If you need to sell your home in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, one of the first questions on your mind is probably: how long is this going to take? The answer depends entirely on which path you choose. The traditional route has a timeline that surprises most sellers. The cash sale route is a completely different story. Understanding both will help you make the right decision for your situation.
THE TRADITIONAL HOME SALE TIMELINE IN THE TWIN CITIES
Selling through a real estate agent and listing on the MLS is the path most homeowners take. Here is a realistic breakdown of what that timeline looks like right now.
Getting ready to list typically takes one to three weeks. This includes decluttering, deep cleaning, completing any repairs or updates, staging, and getting professional photos taken. If your home needs more significant work, this phase can stretch longer.
Once your home is listed, you are waiting for offers. In today's Twin Cities market, homes are sitting on the market ~50 days before going under contract. That is up noticeably from just a few years ago when homes were moving in under 30 days. The market has shifted, buyers have more options, and they are taking their time.
After you accept an offer, you are not done waiting. The buyer typically needs 30 to 45 days to complete their mortgage financing and close. During that window, there will be a home inspection, likely some negotiation over any findings, and a final walkthrough before the keys change hands.
Add it all up and a traditional sale in the Twin Cities can take anywhere from 60 to 120 days from the day you decide to sell to the day you receive your proceeds. And that assumes everything goes smoothly. Deals fall through. Financing falls apart. Inspection negotiations drag on. When that happens, you start the clock over.
WHAT THE TRADITIONAL TIMELINE COSTS YOU
Time is not free. Every month your home sits on the market, you are paying your mortgage, property taxes, insurance, and utilities. On a typical Twin Cities home, that can easily run $1,500 to $2,500 or more per month in carrying costs. If your home takes 90 days to sell, you could be looking at $4,500 to $7,500 in costs just to hold it while you wait.
Beyond the money, there is the stress. You are keeping the house show-ready. You are accommodating showing requests. You are waiting by the phone for feedback that may never come. For someone already dealing with financial pressure, a divorce, a probate situation, or a property in poor condition, that waiting period can feel impossible.
WHEN YOU CANNOT WAIT: THE CASH SALE TIMELINE
Selling to a cash buyer like Homefield Homebuyers works on a completely different schedule. There is no listing, no showings, no waiting for a buyer to get approved for a loan.
Here is how the timeline typically works. You reach out and provide some basic information about your property. Within 24 hours, you have a cash offer. If you accept, you choose the closing date. That can be as fast as seven to fourteen days, or longer if you need more time to make arrangements. The flexibility goes both ways.
There are no repairs to make before closing. There are no open houses. . You get certainty about when this is going to happen and what you are going to walk away with.
IS A CASH OFFER LOWER THAN A TRADITIONAL SALE?
Yes, typically. A cash offer from a home buying company will usually come in below what you might net on the open market at full retail value. That is a fair and honest thing to say. But the comparison is not always apples to apples.
When you factor in agent commissions (typically 5 to 6 percent), closing costs, the price reductions that often come out of inspection negotiations, and months of carrying costs, the gap between a cash offer and a traditional sale narrows considerably. For many sellers, the speed, certainty, and simplicity of a cash sale is worth more than squeezing out every last dollar through a drawn-out traditional process.
The right answer depends on your situation. If you have time, a home in good condition, and no urgency, listing on the market makes sense. If you are facing a deadline, a difficult property, or a situation where certainty matters more than price, a cash sale is worth a serious look.
WHICH PATH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
The honest answer is that it depends. Some homeowners in the Twin Cities have the luxury of time and should use it. Others are dealing with circumstances where a two-to-four month traditional sale simply is not an option.
If you are facing foreclosure, going through a divorce, dealing with an inherited property, or just need to close on a specific date, the traditional timeline may not work for you. A cash sale with a flexible closing date might be exactly what your situation requires.
If you want to talk through your options with no pressure and no obligation, contact us and we can give you a straight answer about what your home is worth in cash and how quickly we could close.
Visit HomefieldHomebuyers.com and fill out our contact form or send us an email at Sales@homefieldhomebuyers.com to get started.
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