The house you purchased is YOUR HOME & INVESTMENT, and deciding to move your family is one of the most important decisions you will make. In these uncertain times the process can be complicated and can cause undo stress in your life. As your Realtor and Home Partner, we will look after your best interests step-by-step, negotiating on your behalf. We will make the process as smooth as possible, working together with you getting the price and terms that will make you happy!

While companies offering a guaranteed offer for homes have been around for a number of years, they have become increasingly noticeable over the past year. For those who have not heard of the guaranteed offer, this is where a realty company will make you an offer on your home, basically sight unseen. If you agree to their price offer and terms, they will purchase it directly from you. Keep in mind “Their terms”, If its not in their best interest then you wont qualify. The Good The concept of a guaranteed offer on a home can be beneficial. For the home owner that is experiencing severe financial difficulties and “may” be facing foreclosure or even bankruptcy, there could be value in doing this. Of course, the homeowner should have enough equity in the house to make it worth while. Note that if your home is already in process with the bank, you most likely will not be eligible for guaranteed offers. Another situation would be where a family has lost a relative that lived in a home and wants to be rid of the home as quickly as possible. Not having to worry about prepping the home for sale or having it sit on the market waiting for a buyer could relieve a lot of stress in an already stressful situation. This would be especially appropriate if the family that inherited the home was many miles away or in another state. The Bad Guaranteed offer companies use questionable advertising. Claims made by these companies include that they can make the homeowner as much if not more in net proceeds from the sale of the home than selling through more traditional means. They claim they do this by offering them market value and at the same time charging them less in fees and expenses than a traditional real estate company would to sell their home. Lets just use a little common sense here. Any company that wishes to stay in business has to show a profit. How can they offer homeowners a valid market offer and then turn around and sell it without increasing the price to what it should of been sold for in the first place? Traditional home sales typically involve commission rates ranging from 4.5% to 6.0%. Pricing of the home is based upon using actual recent sale comparisons. The focus of a Realtor is to get the seller as large a sale price as possible providing the highest return on their investment. When a home goes under contract, the homeowner still has the ability to negotiate inspection repairs with the buyer as well as choosing their repair companies. The seller has the last word. In comparison, research guaranteed companies on the internet and go directly to their pricing fees. These companies are charging an average of 6.5-8%. Pay closer attention to the cost of repair costs which are shown as TBD. What happens is once you sign up with them, they bring out their own inspectors and contractors. This puts any repair expenses in the control of the company. Be sure to also read the exclusions before contacting one of these companies. These can include homes built prior to a certain date, price ranges of acceptable homes, homes located in or near flood zones, distressed homes, rental homes and more. They basically want the cream of the crop with non=conforming homes being rejected. Another form of guaranteed sales program is being done by more traditional real estate firms. They advertise that if they can’t sell your home within a certain period of time, they will purchase it from you. These are for the most part qualified real estate professionals who use this concept as a ploy to get the home seller to interview them. These companies also typically charge sellers on the high side of the commission rate scale plus also may charge extra fees. The last thing they really want to do is purchase your home. According to a well qualified appraiser, when doing an appraisal for a home sale and researching for comparative sales, he eliminates sales by guaranteed offer companies. He claims these sales are the actions of an “Atypical motivated seller” and therefore don’t reflect a proper comp. He compared these sales as equivalent to a used car sale. If taking your car to a used car dealership, they will buy it but for less than they can resell it for. In Conclusion Simply put, anyone who tells you they can make as much or more for you than selling it through traditional means is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Should the need to sell your home equate better with a guaranteed offer program, then by all means take advantage of it. I would encourage you to at the same time interview with a couple of traditional realty companies before signing. You may be surprised how much more money you will recognize in the end plus with today’s market, how quickly your home may sell.