Great question. We’re not agents, and we don’t list houses. At Homesmith we are professional home buyers: We buy houses in the Greater Columbus metropolitan area and throughout Ohio that meet our purchasing criteria. From there we may repair the house and resell it to another home owner or keep it as a rental ourselves.

Another great question related to the first question above. We have an entire page of this website that compares selling to Homesmith vs. listing with a real estate agent. For those details, please click the following link: https://www.homesmith.com/compare/

Many of the houses we purchase are below market value (we do this so we can resell it at a profit to another home owner). We are looking to get a fair discount on a property. However, in our experience, many sellers aren’t necessarily expecting a large “windfall” on the property but rather appreciate that we can offer cash, we close very quickly (no waiting for financing), and no time or effort or expense is required on your part of fix up the property or pay agent fees. If that’s what you’re looking for and you see the value in getting your house sold fast… let’s see if we can come to a fair win-win price. (Besides, our no-obligation pricing commitment means that you do not have to move forward with the offer we give… but it’s good to know what we’re offering!)

[DOWNLOAD our free guide that walks you through the Pros and Cons (plus the cost and timeline) of selling your house to a real estate investor… plus learn the pros, cons, and costs of the other two alternatives… listing with an agent or selling it yourself. Head on over here download your free guide →]

Great question, and we’re an open book: Our process is very straightforward. We look at the location of the property, what repairs are needed, the current condition of the property, and values of comparable houses sold in the area recently. As you know, house values have taken a huge hit in the last 5 years and most areas still haven’t seen prices come back up. We take many pieces of information into consideration… and come up with a fair price that works for us and works for you too.

This is what makes us stand out from the traditional method of selling your house: There are NO fees or commissions when you sell your house us. We’ll make you an offer, and if it’s a fit then we’ll buy your house (and we’ll often pay for the closing costs too!). No hassle. No fees. We make our money after we pay for repairs on the house (if any) and sell it for a profit (we’re taking all of the risk here on whether we can sell it for a profit or not, once we buy the house from you… the responsibility is ours and you walk away without the burden of the property and it’s payments… and often with cash in your hand).

Real estate agents list properties and hope that someone will buy them. The agent shows the properties to prospective buyers if there are any (the average time to sell a property in many markets right now is 6-12 months) and then take a percentage of the sale price if they find a buyer. Oftentimes, the agent’s commission is 3-6% of the sale price of your house (so if it’s a $100,000 house, you’ll pay between $3,000 – $6,000 in commissions to an agent). Agents provide a great service for those that can wait 6-12 months to sell and who don’t mind giving up some of that sale price to pay for the commissions. But that’s where we’re different: We’re not agents, we are cash home buyers. Our company actually buys houses throughout the Buckeye State. We don’t list houses. Since we’re actually the one buying the house from you, and we pay with all cash… we can make a decision to buy your house within a couple days (sometimes the same day). Again, we make our living by taking the risk to buy the house with our own cash, repair the house, and market it ourselves to find a buyer (which is the hard part in this market). If speed and convenience are what you are looking for, then we might be your very best option.

There is absolutely zero obligation for you. Once you tell us a bit about your property, we’ll take a look at things, maybe set up a call with you to find out a bit more, and make you an all-cash offer that’s fair for you and fair for us. From there, it’s 100% your decision on whether or not you’d like to sell your house to us… and we won’t hassle you, won’t harass you… it’s 100% your decision and we’ll let you decide what’s right for you.