Agent vs Investor in Metro Atlanta

Like many businesses, we use Facebook as a tool to market our company to the public. As you may know, you can leave comments below the Facebook ads and comment on a business, etc.  Lately we’ve had a lot of real estate agents leaving mean and nasty remarks and negative comments about investors on our social media ads. That led us to wonder why in the world they dislike investors so much?  We would like you, as a seller, to be the judge of the best way to sell your home. Agents would like to think it’s their job to sell it for you, we would like to tell you that you have many options when selling your house. Who wins? Why don’t you decide!

In full disclosure, the founder of our company holds a real estate license in the state of Georgia and was a top producing agent  in Atlanta for 10 years before becoming an investor primarily.

Here are the 3 most common selling situations you will find in real estate:

1) List with an agent.

This is the most common scenario in real estate. You want to sell, you hire a realtor, and you WAIT! Isn’t something wrong with this? The seller has basically no control of the sales process. You put your house out there after making a bunch of recommended repairs whether you have the money to do so or not, and then you simply wait. You wait on a parade of buyers (hopefully) to walk through your house and figure out whether they want to buy it or not. If enough people don’t want to buy it the agent comes to you asking for a price reduction. Then you wait some more, with no control of the process.

The reward for this waiting is that you expose the house to the largest audience, and hopefully at the end of the day you get what’s called “market value” for your home. Market value is defined as what a ready, able, and willing buyer is willing to pay for a property given time and exposure to the largest audience.

Pros of listing with an agent:

• Potential to get market value for your home
• Advice from a seasoned agent is always helpful

Cons of listing with an agent:

• If you get a bad one, they can make the process very frustrating
• Waiting 30 days or more for buyers to get loan approval
• Buyer home inspection could cause transaction to fall apart
• Buyers’ family members weighing in on decisions (first time or younger buyers) could derail your transaction
• Paying thousands in real estate commissions and buyer closing costs
• Seller has zero control over timing
• House may not appraise, causing you to start over
• Costs of repairs to fix up

2) Sell to an Investor Like Nice Guys Buying Houses

Real estate investors do one thing well, they buy houses, land, apartments, and other real estate. They usually pay cash and offer real estate solutions the traditional listing process cannot offer. Investors like to call themselves “real estate solution specialists” for a reason. They enjoy working alongside a seller to achieve a win/win situation.

We mentioned that agents have been leaving negative comments about our company when they know nothing about how we treat people or do business with our clients. To be clear, we have never purchased a house from someone who didn’t enjoy selling it to us. At the time of this article we have 100% positive reviews on the Better Business Bureau, Google Reviews, and Facebook Reviews.  We intend to keep it that way.

What investors do is meet with the seller directly and figure out their problem. Once the problem is identified, a win/win solution is designed or the seller doesn’t have to sell. You see, in this situation, the seller has FULL CONTROL of the transaction vs when listing your property with an agent you have NO CONTROL.

Pros of selling to an investor: 

• Easy to work with, coming up with a win/win solution
• Seller has more control of transaction in just about every way
• Seller doesn’t have to fix up property, make repairs, or even clean out house in order to sell
• Flexible closing timeline. We close when you as the seller want to close
• Close in as fast as a week, or as long as 6 moths or more
• No real estate commissions or closing costs
• Nice Guys Buying Houses team guides you seamlessly to closing
• Transparent about how our numbers work
• No waiting on buyers to view house, no juggling dozens of buyer appointments
• Sell now, move later situations available

Cons of selling to an investor: 

• In most cases, you’ll sell at a discount compared to market value. Many people gladly trade convenience for a little equity. (trading in your car is a perfect example)

3) Sell the house on your own

This is the trickiest of all worlds because you’re now acting as a seller/owner as well as your own real estate agent. This is like a pediatrician trying to do brain surgery, they are both doctors, but one does’t specialize in the other. When you don’t specialize in something it usually means you’re guessing at a lot of things that cost you money.

With that said, many people decide to sell their home “For Sale By Owner”. It can be easy when you sell to a friend or family member, but we find that often relationships can be tested or harmed because of the “business” transaction of real estate and they varying interests people have.

Pros of selling by owner: 

• You can save real estate commissions

Cons of selling by owner: 

• Research proves that direct party transactions don’t actually have beneficial results
• Sellers can get too personal and emotionally attached to the sale
• All the paperwork involved
• Guessing on what needs to be done can cost you thousands

Agent vs Investor in Metro Atlanta? You be the judge of the best way to sell your home. If you feel like selling to an investor is important, please give us a call or contact us below for more information.