For homeowners in a pickle, a quick, easy sale is attractive. The kind of sale offered by Offerpad. They promise to make an offer on your home in 24 hours, with the process typically taking less than two weeks to go from offer to closing — that is if you accept the offer. But, before you contact Offerpad, you should carefully inspect Offerpad reviews to be certain you’re getting the best possible service. This is one such Offerpad review. In this Offerpad review, we assess what the company says they offer and their clients’ experience of what they offer, giving you a well-rounded analysis of what to expect when using Offerpad.
What is Offerpad?
Offerpad is an instant buyer, also known as an iBuyer. They offer sellers a quick way to offload a property without any repairs needing to be done to the home to get an offer. Their process is straightforward:
Assess Whether Your Home is Eligible
Before you contact the company, your home needs to be within the markets where Offerpad works (more on this later). Your home must be a single-family residential home, built after 1960, on less than one acre of land, and less than $1 million in value.
Markets Where Offerpad is Available:
- Arizona: Tuscon and Phoenix
- Alabama: Birmingham
- Atlanta: Georgia
- Colorado: Denver
- Florida: Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa
- Indiana: Indianapolis
- Nevada: Las Vegas
- North Carolina: Charlotte (and surrounds), Raleigh
- Tenessee: Nashville
- Texas: Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio
You Contact Offerpad
With Offerpad, it’s always the seller that makes the initial contact. This separates them from other iBuyers who may send unsolicited mail advertising their services. When contacting Offerpad, submit your property’s information, including age, square footage, appliances, finishes, and style. You’ll submit this information alongside pictures of your property.
You’ll Receive an Initial Cash Offer
The initial cash offer is based on the information you’ve provided and an initial assessment by Offerpad staff. You’ll have four days to accept this offer, which is subject to change after the company completes an inspection.
Sign the Contract Given by Offerpad
If you’re happy with the initial offer — and don’t mind the possibility of it changing — you can sign the contract Offerpad gives you. Keep in mind, however, that after this point, you may be subject to a 1% cancellation fee if you decide to back out.
Receive the Final Offer
After signing the contract, they’ll send an inspector to inspect the home, where they’ll estimate how much they have to spend on repairs. They’ll deduct that cost from your initial offer to give you your final offer. You have four days to accept this offer or pay a 1% cancellation fee if you don’t want to follow through.
Complete Closing
After accepting the offer, you can move on to closing. During closing, you’ll notice that the net cost for purchasing your home is far less than the initial offer; that’s because, in addition to the estimated cost of repairs, Offerpad also charges a 5% service fee. You are also liable for other closing costs, which typically range from between 1% and 3% of your home’s value.
What do Offerpad Reviews Say About the Company?
Most clients have a fantastic experience with Offerpad until the final offer. During that process, Offerpad reviews reveal the negative side of the business. According to clients, Offerpad not only offers substantially less than market value for your home, but they also inflate the cost of repairs, with some claiming by as much as 50 percent of the going market rate for those repairs. While you can complete the repairs yourself, most sellers approach Offerpad because they want a quick, hassle-free sale.
Most sellers are also backed into a corner because they don’t want to spend the 1% cancellation fee to start the process all over again with another company.
This is why savvy sellers research Offerpad alternatives before approaching the company.
The Best Offerpad Alternative
If you want a quick sale, the consensus is that you have to approach an iBuyer. But iBuyers are all the same, and, in fact, Offerpad is one of the least offensive ones out there. Others only give you 24 hours to accept an offer, that’s usually even less than Offerpad. But they can do that because they’re usually targeting areas where Offerpad isn’t available or sellers in very desperate situations.
There are other alternatives, the most viable being flat fee MLS listing services. These companies allow you to list your home as-is for a flat fee, typically $299, and you can start getting offers within the week. A great example of this is Houzeo. According to Houzeo reviews, the company is easy to use, even if you don’t have any experience selling houses. Some Houzeo reviews even mention how the seller was able to sell their property in a week or two.
These Houzeo reviews usually detail the strategy of buyers, which is to list slightly less than fair market value, which garners so much attention from interested buyers.
The best part is since the service is nationwide, Houzeo can be an alternative to any iBuyer in your state.
Comparing Offerpad reviews to Houzeo reviews, you’ll also notice that Houzeo doesn’t have any hidden fees, unlike Offerpad.
Offerpad takes up to 10% of the transaction at closing, compared to Houzeo, which typically only has you pay the buyer agent commission and closing costs, all of which you can ascertain in their closing cost calculator.
