How sellers can reduce or avoid real estate agent fees when selling property in Greater Cleveland

Everyone loves to save money, and with a home being one of the highest priced items we own, it also offers some of the best opportunities for savings when you sell. With that in mind, here are five of the top ways you can save, and some rough estimates of how much you might save, if you choose to sell to a cash buyer rather than list your home with a realtor:

While the title of this article might seem rudimentary to some, the reality is that many (perhaps most) people will only buy or sell a few properties in their lifetime and therefore will only see a handful of settlements statements in their lifetime. Moreover, the settlement statement is typically only looked at briefly and towards the very end of the home buying/selling process. At that point in time, there is often enough excitement and exhaustion that many will simply sign their approval of what is contained in the statement if the numbers “look about right.”

Should You Sell Your Home with Interest Rates Rapidly Rising?The answer entirely depends upon your needs and goals.

Will rising interest rates lead to a “market collapse”? For those homeowners who are still able to sell their home, now may be the best time to take advantage of home prices near their all time highs by selling before values adjust to a new reality of higher mortgage rates.

Covid-19 has devastated many industries, forcing changes to longstanding practices, requiring adaptation to new rules and regulations, and reducing profit margins. Many landlords have been hit particularly hard. Tenants have lost jobs and their sole source of income leading to missed rental payments. Vacancies are increasing dramatically in some areas. At the same time, the legal and regulatory environment has changed, prohibiting landlords in many instances from pursuing evictions and other remedies that would allow them to recoup losses and find new tenants who can cover the mortgage, taxes, insurance and multitude of other expenses associated with their properties.

What can landlords do to adapt to these challenging circumstances? While each landlord’s situation will be a little different, even in good times all of us in this business need to be able to fill our vacancies efficiently and effectively. Now, more than ever, when a vacancy arises we need to have the right processes in place to find and identify the best people to fill our units.

If you’ve never sold a home before, this simple overview will help give you a sense of the general process, important steps involved, and a better understanding of the mechanics of buying and selling a property . . .

To get the best price on the MLS, sellers need to do a lot of work; repair, renovate, paint, increase curb appeal through landscaping and updating the exterior of the home and staging. The process can cost many thousands and take a lot of coordination, time and stress dealing with contractors, point-of-sale requirements, realtors and more. For some people, that process is overwhelming, undesirable and far too expensive. Some sellers would prefer to simply receive a cash offer quickly, without needing to deal with all of those mentioned items plus coordination of multiple showings all while potentially having their property sit on the MLS for months waiting for a good offer. Even if an offer is accepted, a seller can then wait through a thirty-day escrow hoping, but not knowing, whether the buyer’s lender will ultimately approve the financing and allow the sale to close. For sellers with that mentality, an off-market sale is worth considering. Typical situations that may warrant selling off-market . . .

The usual procedure in selling a house involves the agent listing the property on the multiple listing service “MLS.” Selling a property off-market means that it is not listed on MLS. Off-market sales usually do not involve real estate brokers or agents. Off-market sales have many distinct advantages over traditional MLS-sales . . .