What IS an iBuyer? As defined by the company highlighted in this article: “…An iBuyer is a company that uses technology to make an offer on your home instantly…We’ll make you a competitive cash offer so you get a stress-free sale without listing.”
However, that is not usually the case, as one of the top iBuyers has ended that option (Zillow) and the next biggest has been fined a HUGE amount due to taking advantage of home sellers, and basically lying about it. Read more about the FTC ruling on Opendoor here:
“The FTC alleged that Opendoor pitched potential sellers using misleading and deceptive information, and in reality, most people who sold to Opendoor made thousands of dollars less than they would have made selling their homes using the traditional process.”
We live in a world that has become so used to getting everything YESTERDAY that sometimes, the offer of having something NOW is much less valuable or beneficial to us in the longer term. And of course there’s the old excuse of real estate brokerages being too expensive to use.
The big benefit of using a traditional brokerage is that the head Broker has many years of training and alot of responsibility to properly represent the industry, based on county, state and national real estate practice rules and laws. These safeguards protect both Buyer and Seller in a real estate transaction, and include mediation when there is a conflict, along with fines and punishment for breaking the rules which hurt a member of the transaction. As the FTC has shown here, NO ONE is too big to be fined.
If it sounds or looks too good to be true, sadly a great majority of the time it IS, still. Truth and integrity do still exist, but you still need to do due diligence to make sure what you see is what you will get.
NOTE: Texas law requires ALL real estate licensees to give all consumers who initiate real estate transactions the following information about real estate services:
