Looking to purchase a home and not waste any time doing so? Well, a new company called “Skupit” might be just the ticket.
The website allows you to make offers on homes in your desired area in a matter of minutes, if not seconds if you’re really good with a keyboard.
At first glance, Skupit looks like most other listing websites, such as Zillow or Redfin, but gives you the option to place an offer as well.
The listing pages are actually a bit more bare bones than what you’ll find at the aforementioned sites (no Zestimates or Redfin Estimates, for example), but you do get the ability to make an offer.
Redfin allows you to make an offer too, and Zillow allows you to contact an agent if you’re interested, but Skupit does it without the buyer’s agent.
Skupit Relies on Single Agent Transactions
Instead of having your agent call their agent, you can make an offer for a home all by yourself on Skupit.
The listing agent will help you with the paperwork and connect buyer and seller, but it’ll be a one-agent deal, not the typical two agent situation most conventional home sales involve.
Speaking of the listing agent, they can increase transparency by allowing the seller to receive a notification every time an offer is made online via Skupit.
This way buyers get to review all offers, instead of being in the dark about who’s interested and who the agents think should buy your home.
If you’re a home buyer, you simply click on the “make an offer today” button on the listing page and you’re on your way.
You can fine-tune your offer by putting in any amount you wish, and by selecting all cash or financing with a mortgage.
If you choose to customize the terms you can adjust the length of escrow, whether you want to buy site unseen or do an inspection, and if you do inspect, how long you want that period to be.
If you tell them you plan to use a mortgage you can also indicate your down payment, whether you have a pre-approval, and if/how long you want the loan/appraisal contingency to be.
That’s it. From there you’d just hit submit and wait to hear back from the listing agent.
I suppose the beauty of this system is that your offer will automatically be stronger than a typical agent-submitted offer because the listing agent can earn the full commission.
So two similar offers might go the way of the Skupit buyer if all else is equal.
Skupit Provides Access to Pocket Listings
Skupit is also trying to separate itself from the crowd by offering up lots of pocket listings, those which are not listed publicly on the MLS.
The company claims to get access to these listings first so you can jump the queue and make an offer before it goes live.
These off-market listings are generally listed several days before being thrown on the MLS and then onto Redfin, Zillow, Trulia, etc.
If inventory in your particular area of interest is low, these could come in handy, though you may not get a tour of the home or lots of time to do research.
As it stands, Skupit has nearly 36,000 listings nationwide, both public and private, which seems like a drop in the bucket compared to the some two million real estate listings out there at any given time.
I’m assuming they have good coverage in certain metros but not others, possibly because they are new.
It’ll be interesting to see if they gain any traction, or if larger competitors add similar functionality somehow without upsetting real estate agents.
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