If you’re asking this question, you’re probably staring down a situation that feels heavy. Maybe you’re behind on payments and the mail keeps piling up in a way you don’t want to look at. Maybe you inherited a house three states away from where you actually live, and every month it sits empty is another month of taxes and insurance and worry. Maybe you’re going through a divorce and the house is the last thing tying you and your ex together, and you just want it done. Or maybe you’ve been a landlord for years and you’re tired, plain tired, of the calls at midnight and the tenants who don’t pay.
Whatever brought you here, we want to answer your question honestly, not sell you on an answer. Because the truth is, cash sales are the right move for some people and not the right move for others. We’d rather tell you which one you are than pretend there’s only one good path.
What “selling for cash” actually means
When people say they sold a house for cash, they usually mean they sold it to a buyer who doesn’t need a mortgage to close. No bank underwriting, no appraisal contingency tied to a lender, no waiting on a loan officer. The buyer already has the money, so a lot of the steps that slow down a normal home sale just aren’t there.
That’s the whole reason cash sales tend to move faster. A financed sale, the kind where a buyer gets a mortgage, often takes somewhere around 30 to 45 days or longer once you account for underwriting, appraisal, and loan approval. A cash sale can close in as little as 7 to 14 days, sometimes referred to as “about two weeks,” because so many of those steps simply aren’t in the way.
We want to be honest about the “as little as” part, though. Even cash sales can take longer than that if there’s a title issue that needs sorting out, if an inspection turns something up, or if the buyer’s funding isn’t quite as ready as it looked on paper. Some cash buyers, for example, are actually counting on selling another property first to fund your purchase, which can slow things down in ways you don’t find out about until you’re already committed. That’s worth asking about directly if you’re talking to any cash buyer, us included: is the money actually in hand, or is it tied to something else happening first?
With Deep Roots, when we make you a cash offer, we typically close in 30 days, often less. We’re not going to promise you a specific date before we’ve looked at your situation, because every house and every title is a little different. But speed is one of the real, honest advantages of going this route.
What you give up, and what you don’t
Here’s where we want to slow down, because this is the part people don’t always hear from a cash buyer.
When you sell to us, there are no real estate commissions. We buy the house directly, so you’re not paying an agent’s fee out of your proceeds. In most cases, we also cover closing costs, though we won’t tell you it’s guaranteed in every single situation, because it isn’t, and we’d rather say that plainly than have you find out otherwise later. And we buy as-is. If the roof leaks, if there’s a room nobody’s finished, if the whole place needs work you don’t have the time or money to do, none of that matters to us. You don’t fix anything. You don’t clean anything out if you don’t want to.
What you’re trading for that speed and simplicity is usually some amount of sale price. A cash sale is not typically going to net you what a fully marketed listing could bring, especially in a market where buyers are competing for a well-presented house. That’s not us being modest, that’s just how it works. We’re not appraising your house at top retail value and asking you to hand it to us anyway. We’re offering a fair price for what it is, in the condition it’s in, with the speed and certainty that comes with it.
When a listing or FSBO is honestly the better choice
If your biggest priority is getting the highest possible price for your house, and you have the time, the patience, and the house is in decent shape, listing with an agent or even selling it yourself (FSBO) can put more money in your pocket. Keeping control of the marketing, the showings, the negotiation, and the listing exposure is exactly what lets a seller push for top dollar. A cash sale trades some of that upside for speed and certainty. There’s nothing wrong with choosing the upside instead, if your situation allows for it.
Say you’ve got six months before you need to move, the house shows well, and you’re not dealing with liens or back taxes or a property that’s about to be foreclosed on. In that case, we’d tell you straight: talk to a good local agent, or consider listing it yourself. You’ll likely walk away with more money, and the extra weeks or months of waiting won’t cost you anything you can’t afford to spend.
One thing that doesn’t change no matter which path you pick: you still have a duty to disclose anything you know that could affect the value or desirability of the house. That’s true whether you’re working with an agent or selling FSBO. It’s not a cash-sale thing or a listing thing, it’s just part of selling a house honestly, and we think that’s exactly how it should be.
So, is it better to sell for cash?
It depends on what “better” means to you right now. If speed, certainty, and not having to touch a single repair matter most, a cash sale is often the better fit, especially if you’re dealing with a deadline like foreclosure, a probate timeline, or just the plain exhaustion of holding onto a property you don’t want anymore. If maximizing your sale price matters more than the calendar, and your house and your timeline can support it, a listing or FSBO is likely to serve you better.
We’d rather have that honest conversation with you than tell you cash is always the answer, because it isn’t.
Talk it through with us, no pressure
If you’re weighing your options and want an honest read on your specific house and situation, reach out to Deep Roots REI for a no-pressure conversation. We’ll tell you what we’d actually do in your shoes, and if a cash offer genuinely fits, we’ll make you a fair one.