Recently, Zillow the all powerful real estate giant joined Opendoor and other ibuyers and began buying houses directly from sellers in several states. Through the trend known as instant offers, or ibuyers, would be sellers can fill out a quick form online and get an offer on their house in just a day or two.
When selling Dallas real estate, or selling DFW real estate, home owners may be tempted to put in a request for an “instant offer” and cash out their home the newfound digital way. These ibuyers are always quick to point out the advantages of selling to them: Not only will they supposedly save time in waiting for a traditional buyer but they will also save the hassle of showing their home. So what could there possibly be to lose?
Look at what ibuyer customers in many other cities have been saying. These services may be new in some states but they’re bringing a reputation with them. Here are the top customer complains about Zillow and Opendoor Offers:
Bait and Switch. The ibuyer offer often drops before closing. The final offers end up being lower than their initial offer. A home investor on a real estate investment advice forum, shared his experience with Zillow. Although they delivered an initial offer in two days as promised, after sending over an inspector they followed up with a second offer that was many tens of thousands of dollars less than the first one. This seems to be a common experience among Zillow Offers and other Ibuyer customers.
These ibuyers can take a very long time to close. They may not be so instant after all. Because they want to do an inspection and request repairs just like a traditional buyer would, the process of agreeing on a price can take several weeks. This, of course, is how real estate is traditionally sold, but if convenience and time savings are your goal these “instant offers” don’t seem like the best option.
Many of these Ibuyer Sellers are losing money hand over fist. Even the high initial offer put forward by these buyers is usually going to be less than what the property will sell for on the open market. Sellers who are satisfied with the ibuyer experience usually say that they don’t mind forgoing several thousand dollars in home sales cash if they can get closed fast. Here is the bottom line: Opendoor and Zillow will only buy your home if they can turn around and sell it with their real estate agent for more, many times, much more!
ibuyers are not required to represent your interests whatsoever. One of the things about using a licensed real estate broker is that they are required to put their client’s interests above their own. Zillow and Opendoor and other ibuyers out there have only one interest – making as much money off the homeowner as possible.
ibuyers are trying to hide their terrible reviews. The best way to find their reviews is to go to Google and type, as an example, “Progressive Real Estate Solutions Scam” and see what comes up. This is a local company that has a lot of excellent reviews and testimonials and they are licensed so maybe local companies are the best way to go?
The bottom line is that the only person that is going to look out for you is you. Do your research and due diligence, read all the small print and make the best decision for you and your circumstances.