There’s no question real estate is in full disruption mode, with endless companies vying to turn the age-old model of buying and selling homes on its head.
Each week, a new company or initiative is launched to change the game, so many that it’s hard to keep up with them all.
Take Curbio, Blend, BoardRE, Reali, ZeroDown, the list goes on and on.
One of the more recent innovations in the space comes from Realogy, which operates a variety of major real estate brokerages, including Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, and Sotheby’s International Realty.
RealSure Sell: A Cash Offer and a Traditional Home Listing in One
Realogy, along with Home Partners of America, has launched two new products, which can be used in conjunction with one another to remove some of the obstacles involved with buying and selling real estate.
The first is known as “RealSure Sell,” and is a guaranteed cash offer combined with a standard for-sale listing by a traditional real estate agent. Think of it as a plain old listing with an iBuyer option attached.
When you list with a Realogy-affiliated agent, you receive a “compelling cash offer immediately upon listing.” This offer is valid for a full 45 days while your home is listed on the market.
It works kind of like a contingency plan, assuming your home doesn’t sell as planned.
The company said it designed RealSure to solve two concerns consumers deal with when selling their home – knowing the best price they can receive, and determining whether they should wait to look for their next home before their existing residence sells.
Instead of having to choose one or the other, they get the peace of mind of an all-cash offer while waiting for better.
This differs from an iBuyer, which just provides a lowball offer in lieu of listing your home on the market.
The downside, I suppose, is you still have to list your property, which involves prepping, open houses, and everything else that goes into selling a home.
But there’s no obligation to the RealSure offer. After 45 days, you can accept the cash offer from RealSure or continue to market your home via your agent.
It’s unclear if you can end the agreement altogether and take your home off the market and/or delist and use a different real estate agent.
RealSure is currently available in Dallas and Denver on qualified properties for home sellers who work with a participating Realogy agent.
They plan to expand to eight additional markets, including Austin, Chicago, Fort Myers, Houston, Orlando, Sacramento, Sarasota, and Tampa.
RealSure Mortgage: Unlock Buying Power and Shop for Your Next Home Immediately
- Leverage your all-cash offer to shop for your replacement home right away
- Knowing you’ll have the proceeds for your down payment and closing costs on your next mortgage
- Instead of waiting to close on your sale and then looking for a new home
- This can make your offer stronger and put you in a better position to negotiate
Assuming you’re enrolled in RealSure Sell, you also have the opportunity to make an offer on your next home purchase before you current one is sold using the RealSure Sell cash offer.
Realogy cites a 2018 NAR survey that revealed 39% of buyers needed to use proceeds from the sale of a primary residence to fund their subsequent home purchase.
For these folks, they either have to sell before they buy, or make a contingent offer, both of which are unattractive options.
This means they need to find interim housing, or ask for a leaseback, or work with a flexible seller, who may require a higher offer price to make the deal work.
For the record, the RealSure Mortgage program is not actually a mortgage product, nor affiliated with any particular lender.
It’s simply means you can start shopping for your next home right away by leveraging the cash offer during the mortgage qualification process for your subsequent home.
Realogy also says there is no guarantee that you will qualify for a mortgage, and that you’re free to obtain a home loan from any lender you choose.
All in all, it appears these programs just give you more options over a traditional real estate agent, and level the playing field with the iBuyers and outright disruptors.
It follows the recent trend of traditional real estate brokerages adding new add-on services to better compete with the techy newcomers, such as the recently launched Compass Bridge Loan Services.
And if there is no obligation to take the cash offer, or to continue using the agent if they can’t sell your home in 45 days, it might be a good option.