sell your Miami home for cash. Some are certainly superior than others.
