4 Best Ways for Selling a Home in Alabama

When selling a house in Alabama privately, you won’t run into a number of issues that many sellers marketing their homes to the general public find troubling.

To sell a property in Alabama without advertising it to the public, you won’t need to make sure your house is squeaky clean every morning on the chance you’ll have a showing that day.

A private sale also offers an element of safety. You won’t have strangers walking through your house when you’re not home. And photos of your house won’t be posted on the internet for everyone to see.

These aren’t the only advantages. There are more. But how do you find a buyer without advertising your house? Read on for the details.

What Are Home Buying Companies?

You may have seen “cash home buyers” signs in the neighborhood or ads on the internet and you’ve wondered, just who are these companies and what do they do?

The answer is pretty simple. Home buying companies and individual investors, and sometimes hedge funds, are professional real estate investors.

Cash buyers look for investment property in Alabama — all types of houses in various conditions from turnkey to extreme fixers. Especially fixers.

Some buyers concentrate on purchasing single-family homes to repair and then resell to other buyers. This is known as “house flipping.”

Other investors buy single-family properties that can be rehabbed and turned into a leased unit to provide a steady source of rental income. Some Cotton State investors, in fact, focus exclusively on buying properties for rental income.

Alabama property investors have ready cash to buy. They don’t use traditional mortgage companies or banks, so they can move quickly to buy and close the sale.

The general public typically needs a bank loan, and that adds weeks to finalize a home sale. When you sell your home to a real estate investor, you’ll experience a speedy sale for cash.

Many homeowners confront situations where an investment sale is the perfect match, including those:

• selling a house before it gets foreclosed and sold at a real estate auction
• selling a home with tenants who refuse to leave
• selling a property to avoid bankruptcy
• selling a rundown house
• selling a property before a divorce home sale
• selling a house after death of a parent
• selling a house for a job relocation
• selling a house with back taxes owed
• selling to move to a smaller property

And this is just a short list of the times where homeowners can benefit from a quick cash sale to a professional real estate investor!

Home investors will use Alabama investor-friendly title companies. They understand the nuances of handling cash transactions.

Pros of Selling to a Home Buying Company

• When you sell your house for cash to a home buying firm, your sale will move quickly to close. Cash means a speedy sale.

• Mortgages can add weeks, sometimes months, to the closing time. Sell your home for cash in Alabama and skip the wait for buyer lender qualifications and mandatory mortgage property appraisals. It can take weeks just to have your home appraised in a busy market.

• You won’t need to upgrade anything in your home. Investors purchase your property as is. No fixing required. Even if you’re selling a hoarder’s house, you still won’t need to do any home cleanout.

• You’ll avoid paying real estate commissions when you and the investor don’t use Realtors. Commission fees are a major expense for homeowners.

• Investors cover the typical closing costs for sellers. Selling a home privately to a cash buyer can save major coin that would normally be paid by the homeowner in the transaction.

But not everything is sunshine and roses in a professional cash sale. Let’s explore a potential negative next.

Cons of Selling to a Home Buying Company

The fact is, you probably won’t receive a market-value offer from real estate cash buyers in Alabama. That doesn’t sound good, but read on.

Why is the offer less than market value? Because investors factor in the cost of repairs and add a potential estimated profit in their offers. Keep reading, and you’ll find this may not be the negative you imagined.

When you add your cost savings from investor-paid closing costs, and the fact you’re not paying real estate commissions, the investor offer may not seem so bad.

But having quality offers to compare depends on finding companies that operate professionally and ethically.

How to Find an Ethical Home Buying Company

A common advertising internet slogan is “sell my house fast for cash,” but not all investors can back that claim up with actual performance numbers. Some will promise you the moon, but you’ll still end up on this planet.

Not all home buying companies operate ethically, but the same can be said of individual firms in any industry or profession.

If you do some basic research, you can find a number of home buying businesses that operate professionally, and ethically, but you need to take the time to vet your potential investors.

