What You Should Know: Is Selling Your House As-Is Worth It?
73% of home sellers make improvements before they sell. Pre-listing home improvements are incredibly common, but they can cause concern for many sellers. Are you one of them?
If so, you may be worried about a number of things, including how much the necessary improvements will cost you, how long they’ll take, how much stress they could cause, and what the returns will look like. Understandably, you want your house off of your hands ASAP so that you can move on—which can make taking on pre-listing improvements sound somewhat counterintuitive.
But is selling a house as-is really the best route for you? To find out, let’s discuss everything from what modern buyers are looking for to the cost of selling as-is.
What today’s buyers want
While some buyers don’t mind a fixer-upper, most prefer move-in-ready homes. In fact, 80% of Americans say they’d prefer to buy a move-in-ready home over one that requires any updating. 70% of millennials and Gen Xers even say that they’d sacrifice size for move-in ready.
When you list a home to sell as-is, you’re only going to appeal to a small subset of the market—about 20%. This makes it a little risky to sell a house as-is. “As-is” means you’re selling a home in its current state, with the understanding that you—the seller—won’t be making any repairs or updates.
The actual term “as-is” is typically used for previously owned homes that need repairs and renovations. As a result, when buyers see “as-is,” on a listing, they automatically assume that there are significant repairs or upgrades that need to be made. This will scare away most buyers but could attract the eyes of investors and flippers. In other words, you’ll have a much smaller pool of buyers interested in your home and you’ll likely receive low-ball offers from people looking to profit. In many cases, selling as-is means selling for thousands less than your home’s potential value. There have to be some pros to selling as-is though, right—or why would anyone do it?
One reason people actively choose to list as-is properties is to sell quickly to an all-cash buyer, even though they know they’ll receive a fraction of the value of their home.
Generally, though, the biggest incentive is that you, the seller, don’t have to spend time and money on repairs, which is good if you’re strapped for time and cash. However, when you and your agent work with Curbio, you can maximize the value of your home without sacrificing your time and money. Curbio takes on any pre-listing home improvements you need to get market-ready and we wait until closing to be paid. Real estate agents lean on our expertise to choose smart home improvements that will maximize your profit from your home sale. Learn more about how it works.
By selling as-is, sellers collectively leave billions of dollars on the table each year. Let’s dive deeper into what this means for your individual home sale.
How much do you lose selling a house as-is?
How much you’ll lose selling as-is will vary significantly from home to home, but we can look at averages to give you an idea of the significance.
Curbio takes on projects of all sizes. From simple paint and repair projects to full rehabs, we do it all. Across our projects, we achieve an average return of 113% on project costs. For projects focused on basic repairs and touch-ups (between $5k-$10k), sellers average $5,578 in net profit. For refreshes (projects costing $15k-$50k), sellers average $32,480 in net profit. Finally, for renovations (projects that cost over $50k), sellers average $57,433 in net profit. No matter how you dice the numbers, the bottom line is that by listing as-is, you’re choosing to leave thousands of dollars on the closing table.
But when you sell a house as-is, you lose more than money. You’ll also lose time. Home sold as-is will attract fewer buyers, which means it will take longer to receive an offer worth accepting. Once the offer is accepted, you can generally expect to see more delays caused by the inspection. Best case scenario: a bad inspection can cost you the time it takes to tend to post-inspection, punch list repairs. Worst case scenario: The inspection uncovers deal breakers that cause the buyers to pull their offer, ultimately requiring you to put the home back on the market and costing you weeks. Taking care of repairs after the inspection can cost time and stress. Of course, if you’re ever stuck in this situation, Curbio can help! We also tackle post-inspection repairs quickly to prevent delays to closing.
Maximize profit with pre-listing home improvements
Listing your home as-is can cost you time and money. On the other hand, taking on pre-listing home improvements can help you:
- Attract a broader set of buyers
- Breeze through the home inspection, eliminating delays before closing
- Sell for significantly more money and achieve a much higher profit
Of course, most sellers don’t have the time, cash, and skill sets necessary to take on home improvements before selling, which is where Curbio comes into play.
Curbio is the leading home improvement company for real estate agents and their clients. We take on any pre-listing home improvements you need to get market-ready and wait until closing to be paid. Our team of experts works with your Realtor® to choose smart home improvements that will maximize your sale price and profit. Once the project kicks off, we see to every detail of the project from proposal to punch list, communicating every update throughout the duration of your project via the Curbio app. Learn more about how it works.