Traditional vs. Professional Home Buyers: The Key Differences

When selling your house, there are two main options available – the first is to find a traditional buyer. This is by far the most common approach, and if you’ve bought a house before, then you have a good idea what this looks like. The second option is to choose a professional home buyer. Before making a decision, it’s best to fully understand each and what the benefits and disadvantages of each are.  

A professional home buyer is generally a company that focuses solely on buying houses direct from the owner without any third party. A traditional home buyer will be an individual looking to purchase and generally use an agent to assist with the process.  

The first thing that separates traditional home buyers to professionals is the experience. Professional buyers go through the process of buying a house from start to finish many times over and are well-versed in how the system works. Professional home buyers in Michigan, are generally experienced which completely does away with the element of risk. Because professional home buyers are more experienced, this means that the length of the sale will likely be shorter. Professionals can view and inspect the house quickly and make you a written offer. The traditional buyer will need to employ third parties to do this work, which will naturally take longer. Also, a traditional buyer may want to view the house multiple times with different consultants. Professional buyers can do all of this in just one inspection for the most part. If selling your house quickly is essential to you, then employing a professional buyer may be a good idea.

The next difference is that professional home buyers will generally offer a lower price than traditional buyers. This is because they are removing many of the additional fees that come with selling a house, such as repairs that need to be done, commission paid to an estate agent, and closing fees. Once the transaction has been completed, the actual difference in the amount that you get compared to a traditional buyer may not be that different.

If you’re trying to sell a house that’s in bad condition, a professional buyer may be a good idea. Traditional buyers are generally looking for a house that they can move into quickly without having to do too much additional work. If your circumstances have left you with a house that needs a lot of repair work and you don’t have the time, budget, or inclination to fix, then a professional buyer will buy the house from you quickly and effectively.

Finally, when working with a professional buyer, you’ll have access to more expertise than if you choose to sell to a traditional buyer. Things like paperwork or selling a problematic property where a third party would generally be needed wouldn’t be necessary, and the company will take care of this for you. If the idea of selling a problematic property is going to cause more stress than you think the extra money from selling traditionally is worth, then definitely consider the professional option.

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.