Let’s list some ways to vet your investor so you are able to locate one who has a history of closed sales while using professional operations.

Collect a list of local cash buyers, then examine their online presence to vet them. Look at the company website’s “About Us” page.

Your investor should be identified there, as well as the cash buyer’s background and experience. If it’s a firm operated by a mystery person, it’s time to move on.

If the potential investor doesn’t have a minimum of three years in the cash buying field, scratch them off from your list. It takes at least three years to develop your investment skills.

Research next by using Yelp, Facebook, Google, Trustpilot, and Real Estate Bees to read the reviews of the investors on your list.

If you’re seeing a parade of unhappy people, that’s another sign to move on to others.

The next online stop is the local branch of the Better Business Bureau to look for any consumer complaints filed against any of your potential cash buyers. Same situation here — a large number of upset clients mean more cuts to your list.

This sounds like real work, right? It is! But there’s an easier way.

If you want to speed up the screening process but still want to ensure you’re dealing with an ethical investor, request a cash offer on your house from the cash buyers partnering with HouseCashin.

HouseCashin connects you with a nationwide network of investment professionals. We prescreen and vet investors for you, so you have a choice of cash buyers who not only operate ethically, but they also have a history of closing sales quickly.

And to make things even sweeter, this prescreening is free. There are never any referral fees or commissions for the offers — even if you decline all of the offers you receive. If this sounds good, request a cash offer on your house now.

A classic real estate sale is where the homeowner hires a licensed agent to handle all aspects of the transaction. The agents handle all the work, for a commission.

How to sell a home in Alabama with an agent? Let’s break down the steps now.

Who Are Real Estate Agents?

Real estate agents are professionals. They’re educated and trained to assist homeowners in listing and marketing properties.

The state licensing process requires agents to take coursework and pass exams on real estate law, marketing, and rules regulating contracts used when selling a house in Alabama.

Agents handle listing and sales contracts and also supervise the title and escrow process once you’ve accepted an offer on your property. They know the legal requirements for these steps in the sale process.

“Realtors” are dues-paying members of the Alabama Association of Realtors, a branch of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), and they take a formal oath to operate ethically on your behalf.

If they don’t, the association will take actions like removing their membership.

Pros of Using a Real Estate Agent

• Real estate agents have the training, education, and most importantly, the experience in selling property in Alabama. This helps you avoid the most common missteps that can happen during the sales transaction.

• Realtors have special databases to assist in research to determine a sales price for your home. This information helps you set a price that will match with a lender’s mortgage appraisal.

• Agents have a fiduciary duty to put you first above everyone else involved in the transaction. That means you are the agent’s main focus, and your needs are put on the front burner — always.

Cons of Using a Real Estate Agent

• Alabama real estate commissions run approximately 5% to 6% of the property sales price. That’s a lot of cash. In fact, the cost of selling a house with a Realtor is the major expense for home sellers.

• You may need to wait to find a buyer, and sometimes that’s a long wait in a slow market. All the while your agent continues to market your house. Your property will be open to the public during the entire time it’s listed for sale.

• Agents market houses to the general public, and those buyers typically need a loan to purchase your house. Mortgages add weeks to the closing process, while the lender qualifies your buyer and also appraises your home to ensure the loan is a sound decision for the lender. You’ll have a major wait time with a buyer who uses a mortgage.

How to Find a Good Real Estate Agent

The Cotton State has many real estate agents — lots of them. Finding a competent Realtor requires some effort to screen professionals to locate the best agent to represent you.

You need to find someone who has the communication and sales expertise to sell your home, but also one you can easily communicate with.

Start by asking your coworkers, friends, family, and neighbors for their recommendations. Screen those recommendations to find agents with at least three years experience, and those with a history of representing sellers in your neighborhood.

Check online for complaints filed with the local branch of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to ensure the agents on your list of prospects don’t have cases against them.

Look for a pattern of complaints, and don’t fault an agent with a complaint from one cranky person with a personal beef. Focus on patterns of poor performance from an agent.

