Selling Your House As-Is – Guest Post by Rich Cederberg

If you own an Albuquerque House you need to sell and you don’t have a lot of money for repairs, you may be considering selling in as-is condition. While this may sound like a good way to save some money upfront, it’s probably not in your best interests. Here are three important things to consider:

• It will make your home much harder to sell. Advertising a home for sale in as-is condition is unusual. It’s usually only done on bank owned foreclosure homes or on fixer upper homes that are in extremely bad condition. Labeling your house “as-is” alerts potential buyers that your house needs serious repairs which you are not willing to pay for. You know what? They are probably not willing to pay for them either!
• It will cost you more money. In case you haven’t noticed, foreclosure homes and fixer uppers always sell for considerably less than market value. We’re talking about 20% below market value or more. Trying to save money by refusing to do repairs will cost you a ton of money, way more than the actual cost of the repairs.
• Many repairs can be paid for out of proceeds at closing. You say you don’t have any cash to pay for repairs upfront? That’s OK, you can still put the house on the market. Any buyer who makes an offer on your house is going to want to have a home inspection performed anyway.  If the home inspection reveals repairs that need to be done,* your Realtor should be able to help you locate repair people who will accept payment at closing.

Worried that the home inspector will discover you need a new roof or some other major repair? No worry, every offer has a repair limit on it. The amount varies on the age and condition of a property, but typically ranges from $1,000 to $2,500. If the total repair cost exceeds the repair limit you won’t have to do it. However, if you don’t agree to do the repair the buyer can elect to pay for it themselves or they may terminate the contract. Or they may want to adjust the sales price. Even an adjusted sales price would be better than the as-is price.

Sell your home as-is only if you are sure the condition of the house is poor. Otherwise you’re much better off agreeing to do a few repairs.

*It is your responsibility as a seller to disclose any problems with the house that you know of. Failure to do so could result in a lawsuit.

Guest post written by Albuquerque Real Estate Agent Rich Cederberg, (505) 803-5012,

Venture Realty Group 505-255-5609