4 Best Ways for Selling a Home in Arizona

Selling your house privately means a quick and simple way to close the transaction without the typical headaches and delays of a traditional sale.

You won’t have images of your home placed across the internet to advertise it for sale. You won’t have to wait and hope someone finally sees your ad and reaches out to ask for a viewing.

People you don’t know won’t be constantly touring your home, and, most importantly, you’ll eliminate the delays in closing the sale.

So, who should you look for to sell a property in Arizona as a private sale? Read on to find out.

What Are Home Buying Companies?

Home buying companies pay cash and move quickly to close. They look to buy investment properties in Arizona.

Is your house an investment property? Yes, cash buyers are interested in making an offer on any type of home — single and multifamily, attached and unattached, and even land.

There’s an investor for all types of homes. And you can save time, effort, and money by selling to a home buying company.

Cash investors aren’t focused on the cosmetic condition of your property, and that means no time and money wasted on upgrading and repairing anything.

Investors buy turnkey homes, and they also buy properties in as-is condition, even hoarder’s houses filled with junk!

What will they do with your home? Some investors buy to remodel and resell, while others purchase homes to hold onto for appreciation. Some focus on purchasing a rental property as an investment.

How can they move faster than a traditional home sale? Arizona real estate investors bring their own cash or money borrowed from hard money lending companies that don’t require lengthy lender underwriting.

By selling a home in Arizona to a real estate investor, you’ll slash weeks off a traditional closing calendar.

A private investor sale can be a major advantage for homeowners who are:

• selling a house before it goes into foreclosure
• selling an occupied rental property
• selling a house to avoid bankruptcy
• selling a house in poor condition
• looking to sell a hoarder house
• selling a house before or after divorce
• selling a house after a death of a parent
• selling a house for a job relocation
• selling a house with property taxes owed
• wanting to downsize to a smaller property

Investor-friendly title companies in Arizona facilitate many sales for cash buyers since they have experience moving transactions quickly to close.

Pros of Selling to a Home Buying Company

To help you decide if you should sell to a home investor, let’s consider a few benefits of this method, and then review the drawback.

• Fast cash home buyers close transactions quickly. If your house doesn’t have problems such as a lien or title issues, you may get cash for it within 2-3 weeks.

• Cash house buyers in Arizona don’t use traditional mortgages. That saves you the weeks wasted while a lender qualifies your buyer and underwrites a loan on your property.

• You won’t need to spend time cleaning, sprucing up paint and landscaping, or updating anything in your home. Unlike buyers from the general public, investors aren’t interested in superficial cosmetic issues. As for serious repairs, investors see them as an opportunity to add value to their investment.

• You’ll avoid real estate commissions. Professional cash buyers typically don’t use an agent, and when you also skip using one, you’ll save 5%-6% of the sales price that would normally go to real estate brokerages.

• You won’t have to pay the closing costs to sell a house — cash buyers normally assume them.

Cons of Selling to a Home Buying Company

But there is something else to consider in investor sales.

• Arizona cash property buyers may not pay you the market value for your home.

But, that’s not the whole story. Even though cash buyers factor the repair costs and then add potential resale profits into an offer, there’s an offset for homeowners.

Investors typically pay the seller’s closing costs. There also isn’t a real estate commission involved in the sale.

Both those cash savings may bring the offer closer to market value than you’d imagine.

How to Find an Ethical Home Buying Company

What to do when selling a house privately to find an ethical investor who won’t attempt taking advantage of you? You need to vet cash buyers properly.

You may receive snail mail from cash house buyers or see advertising on billboards or media. Write down those company names and contact information.

Use your computer or phone to do a search for local investors who promote their services on the internet.

Once you have a few names on your list, it’s time to screen each one.

Check each website for background information about the specific investor. Look for an “Our Team” page or something similar. If one isn’t listed on the website, move onto the next.

The investor should be transparent about their background, expertise, and years of experience in the industry. Eliminate any who haven’t been operating for a minimum of three years.

Research the feedback from prior homeowners on places like Yelp, Real Estate Bees, and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

Eliminate those on your list with a pattern of unethical behavior, or those who have poor ratings.

There’s another way to do your vetting, however. Our national network hosts home investors who have been screened and vetted for professionalism, ethical behavior, and for their experience.