Also, check with the local office of the Alabama Realtors for complaints filed against members on your prospect list.

Check if the problem was resolved amicably between both parties. That can demonstrate professionalism.

Once you’ve finished that preliminary screening, meet with three of the most interesting prospects at your property to hear how they’d represent you in selling your home. This is the time to see how well you can communicate with each prospective agent.

Each presentation should include a marketing plan specifically tailored for your house. The agent with the best plan, and one you can work well with during the sales transaction, should be a great pick.

The next sales approach is the “for sale by owner” (FSBO) listing. This puts you on the hot seat for everything related to your sale.

An FSBO sale doesn’t entail any brokerage commission fees, but you’ll be responsible for the home listing and marketing, and also for supervising the escrow process.

It’s all on you — but you’ll probably save some considerable cash in the process. Or, you won’t.

The first thing out of the gate is you’ll need to determine the price to put on your property. A home worth calculator is one way to roughly estimate the value of your home.

The next thing is to find a buyer. Locating qualified buyers may also pose a problem when working without an agent, but there are some things you can do to attract buyers’ attention.

Ways to Market Your House Yourself

• Put a professional-looking sign on your property, with several ways to contact you for a showing.

• Make a video tour of your home to share on social media sites. If you don’t have the tech skills to do this, there are companies you can hire to have this done. A quality tour can entice buyers to take a look.

• Create an informational flyer for your house that can be given to people or left in their mailboxes. List the amenities and special features your home has.

• Post your home tour on for sale by owner websites. Some sites charge for this service, but many are free to sellers. Again, the more professional the presentation, the more qualified buyers you’ll attract.

Selling your home as an FSBO has some serious advantages and challenges you’ll need to consider.

Pros of Marketing Your House Yourself

• The biggest line item on your closing costs in Alabama is the money paid for real estate commissions. You’ll skip the seller’s agent commission, which is about 3% of the sales price.

• You can take charge of everything related to the sale. The only person approving all aspects of the sale is you. You are the boss of your sale!

• While agents have other clients that need wrangling, your house, and your sale, is your only focus. You can spend all of your time marketing your home without waiting on a Realtor.

As with all things, FSBO selling is not a panacea.

Cons of Marketing Your House Yourself

• You’ll need to master Alabama real estate laws to ensure you’re completing all requirements for the listing and sale. You’ll need to dot all “i’s” on every legal document.

• You will be the point person to assist your buyer in the mortgage process. This can be a snakepit for the inexperienced. Most buyers from the general public, as opposed to cash investors, need a loan to purchase your house. Can you handle the world of real estate lending?

• You won’t have an agent with the education and sales experience to back you up during the listing and sale. You’re alone in the world of real estate sales.

• Mistakes cause delay, and big mistakes may mean your sale blows up. You may end up underpricing your property, agreeing to unfair seller concessions, or overpaying your for sale by owner closing costs to the point of netting less than if you listed with a good real estate agent. Especially if the buyer has a professional buyer’s agent negotiating for them, while you don’t.

• What’s worse is you may end up in court when your buyer decides you took a major misstep during the sale process. Even when you didn’t, it’s expensive to defend yourself.

Sometimes you find a home and you just fall in love, even though you still have a house to sell. Let’s explore how you can have your dream house right away in the next segment.

When you want to move into a new home but have to unload your current house, Alabama iBuyer companies can come to the rescue. iBuyers offer “buy before you sell” services.

These companies will make an equity loan on your current home to give you the cash to buy your new property, or the money to use as the cash down payment on that house.

This arrangement means you’ll skip a contingency purchase on the property you are buying. A contingency puts your house at risk for another buyer sweeping in and buying your house right from under you.

Once you use the equity cash to close on the house you are buying, the iBuyer will then close on the sales contract on your old home.

That covers all of the sales avenues for selling your home. Let’s now go through the steps in a typical sales process.

