Selling a Townhouse Quickly [2 Best Ways]

Generally speaking, townhomes are not difficult to sell. However, they may take longer to sell compared to standard single-family homes. The following factors influence how difficult it is to sell a townhouse.

• Property condition: Selling an old townhouse can be difficult due the competition from newly built townhomes in an area.

  Newer townhomes mean modern amenities, features, and interior design for a buyer, which may not be available in older townhouses. It is therefore essential to refurbish and modernize your property before you can sell it.

• The local market: Townhouses in markets that largely consist of condos and townhomes (like in cities and urban centers) are much easier to sell.
• HOA (Homeowners’ Association) fees: Most buyers are put off by the HOA fees associated with owning a townhome. A potential buyer may even fail to secure a mortgage if the HOA fees are too high.

  Therefore, you should always inform buyers of the benefits and maintenance covered under HOA so they can decide whether the purchase is worth it.

• Limited buyer pool: Condo townhouses attract a small category of homebuyers that includes young couples and families looking to work their way toward a single-family property and people looking to downsize.

There are two main ways you can sell your townhouse:

• Selling to a company that buys houses: This involves selling your townhome to a real estate investor company that buys townhomes fast and for cash.
• Selling it traditionally: This is the typical process of selling a property, which includes hiring an experienced real estate agent or marketing your townhouse for sale and processing the sale on your own.

  Here, the speed of a successful sale depends on the local market and the expertise of your agent (or your own, if you aren’t using one).

In the following sections, we’ll discuss the two sales methods to help you find out which one is right for you.

If you want to sell your townhouse quickly and seamlessly, look into selling your home as is and for cash.

While most homebuyers shy away from townhomes that need work, real estate investors actively seek them out and pay for them in cash.

Real estate investors (commonly referred to as cash property buyers) are professionals who buy old townhomes and other properties in their current condition.

Old townhouses that need renovation and modernization present an investment opportunity for cash house buyers.

They also look for people who need to sell their property fast because of other reasons, such as financial problems (foreclosure, bankruptcy, and more), urgent relocation, divorce, and other situations where homeowners’ time is of essence.

To make a deal attractive for a seller, an investor makes a transaction as quick and easy as possible for the homeowner — easier than a traditional real estate sale with a Realtor.

They buy houses fast, fix them, and resell or rent them out for profit.

As a result, cash investors are not as picky as typical buyers who want homes that are ready for occupancy, which makes transactions with cash buyers fast and easy.

How Does Selling to a Real Estate Investor Work?

Here is the typical process of how to sell a townhouse fast to a real estate investor:

1. Request a cash offer from a real estate investor.
2. Meet the investor at your property so they can view it.
3. Review the investor’s offer. Usually, it’s sent to you within 24 hours of the walkthrough.
4. If you like the offer, sign a contract with the investor. The cash buyer will put money in escrow and oversee the rest of the process.
5. Close on the sale and collect your cash.

When dealing with a reputable cash house buying company, the whole process can take from one week to a month. However, complex situations, like a short sale or problems with the title, may require more time.

If you want to learn more about this route, here is a whole article on how selling your house to an investor works.

Pros and Cons of Selling a Townhome to a Real Estate Investor

There are many benefits of selling your townhouse to a cash investor, including:

• Real estate investors pay for houses in cash. Unlike typical buyers, they don’t have to wait for mortgage approval to be able to buy your property.
• You can sell the property without having to renovate it, which saves you time and effort. Typical buyers, who require a mortgage, may be denied financing because of the bad condition of the property.

  This won’t happen to a cash buyer, as they don’t depend on a bank’s mortgage approval.

• Cash buyers cover sellers’ closing costs, unlike typical buyers.
• Investors usually close faster than a regular home buyer. If you contact an investor directly instead of hiring a Realtor, you’ll already have a buyer, instead of waiting until the agent finds you one.
• Cash buyers handle the formalities of the sale process, which means you don’t need a real estate agent to walk you through the process. This allows you to avoid paying high realtor commission fees.
• There are fewer formalities when working with cash investors. For example, you can avoid lender-required property inspections and appraisals, which typical buyers have to do as a part of the mortgage application and residential property due diligence processes.

Selling to an investor has one major drawback:

• The offer may be lower than the property’s market value. This is because investors have to factor in renovation costs, closing fees, and their profit margin: they are buying your townhouse to make a profit out of it, after all.

Here is an article that will help you understand how much money you’ll lose when selling a home as is.

Where to Find a Good Real Estate Investor

One of the most crucial aspects of selling to a cash investor is finding the right one—you need a proven professional who’s reputable, ethical, and operates in your area.

At HouseCashin, we have partnered with seasoned cash home buyers from all states. Our platform consists of an extensive network of investors who have all been screened and verified for experience and proper ethical practices in their real estate dealings.

