Alleviate home-selling stress with ibuyer
Do you know what an ibuyer is? I didn’t.
More popular in the United States, an instant buyer is a real estate firm that uses technology to buy and resell your home. When you sell through an ibuyer, you receive a cash offer without the traditional hassles of staging your home and showing it to potential purchasers.
This solution to selling works because it is simple and more convenient. The company purchases your home for the market value based on an approved appraisal and then takes on the burden of owning, marketing and reselling your home.
You may be thinking this is a way for someone to profit and flip your property but, apparently, it is not. The aim is to find the next buyer, providing the vendor with the cash sale proceeds and then charging a service fee, typically similar to a normal real estate commission.
The economy is so far from the one we were used to PRE-COVID. Today, we are experiencing a historically high housing market, supply chain challenges, rising immigration, instability in the stock market and a new workat-home culture.
The high demand for housing and low inventory seems to be keeping builders and Realtors busy across the country. Canada has increased its immigration target from 10,000 to 411,000 in 2022, adding further pressure to expanding the housing market. So, if you are planning to sell your home this year, could an ibuyer be right for you?
There is one firm in Canada, located in Edmonton. Sweetly Real Estate has, like all other ibuyers, its own financing process to introduce the concept to all of Canada. Sweetly buys homes at market value and deducts real estate fees from the price. The service lets homeowners sell without any public showings, allows them to control their closing/moving day and can eliminate the need to service two mortgages at the same time or qualify for bridge financing.
You may think buying or selling your home directly with an ibuyer eliminates the need for a real estate agent. According to Sweetly, it does not.
It uses licensed realtors across the country to facilitate transactions for customers, paying them a referral fee or a commission.
According to Sweetly broker Ed Deprato, they have seen a 400 per cent growth in sales year over year, even during the pandemic.
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Sweetly Real Estate is a low-ball buyer.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If we were a low-ball buyer, nobody would ever sell us their home,” said Deprato.
“Sweetly pays market value. Customers simply need a current appraisal and we’ll pay that, less our fee.”
Only you will know if an ibuyer is right for you. It seems many are considering this process to reduce the stress of buying and selling, even in a high housing market.
We must remember that change is inevitable. It will be interesting to see if this new concept revolutionizes the way we buy and sell real estate, especially with the younger generations.
Christine Ibbotson is author of “How to Retire Debt Free & Wealthy” and “Don’t Panic — How to Manage your Finances and Financial Anxieties During and After the Coronavirus.” If you have a money question, visit askthemoneylady.ca, and check out the Money Lady’s podcast at Saltwire.com.