The first step seems easy: you’ll sign a listing contract with a licensed real estate brokerage. If you sell by yourself or sell to an investor, you’ll skip this step.

Setting the sales price is the toughest decision you’ll make during this step.

Before Signing a Purchase Contract

Alabama laws don’t require home sellers to complete a property condition disclosure, but it does mandate that owners honestly answer any questions sellers may have about the house.

If you’re asked a question about a potential problem with your home, you’ll need to ‘fess up and be honest about the issue.

Our related article, “How to Sell Your Home As Is in Alabama”, provides more details about the voluntary property disclosure. You can find more specific details there.

Marketing the Property

Marketing is everything, particularly in a slow market. The next step is to develop a marketing plan for your home.

Your real estate agent typically handles this, but if you’re representing yourself in the sale of your home, you’ll need to come up with an effective plan.

Most strategies include signage on the property, online and print ads, and broker previews to show your house to area real estate agents, as well as public open houses.

Each geographic area is unique, so you may need to experiment with sales approaches.

You might sell immediately, but most times, it will take some time to locate a buyer. As is condition listings typically take longer compared with turnkey property offerings — sometimes much longer.

Investors, unlike the general public, aren’t concerned with marketing, and they’re also receptive to buying a home in as is condition. In fact, most cash investors specialize in purchasing fixers!

Accepting an Offer

Home sale negotiations can get intense. Buyers’ offers will be presented to your agent, if you’re using one. FSBO listings and homeowners selling to an investor will receive the offer directly.

All buyers will give an earnest money deposit with the offer to demonstrate their intent to close the transaction. That money should be part of the sales presentation.

Once you accept an offer, escrow will be opened on your property. This is done by you in the case of an FSBO, or your agent, or even a real estate attorney.

Escrow is the process of coordinating the legal paperwork for the sale and transferring the money to complete the transaction.

It’s unwise to skip the escrow process, and there’s a fee attached for the service.

Title companies or attorneys typically handle escrow duties in Alabama, but the title firms’ main duty is conducting a formal search on the property’s chain of legal ownership.

That search checks for any legal liens or claims on your property. Those must be cleared before the sale is finalized.

Buyer Due Diligence Period

While the escrow and title officers do their duties, your buyer will conduct home inspections on your house looking for any material damages or safety risks that would reduce the value of the home.

When your buyer needs a loan to buy your house, this period is the time for buyer qualifications and lender underwriting. This formal lending step determines if your buyer and your home are safe risks for the mortgage lender.

You won’t need any of the conventional lender-related steps when you sell to a cash buyer.

Closing

You’ll then receive the Uniform Settlement Statement to examine to make sure everything is in order.

This is an itemized list of all the fees and credits related to the sale. It also lists funds transferred as part of your sale.

You should receive the settlement document at least 24 hours prior to signing the final escrow paperwork.

At the formal closing, you’ll sign legal paperwork and autograph the paperwork to transfer any money.

Real estate commissions and closing costs are part of the fees transferred during this time.

You won’t pay agent fees when a Realtor isn’t involved, such as when you sell to a cash investor (who also pays the rest of your closing costs).

The final closing step is done by your title office. The new property deed is then filed with the probate court in the county where the home is located.

Some Alabama counties will record deeds online, while others require them to be presented in person.

After Closing

Once the closing is done, the buyer will receive the keys to the property. Typically the money transfer isn’t done immediately, so you may receive a notification a day later.

It’s also wise to make sure the deed transfer took place. This can take a few days in hot sales markets where the court has a large number of deeds to transfer.

We’ve covered the various approaches to selling, and also the general steps involved in a property sale. The next steps require you to do a bit of research.

It’s now time to contact professional investors and iBuyers to compare offers, and to locate local real estate agents to arrange listing presentations where you’ll discuss commission charges and marketing plans.

But as you’re on the website now, why not request cash offers from HouseCashin investors?

There isn’t a fee for this service, and you’re under absolutely no obligation to accept any of the offers you’ll receive. Why not start your home sale process right now?