Most people who call us have already had a number from somebody else, and it arrived with no explanation attached. That is the part of this industry that deserves its reputation. A number with no workings behind it is not an offer, it is a guess you are being asked to trust.
So here is how ours is actually built. There are three inputs, and how much you owe on the house is not one of them.
The location, down to the street
Not the city, and not the ZIP code. The street. A house in Greenville is not one price and a house in Fort Worth another — two houses four blocks apart can be worth meaningfully different amounts because of a school boundary, a flood plain, a road that is about to be widened, or which way the neighbourhood is moving.
This is the input that a national buying operation gets wrong most often, because a model that runs on ZIP codes cannot see any of that. It is also the main reason we only buy in twelve counties. We are not being precious about it — we simply cannot do this part honestly in a town nobody here has driven through.
The condition, as it actually is
Not as an algorithm assumes, and not as you might apologise for it. Somebody comes out, walks the property once, and works out what it would genuinely cost to put right.
That visit is not a hunt for reasons to drop the price. It is us building the repair budget, because we are the ones who will be paying for the roof. Which means the two things sellers most often worry about — that the mess will be held against them, or that a low number will appear after the walkthrough — are the wrong worries. The condition was already in the number.
You do not need to tidy up. You do not need to explain the back bedroom.
Comparable sales of houses in similar condition
This is the input that gets quietly abused, so it is worth being precise about.
The right comparison is what houses like yours, in the condition yours is actually in, have recently sold for. The wrong comparison — the one that produces a number designed to be talked down later — is what renovated houses on your street sold for.
If somebody has given you a figure, ask them which of those two they used. It is a fair question and it takes ten seconds to answer.
What is not in the number
A few things people expect to matter, which do not:
- What you owe. Your mortgage payoff comes out of the proceeds at closing. It has no effect on what we offer, and being underwater does not lower it.
- How urgently you need to sell. A foreclosure date changes how fast we have to move. It does not change the price. Anyone whose number drops when they hear you are desperate is telling you something important about themselves.
- Commissions, closing costs and repairs. There are none, we pay them, and we handle them. So they never come off the top the way they do on a listing.
The honest part
We will not offer you what a good listing would fetch on a good day, and any company in this business that claims otherwise is not being straight with you.
What we offer has no six percent commission taken out of it, no two percent in closing costs, no repair bill negotiated at inspection, and no three months of mortgage, taxes, insurance and utilities while it sits on the market. The only fair comparison is between what actually reaches your account either way.
Sometimes, when you work that through properly, listing still wins. When it does, we will tell you so — we would rather be the company that said "go and list it" than the company you regret calling.
Ask for the workings
Whoever you end up selling to, ask them to show you how they got there. The location, the condition, the comparables. If the answer is vague, that is the answer.
If you would like ours on your house, send us the address. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing at all.