You can feel comfortable that you’re dealing with investors that have the skills and expertise to close a home sale quickly.

And the best part is, you won’t need to take time to do the screening. It’s also free and without any obligation to take any of the cash offers you may receive.

Simply request a cash offer on your property by using the short online form, and then wait for an offer from a local investor. Depending on your location, you may get more than one offer and choose the best.

The next method for selling a home in Arizona is one you’ll undoubtedly recognize.

Selling a house in Arizona in a traditional sale means using a licensed real estate agent to handle everything — from signing the listing contract through the signatures on the final documents that close the transaction.

Who Are Real Estate Agents?

Real estate agents are licensed professionals who earn a commission by serving as your legal fiduciary during the marketing, negotiations, and other steps to close the sale.

Agents calling themselves “Realtors” are members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a professional trade organization that holds members to an ethical oath to put you first during the transaction.

Pros of Using a Real Estate Agent

Hiring a good agent to represent you can be beneficial.

• Your real estate agent has training in contracts and negotiating, not to mention years of experience. These will serve you well during the transaction.

• Realtors handle all the steps in selling a property in Arizona, leaving you free to live your normal life. You won’t be on call for home showings.

• Agents can assist you in pricing your home so it sells at the highest possible price. They have experience doing a comparative market analysis for a property.

• Realtors put your needs first in the transaction. They are your legal fiduciary.

Cons of Using a Real Estate Agent

Now, here are a few downsides to using an agent.

• You’ll pay 5%-6% of the sales price as the average Realtor cost to sell a home in the Grand Canyon State. That’s a major slice of your closing costs.

• Your home may take some time to sell. Your agent could be holding open houses for months before finding a buyer.

• Buyers brought by agents will typically need mortgages to finance the deal. This can add more weeks to the closing clock.

How to Find a Good Real Estate Agent

Although it takes time, you’ll need to do some in-depth research before you select an agent to represent you. A good agent is more likely to sell your property and bring you top dollar.

The basic vetting includes finding a local agent with three years of experience selling homes in your very neighborhood. Ask new neighbors if they were satisfied with the service they received from their agent.

Write down names from “for sale” signs in your area and save mailings you may receive.

When you have a list, prescreen each agent. Start with tracing their license activity online at the Arizona Department of Real Estate and the local branch of the Arizona Association of Realtors.

If the agent has a clear record in both those places, see what former clients say about them on consumer websites like Yelp and the Better Business Bureau.

The last step is time-consuming, but it’s the only method that offers insight into how well your prospective agents can communicate with you, and if they have a savvy plan to market your home.

Pick three agents and invite them to each do a formal listing proposal. Ask them to bring their professional portfolio and a list of recommendations to the meeting.

If you aren’t excited by this group, invite agents to present until you find one that meets your expectations.

A “for sale by owner” listing requires you to play the real estate agent. You must handle pricing, marketing, showing, contract negotiations, and wrangle your escrow.

Some steps are easier than others. For example, a home worth calculator can assist in setting a sales price for your property.

The other steps might require a bit of research before you invite people in for home tours.

Once you feel comfortable handling the contracts, negotiations, and escrow, it’s time to locate some potential buyers.

Ways to Market Your House Yourself

• A “for sale” sign works for some areas, particularly those with a large amount of foot or vehicle traffic.

• Record a video home tour of your property and add your contact information. Post your video on places like YouTube.

• Create a flyer for your home that you can share with neighbors who might have a friend or relative who wants to live in the neighborhood.

• Post photos of your home on for sale by owner real estate sites.

Pros of Marketing Your House Yourself

Some advantages to an FSBO might be an incentive to try to sell your home yourself.

• The commission savings is typically the biggest advantage FSBO sellers note for taking on the sales job. Those fees are the biggest chunk of your Arizona closing costs.

• You are the final say in all aspects of your home sale.

• Agents have a number of clients to take care of, while you have only one.

Cons of Marketing Your House Yourself

Selling by yourself takes work, and the disadvantages need to be weighed against the advantages.

• You’ll need to have some mastery of real estate laws, as well as basic marketing skills.

• You’ll need to understand the appraisal process so you can assist if the lender’s appraisal doesn’t match the contract sales price.

