How home selling actually works.
I've been operating in the cash-buyer market for four years. I've walked houses, underwritten deals, and watched operators who close 20+ a month price properties at the kitchen table. This is what I wish every seller knew before deciding which path to go down — written by Tim Dodaro, operator-investor.
Two paths. Pick whichever applies to you, or read both — the gotchas of each are entirely different and most sellers don't learn them until they're in the middle of a deal.
Selling for cash, off-market.
A real cash buyer (or wholesaler, or flipper, or iBuyer — they're not the same thing) makes you an offer below retail in exchange for speed, no repairs, and no contingencies. Here's how that path actually plays out, and the negotiation tactics you'll see if you're not ready for them.
From offer to deed recording: the full process, day by day. What a real cash buyer is doing on their side of the table while you're waiting on title.
Four very different people show up using the same words. Who actually buys, who's reselling your contract, and how each one makes money.
The 70% rule, repair reserve math, and the buyer's cushion — explained with a worked dollar example so you can sanity-check any number you're given.
Start-low anchoring. The 'and/or assigns' line. Title-cloud tactics. The walkthrough retrade. Five negotiation moves you'll see and how to push back on each.
Secretary of State checks, proof of funds, prior closings, attorney-review pushback, and where the earnest money sits. The 30-minute diligence pass.
Listing on the MLS with a real-estate agent.
Retail-priced. 60–120 days on average. A licensed agent represents you (in theory) and runs photography, showings, and offer-handling. Here's the full process — and the inspection, appraisal, and incentive games that decide what you actually net.
CMA, listing agreement, MLS, showings, offer, attorney review, closing. The full retail-sale path from sign-in-the-yard to wire transfer.
Why agents push high on price, how dual agency cuts you out of representation, what 'just get the list' means, and how 6% actually splits four ways.
The 7-to-14 day window where most retail deals get re-traded. Standard buyer objections, repair-credit math, the 'as-is' myth, when buyers actually walk.
Who eats the gap, what the appraisal-gap clause actually obligates, why financed buyers walk, and how the deal restructures if it survives.
Commission, transfer tax, title insurance, attorney, prorations, possession-after-close. What you actually net when the wire hits.
Things that apply to both.
A few topics live across both paths — the decision of which path to take in the first place, what happens when title issues show up, and the vocabulary you'll hear from agents, buyers, attorneys, and title officers.
Four questions that decide it: time horizon, condition, equity position, and life event. With a decision matrix and the cases where it really doesn't matter.
Mechanic's liens, IRS liens, judgments, missing heirs, and easement claims. How they show up in title work and who pays to clear them at closing.
ARV, MAO, comp, scope, retrade, dual agency, EMD, RON, attorney-review state. The vocabulary of home selling, decoded.
Or just see your cash offer.
The math is on the next screen. About a minute, no signup. Read what's relevant after.
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