How to Sell My House As Is

Sell My House AS IS, Without Repairs

This process is not easy, and should not be entered into lightly, however with a few tips you will be well on your way to Selling your house As Is, in any real estate market throughout the United States.

Why you should listen to me: I’m a Florida REALTOR in Jacksonville with over 18 years of experience listing and selling houses, and many of them have been "AS IS". Further, I was part of the mortgage collapse and sold many properties AS IS when they were being purchased as a short sale. Today, I still sell houses AS IS as part of my regular real estate business in Jacksonville Florida.

IMPORTANT INFO: 999 times out of 1000, a Buyer of ANY real estate will perform Due Diligence, which usually includes a home inspection in residential real estate. Regardless of the discount, regardless of the price, regardless of any agreed upon AS IS terms, nearly ALL Buyers big and small will perform or reserve their right to an inspection.

Sell my house AS IS

Steps to Sell a House AS IS:

Why Sell AS IS.
Understand AS IS Definition for real estate.
Discount for an AS IS sale.
Disclosure requirements for AS IS sale.
REALTOR for an AS IS sale?
Get a home inspection.
Classify condition of your house.
Accurately price the AS IS house.
Marketing an AS IS home.
Negotiate.
Contract to Close - What to do.

1. Why home owners sell a house AS IS

We are often contacted by home owners who want to "Sell my house", but do not want to make any repairs or updates. The reasons vary depending your specific situation, however most people wanting an AS IS sale fall into one of three categories:

Need to Sell FAST.
Need to sell and DON’T have the funds, time, or desire to complete needed repairs.
House is in great condition, but Sellers don’t want to be burdened with Nit-picky buyer repair request.

There is nothing bad or wrong about selling your house AS IS. We see many houses in all conditions being sold AS IS in just about any real estate market, good or bad. Use this guide to succeed with your AS IS home sale.

2. Real estate definition of "AS IS"

Real estate industry definition of AS IS: typically used in sales contract language for real property that Buyer and Seller agree the Buyer is purchasing property in its current condition and Seller has ZERO responsibility to make any repairs or improvements.

Home Seller definition of AS IS: No repairs, no improvements, no updates, and "the price is the price".

I believe it's important to point out Home Sellers have their own interpretation of what AS IS means and includes the add-on term of "the price is the price", which is not always accurate and certainly misguided.

The end goal is to sell the home without making any updates or repairs and preferably without having to negotiate. More often than not, you or your REALTOR will be negotiating on your behalf - even with an AS IS sale.

PRO TIP: Negotiations should be expected. Do not get emotional, do not take offense, this is real estate and negotiations are part of selling a home in any condition or any market.

3. Discount for an AS IS sale.

There is no set discount for an AS IS house sale. Any discount from full market value is most often determined from several factors which could include:

Condition of home.
Scarcity of available homes for sale.
Demand for housing in the area.
Overall location.

I’ve sold many homes As Is at full market value. I’ve also sold homes well below market value due to poor condition or other negative market factors.

4. Disclosures when selling a house AS IS.

Selling your house AS IS does not remove your legal obligation to fully disclose known problems. In the great State of Florida, a Seller is required to disclose facts and conditions about the property that would have an impact on value or desirability that others cannot easily see. For instance, a broken window is easily seen by potential Buyers but a leaking roof may not be easily seen and will need to be disclosed.

PRO TIP: Disclose everything you know about the house. Disclosures can be a legal nightmare. Once a new owner takes over the house, your legal liability is not removed. I consult my customer’s to err on the side of caution and over disclose.

5. Do you need a REALTOR when selling your house AS IS.

You aren’t required by any national, state or local law to use a REALTOR to sell your house. However, selling a house is a difficult process to begin with, and it’s loaded with hurdles, roadblocks, and legalities along the way. You will be met with experts who are well practiced within their professions that could potentially persuade you to giving away not only more equity (your money) but also giving away “terms” at a deficit to your side of the transaction.

With a licensed REALTOR on your side, you have an expert guiding the process, working for your best interest, and watching your back. If you've chosen your REALTOR correctly, you will also have an expert marketer and skilled negotiator on your side!

PRO TIP: Make the right decision here, find a good REALTOR who has the necessary experience listing, marketing, and selling homes. They’ll save you time, frustration, money, and will have your back throughout the process.

6. Get an inspection BEFORE listing your AS IS house.

Curveball: regardless of condition, get a home inspection BEFORE putting your home on the market..... even for AS IS sales. Most real estate agents who do any quantity of sales on the Seller side of the transaction, will highly recommend having your home inspected before going on the market.

What to do with your home inspection? You'll take your pre-listing home inspection and.... give it to all potential Buyers. Yes, you'll be handing over a full list of deficiencies and defects to every potential Buyer, and this is good!

When selling AS IS, it’s even more important to get a home inspection BEFORE listing! Here is why:

Removes the Buyer’s “Unknown Penalty Discount”: Prospective Buyers will now have a full inspection report BEFORE they make an offer, which will partially remove the unknown factor from the buying decision.
Buyer will have a full list of all / most repairs that’ll need to be completed by a new owner.
Your Seller disclosures just became much more rock solid. (See over-disclose Pro Tip above)
Reduces chances the Buyer tries to re-negotiate for a lower price once they complete their own Due Diligence / home inspections.