• You won’t have anyone to ask for advice when your efforts hit a snag.

• A minor goof can delay your closing; a major one may see you in court.

• If you’re not aware of the for sale by owner closing costs and how to negotiate them, you may end up earning even less than if you used a real estate agent.

Most homeowners need to sell a property before buying another, but our next sales option is a way to do both at the same time.

You have a home, but you’ve found another that you really want to buy. There’s a sales method for you to both buy and sell at the same time by using Arizona iBuyers. How does this work?

iBuyer companies are a type of companies that buy houses online. And some of them offer a service that allows you to buy a house before you sell the one you have.

It is the source for your cash to buy your new property. You’ll sign a sales agreement that gives you the equity cash in your house to buy another one.

Once that sale is completed, the iBuyer will purchase your home.

This sales method helps you avoid the long delays in finding a buyer for your property, waiting for their lender to fund, and then starting the process again on your new home purchase.

Without an iBuyer, you’d be stuck making a contingency offer where another buyer could come in and ace you out.

Those are the four most used residential sales methods in the Grand Canyon State. All of them use the same basic sales steps. Let’s detail that process now.

The Arizona home sales process involves the presale, sale, a due diligence period, and the property closing.

Before Signing a Purchase Contract

To start the process, you’ll need to determine your sales method, complete the required disclosures, and, when selling to anyone but a company that buys houses, you’ll need to ready the property for the showings.

Arizona is serious about sellers completing the mandated property disclosure. Failure to be transparent in answering the questions about the condition of your home, and sharing the disclosure with prospective buyers, could mean a fine.

You can find more details about how selling a house as is works in Arizona.

Marketing the Property

A “for sale” sign lets your neighbors know you’re selling, but there’s more to be done to actually sell your home.

You’ll need broker previews, open houses, advertising, and a number of home showings before you have an offer. It will then be time to negotiate for the best price and terms.

You’ll skip most of these steps when you sell to a cash house buyer. The only thing you’ll need to do is negotiate a price.

In a slow market, you may sit for a long time before you have a typical buyer. You’ll wait longer for a buyer from the general public when your property is an as-is offering.

Investors are fans of fixers, so you may be able to attract a buyer from that group in a matter of days.

Accepting an Offer

The next step is accepting an offer. This can take some time to navigate with the general public who typically want a turnkey home, or you to agree to fix things to make your home move-in ready.

Offers will be presented with an earnest money deposit that goes into escrow once you accept that sales contract.

Buyer Due Diligence Period

An escrow company is a neutral third party that coordinates the paperwork for the home sale, wrangles the cash, and makes sure that everything follows the purchase contract and the law.

In some cases the title company may handle the escrow duties.

Once escrow is opened, your buyer will hire property inspectors and go about locating a mortgage. This process involves home appraisals and lender underwriting review.

These inspections may open up further negotiations on price, or your buyer may ask you to repair items found by the home inspector.

A title search will be done to discover any unpaid liens or problems with your title. Title insurance and homeowner hazard insurance are also purchased during this period.

Investor sales skip the traditional lending requirements, and the detailed professional home inspections.

Closing

A few days before the final signatures are collected, you’ll review your final documents and a list of your fees with your escrow agent.

That list will include payment to agents for commissions and your closing costs. You won’t see these charges when you sell to a real estate investor.

Your buyer does a final walkthrough of your home to ensure everything looks the way it did on the day of the offer, or you’ve repaired items listed on the sales contract.

All parties then sign at the formal closing, and a new deed is filed with the county recorder’s office.

You may have your attorney present at the closing, but Arizona laws don’t require that.

That’s the formal closing, but you might want to check that the deed has been filed. This is necessary for you to cease being the legal owner of the property. State law requires filing within 60 days of the property closing.

We’ve covered the four common ways to sell a home in the Grand Canyon State and the typical process of selling.

The next steps are up to you to locate agents, iBuyers, and cash investors. But we can expedite that process.

You can speed up your sale by requesting cash offers from HouseCashin now. This way, you’ll have investor offers to review while you’re doing your other research.

There’s no elaborate paperwork to fill out, you’ll never pay a fee, and there are no commissions. Neither are you obligated to accept any of the offers. It’s easy, fast, and free!