To sell your townhouse to one of our partner investors quickly and easily, fill out and submit our cash offer request form.

You could receive several no-obligation cash offers from investors operating in your area with just one request. There is no fee or any other obligation for requesting, receiving, accepting, or rejecting offers.

Once you receive a suitable offer, you can accept it and close on your townhouse. Typically, it takes from 3 to 30 days, with two weeks being the average length of a transaction.

Besides selling to investors, you can sell your townhouse to typical home buyers the traditional way — a process that involves marketing the house to the general public through different channels.

For a traditional sale, you need to hire a real estate agent to handle the sale process, or sell the house by yourself as a “for sale by owner” (FSBO) deal.

That said, a conventional home sale still remains more complicated and requires numerous formalities compared to a cash investor transaction.

Prepare the Property to Attract Buyers

In a classic home sale where you have to list and market your townhouse, prospective buyers aren’t usually willing to take on an old home that needs major repairs. This means that you have to prepare the property for sale.

Preparing the property involves making renovations. This is necessary for two reasons:

1. Buyers conduct inspections before closing on the property and request repairs if something is wrong with the house.
2. Most home buyers who might be willing to buy the house as-is and repair it later still need a mortgage. Unfortunately, lenders avoid issuing loans on properties that need significant renovation.

After renovations, you also need to clean the house, enhance its curb appeal, do home staging, and take high-quality professional photos for effective marketing. Real estate agents usually hire professional home stagers and photographers for these purposes.

What Does a Traditional Real Estate Sale Entail?

When selling a townhouse the traditional way, the first step is to decide whether you’ll be working with an agent or selling by yourself.

If you choose to hire an agent, they will act as your representative and oversee the sale process, from finding repair contractors, listing, and marketing to negotiations with interested buyers and closing.

That said, you’ll have to pay a considerable realtor commission of between 3% and 6% of the selling price. Realtor costs when selling a house are the highest of the home seller closing costs.

Selling a property by yourself can be rather difficult when you have no professional training or experience in real estate sales.

Whether you hire an agent or sell on your own, the traditional sale process works as follows:

1. Determine the scope of repairs needed and estimate renovation costs with the help of a professional home inspector.
2. Set a suitable asking price. Your agent will conduct a CMA (comparative market analysis) to determine an appropriate price for your home.

   If you’re selling by yourself, use online home valuation software (such as our house value estimator) and local market data to determine the right price.

3. Prepare the property for sale. Renovate the house, clean it, and professionally stage it for listing photos.
4. List and advertise the house. Your agent will list your house on the local MLS and handle any other marketing requirements.

   If you’re selling the house as a FSBO, list it on popular for-sale-by-owner websites such as the Real Estate Bees property marketplace, HouseCashin, Zillow, Redfin, and Opendoor.

5. Schedule property viewings and conduct open houses for interested homebuyers to assess the property.
6. Negotiate with potential buyers and compare offers to land the best deal possible.
7. Get the property professionally inspected and appraised and wait for the respective reports. Buyers are required by lenders to conduct professional home inspections and appraisals as part of the mortgage approval process.

   If the house is found to have a lower market value than your asking price, you will have to renegotiate with your buyer.

8. Hire a title company to manage the paperwork and document transfer. You can then determine the closing date once the title search is done.
9. Close and get the money in your bank account.

Pros and Cons of Selling a Townhouse Traditionally

Selling your townhouse the classic way has the following benefits:

• Real estate agents (if the seller chooses to use one) oversee the paperwork and other formalities, ensuring a stress-free sale process for the seller. They also protect the seller’s best interests.
• A house may be sold at its market value if the agent or the seller themselves are experienced enough.

There are also several downsides to selling the traditional way:

• Selling traditionally means you’re responsible for repairs and renovations, which can be expensive and time-consuming.
• The sale process takes much longer than selling to an investor. You have to list the property, wait for potential buyers to reach out, arrange open showings, and negotiate offers—not to mention the time spent on repairs.
• Lender-required inspections and appraisals drag out the sale even further.
• Agent (if the seller uses an agent) commission is high, amounting to 3% to 6% of the final sale price. Even if you are selling without hiring a listing agent, you will have for-sale-by-owner closing costs that often include the buyer’s agent fee of 2-3% of the selling price.
• Typical home buyers are picky, and negotiations with them and their agents can get stressful.

Now that you know the different ways to sell your property, the next step would be comparing how much you can get for it by selling to a real estate investor versus using a real estate agent.

To do this, find a few local professionals and compare their offers. When talking to a real estate agent, don’t forget to ask for a quote on their commission, in addition to the estimated property price.

And as for real estate investors, request multiple all-cash offers coming from reputable professional property buyers in your area, compare them, and choose the one that works best for you.

This involves no fees and no obligation of any kind.