My Realtor Wants Home Updates and I Don’t Have the Money

When most people plan to sell a house, they hire a realtor. A real estate agent or realtor office knows the local housing market. They know the buyer pattern and seasonal flow. They also know what it takes to sell my house fast in Los Angeles for the best possible value. The LA regional housing market is competitive with high demand and rapid turnover. Your property might have a lot of potential – but that potential might also be “hidden” behind some serious repairs and updates.

Your realtor may be insisting that to sell, you must invest thousands of dollars today for a return in the home sale price. But not everyone has the money to just sink into major home improvements when selling a house. You may not be able to update the kitchen or even to replace the old roof before the sale. Sometimes your finances just aren’t in the right place for that. But you still need to sell the house. What do you do?

Do I Really Need Updates to Sell My Home?

When the housing market is tight, you can always find someone, family or business, to buy your home. The question is which market you’re selling in. The traditional market between homeowners and home buyers is family-to-family. You’re trying to appeal to people who are ready to move into a new home. However, there are other types of buyers who are willing to buy a house even if the roof is leaking or the kitchen has outdated tiles.

So your realtor might be right about family-buyers for your neighborhood. But you don’t actually need to perform home updates to sell an LA property; just the right buyer.

Realtors and the Move-In Ready Ideal

In the modern housing market, the ideal property is move-in-ready. This means it has freshly painted walls, new roof, new appliances, steam-cleaned carpets, and recently changed locks. In other words, it’s ready for a new family to arrive with the moving truck and begin enjoying the home. Realtors and agents prefer to show their buyer-clients polished and move-in-ready homes. This creates an industry standard of homes that are repaired, repainted, and prepped for buyers to tour and move in directly. Buyers build their expectations based on this standard.

Homes ‘below the maintenance line’ won’t compete as well with most buyers who are searching with their own real estate agents. This means realtors often insist that your home needs repairs and even cosmetic updates before it can go onto the current housing market.

Fortunately, the move-in-ready market isn’t your only option. If you’re not ready to invest in costly home updates, there are other types of buyers outside the traditional real estate agent game.

The Real ROI of Pre-Sale Home Updates

First, let’s talk about ROI or Return on Investment. Most home updates do not fully return their value into the home’s final price. Replacing the roof – even a damaged roof, only returns about 70% of the investment you put in. Spend $22K on a new shingle roof, get $15K back in the home’s value. Spend $25K on a kitchen update, get maybe $20K back in the home’s value.

It’s very rare for a home update to provide complete ROI and nearly impossible to make returns unless you’re pro-flipping shabby homes back into the move-in-ready market. Whatever your realtor says about competition and increasing home value, don’t expect to get all your money back and more from the home sale after updates. Your home may sell for more, but you’ll also have put more into it.

Investment Buyers Outside the Move-In-Ready Market

The good news is that you’re not stuck in the high standards of LA’s move-in-ready home market. You don’t have to put in new wood floors or replace the wallpaper if you don’t have the budget for such big projects. In fact, you don’t even have to replace the roof or update the HVAC. What you need instead is an investment buyer, not a family ready to move in.

Investment and cash home buyers manage a large portfolio of properties. Some manage rental properties, some specialize in ‘flipping’ properties back onto the move-in market. Here at Seller’s Advantage, we take residential properties in bad condition in need of repair and buy them for cash at their current value. Then we do all the hard work of fixing it up and finding a buyer, which is part of our business model. Sellers in a bind get all the benefit of a quick sale for the home’s value – without the hassle of ‘staging’ the house for LA buyers. We make it possible to quickly cash out of a home sale.

How to Sell Your House Fast Without Pre-Sale Updates

When it’s time to sell a house, you don’t always have the time or funds to get it picture-perfect for the realtor. If your realtor can’t sell the house as-is, you don’t have to wait. Reach out to an investment buyer like Seller’s Advantage and we’ll have a cash offer for you within the week. After one quick visit, we’ll assess the home’s current value and be ready to buy immediately.

Seller’s Advantage Quick Buying Process

Schedule Your Inspection
- Contact us online or call in to schedule a no obligation inspection of the property.
- Pick a date and time of your choosing.
- You do not have to be there in person. A representative or proxy can lead the inspector through the property.
We Value the House
- We’ll use the inspection data to assess the value of the house.
We Extend a Cash Offer
- Once we complete the inspection, we will provide a cash offer.
You Accept the Offer
- If you like the offer we’ve made, you accept the offer and begin the transaction.
- You are eligible for $10,000 advance.
We Streamline the Title Process
- Our team makes it fast and easy to transfer your property’s ownership.
- No hassle with the title office or private lawyers.

You could have the house off your hands and the money in your account sooner than your realtor can secure escrow – often months sooner. You don’t have to do a single pre-sale update or repair because we’ll buy the house as-is. Because you are selling to a property investment company, you can count on us to have all the resources and experience to make the process easy.

Benefits of Selling Your Property for Cash

No processing fees
No realtor commissions
No open houses
No need for home repairs
No need for renovations, updates, or staging
No bank applications
No surprises
No hassles

Making Home-Selling Easy with Sellers Advantage

Let us worry about what it takes to make the property profitable, it’s what we do best. Here at Seller’s Advantage, we make the process fast and easy for sellers so you can focus on everything else in your life instead. Contact us online to schedule a no-obligation appraisal inspection to start selling a house that needs work. Once we have inspected the property, we’ll extend a cash offer for your home and close the sale quickly. You don’t have to invest thousands to sell your property across California from LA to San Diego to the San Francisco Bay Area, you can cash out for its value today and skip the entire housing market hassle.