Sell a House on Offerpad

At A Glance:

Deciding to sell your home is life-changing. Most people invest a tremendous amount of time, money, and emotional energy into their home, so selling is often difficult, particularly under time constraints. OfferPad is a direct home buying service that claims to ease the difficulties of selling a home in various ways. While relieving some of the stress associated with selling a home is tempting, it is important to recognize both what is good and bad about using OfferPad to sell your home.

HOW DOES OFFERPAD WORK?

OfferPad provides a streamlined home selling process which cuts out traditional hassles associated with finding a buyer. The first step to selling your home through the website is requesting a purchase offer. To make the request, you will need to provide some information about the property and upload a few pictures of the home.

After you make a purchase offer request, OfferPad should respond with the offer via email within 24 hours. Following receipt of the purchase offer, you then decide whether or not to accept. If you decide to accept, you’ll then select a closing datewithin 5-90 days of acceptance and sign a purchase contract. Before selling your home, you will need to schedule an inspection where an OfferPad employee and an independent inspector will survey the home for needed repairs. If repairs are necessary (which they often are) you are presented with three options:

  • Have the cost of the repairs deducted from the purchase price
  • Hire a licensed contractor to make the necessary repairs
  • Cancel purchase contract

There are a few more steps after the home repair process:

  1. Getting your home ready for moving out
  2. OfferPad sends an employee to make a final walkthrough two days before closing
  3. Official close of escrow
  4. Moving out

OFFERPAD VS REAL ESTATE AGENTS

When you sell your home with OfferPad, you are dealing directly with your buyer. When you sell your home using a real estate agent, you are working with a person who makes a percentage of your home’s sale price. A real estate agent charges a 6% commission off of the value of your home plus title and escrow fees. OfferPad charges the same 6% commission plus an additional 3% convenience fee. Additionally, OfferPad can include the hidden fee of offering less for your property.

Whether you use a real estate agent or a direct home buyer, most people must repair their home before sale which is a context-dependent expense that can vary wildly. If you sell with OfferPad repair costs may be higher than if you sell with a real estate agent because OfferPad requires either:

  1. A deduction of repair costs from the purchase price
  2. You hiring a licensed contractor to make necessary repairs

When selling traditionally, you can take more cost-effective measures to make required repairs.