The only time you should not get a home inspection before listing your house, is if the home is a tear down or heavy damage due to fire, flood, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, or other natural disasters. The reason why: Buyers of these homes will bring in their own contractors or building engineers if they intend to salvage, and a standard home inspector report will not help them.

7. Classify condition of your house.

Home owners sell houses in all conditions and the same goes for AS IS sales. I recommend accurately assessing the condition so that you have proper expectations for your AS IS sale. Those categories are Great Condition, Dated Condition, Deferred Maintenance Condition, Poor Condition, and Tear Down Condition. I’ve sold houses AS IS that fit into all of these categories.

Great Condition:

Your house is in top condition and pride of ownership shows throughout. You have no deferred maintenance and you even have all your maintenance records. You don’t want to deal with fixing little nit-picky items that Home Buyers like to request.

Dated Condition:

Your house is in good condition overall but dated in features and aesthetics. Maybe you have laminate or Corian countertops when all the other houses in your neighborhood have granite or quartz. Maybe you have old oak cabinets when painted shaker cabinets are more up-to-date and stylish. Or maybe the entire house is dated as you’ve done minimal updates through all the years.

Deferred Maintenance Condition:

You’ve been a little slow to make those needed repairs and it shows. Some things aren’t working the way they should and maybe even not working at all. Items could include anything mechanical like HVAC, water heaters, appliances, lighting, electrical, plumbing, etc. but could also include items like major components like windows, roofing, insulation, etc. Any items that need repair, updating, or replacing should be looked at as Deferred Maintenance.

Poor Condition:

The house is in overall poor condition with noticeable defects and failures throughout. This could include any and all mechanicals, structural items, appointments such as flooring, light fixtures, landscaping, doors, cabinets, etc. Overall the home needs many corrections and updates.

Tear Down Condition:

Due to heavy damage from a natural disaster or fire, the house is non-livable, non-financeable by conventional standards, non-insurable by standard homeowners insurance, and will most likely be a tear down or complete rebuild.

8. Accurately price an AS IS house to sell.

If you’ve taken my advice so far, you’ve completed your disclosures, you’ve hired a well qualified listing REALTOR, you’ve had the home inspected, you have the right expectations for the classification of what condition your house is actually in. Now you are ready to establish a fair list price.

I’d recommend going with your REALTOR’s suggestion of list price. If you are not using a REALTOR, get a certified appraisal and share your inspection report with them. Establishing a fair but aggressive list price is part science, part art form and you’ll need data and market condition information that both REALTORS and Appraisers have.

PRO TIP: Price the home to sell. Remember, your main goal is to sell the house without making repairs or updates, so price the home so that your prospective Buyers want to buy and are excited to buy AS IS.

9. Marketing your As Is home for sale.

In addition to pictures and a professionally written description, you could also use video walk throughs, drone pictures and video, and of course social media to promote your home for sale. Your exact method for marketing is going to depend overall condition of the home, but your listing REALTOR will have the right formula to bring the most qualified Buyers to your newly listed home for sale.

10. Negotiating your As Is home sale.

Real estate negotiations is a skill that often only comes from knowledge acquired by years of successfully selling homes. It would be too much to try to squeeze that knowledge info this article, so instead I'll give you an important piece of info... The main takeaway I want to convey is that negotiations will happen at multiple points during the home sale. Those points in time during the home sale will include at a minimum the initial offer phase and the due diligence phase. Additional opportunities could come about during the appraisal, survey, title search, and at closing.

Buyer asking for repairs and selling my house AS IS?

If you’ve done this the right way up until now, you shouldn’t have any repair negotiations. Albeit, it does happen from time to time and most often a result of not the home inspection results but a requirement of the Buyer’s lender or buyer’s home owner’s insurance.

Remember, you want to sell your house As Is which means doing NO REPAIRS. Selling AS IS doesn’t necessarily mean no concessions. Your end goal is to sell the house, so you will need to be open to potential negotiations around repairs - unfortunately.

Needs repairs for financing or insurance

If you find yourself in the position of needing to complete a repair in order to make the home eligible for financing or make the home eligible for home insurance - you need to collect some important info:

First up: Is this going to be a problem for anyone using a mortgage to purchase the home?
Second: Is this going to be a problem for anyone who needs home insurance?
Third: Will the Lender or Insurance company allow these repairs AFTER closing?

What are your options

Once you have the answers to the criticalness of the repairs needed per the questions above, you’ll have some options:

Decline repairs: Buyer will most likely cancel and home goes back on market. You’ll need to be aggressive with your new list price to find a buyer willing to make needed repairs, and find a buyer who has the cash on hand to make those repairs. ….POST closing.
Make a seller concession: It would be best if a specific amount could be a concession towards buyer’s closing cost AND Buyer could use the saved out of pocket cash towards making required repairs…. POST closing. The Buyer’s lender / insurance company would have to agree to this, and we’ve been successful with this many times.

11. Contract to Close - What to do.

During the time period of contract to the closing date, you could be faced with more attempts at negotiation, but another hiccup that comes up during this time is the Buyer getting cold feet. The easiest way to avoid this is to continue taking care of the property regardless of condition. If the Buyer sees that the house and yard are being maintained, it’ll help avoid the Buyer having second thoughts.

Posted by Brad Officer on February 14th, 2023