This the third and final post in my three-part blog series on buying a home with cash in Northern Virginia. So far, I’ve covered Part 1 and Part 2.
Buying a Home With Cash – Can You Still Get a Discount on Properties That Don’t Need Much Work?
If you’re paying cash for a home and you’re looking at properties that are in move-in ready condition, it’s still possible to get a discount, but you’ll be competing against other well qualified buyers who are getting loans, and who don’t mind paying market value for a home. These other buyers aren’t looking at just getting a home as an investment, so they’re more than happy to not get a huge discount.
Strategically, one way to look at this type of scenario as a cash buyer is to try to get the property for a little less than market value, but still a high enough price to entice the seller to sell their home to you. There’s an old saying in real estate that the best offer is not necessarily the highest offer, but the offer that will close. Well, if you’re buying a home with cash in Northern Virginia and you have some competition from financed buyers in a real estate market where credit is easy, you might want to make your offer high enough to where the seller says, “Yeah, this sales price is a little lower, but I’m gonna take it, because I don’t want to worry about the appraisal or the loan falling through, and I can close on my home and collect my check in a couple weeks as opposed to four to six weeks.” The bottom line is that from the seller’s perspective, that extra peace of mind is definitely worth something, but not necessarily tens of thousands of dollars.
As a general rule, the bigger discounts on cash real estate purchases in Northern Virginia come with properties that need lots of work, but don’t expect to get huge discounts all of the time when you’re buying a home with cash. If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it.
If you’re thinking of buying a home with cash in Northern Virginia but you’re not sure where to start, call me at 703-462-0700 or email me at DarrenRobertsonHomes@gmail.com. I’ll help you target the properties that have the most potential for profit and least amount of risk.