A seller in Levittown called last week. Her house: three-bedroom ranch, needs some work, listed on Zillow at $750,000. Our cash offer: $680,000. Her question: “Why would I take $70,000 less?”
Fair question. The answer is that $70,000 gap isn’t the real gap. The real gap is what you net after every cost, every repair, every month of waiting. Let me walk you through the actual math on both paths.
The realtor path: starting at $750,000
You list at $750,000. Best case, you sell at asking after 45 days. Here’s what comes out before you see a dime.
Commission is 5% to 6% in most of New York. On $750,000, that’s $37,500 to $45,000 straight off the top. We’ll use 5.5% for this example: $41,250.
Your sale price is now $708,750.
Seller closing costs in New York run $8,000 to $12,000 depending on title company, attorney fees, and whether you’re in NYC (transfer taxes are higher). For Nassau County, figure $9,500. You’re at $699,250.
Pre-listing repairs. Your agent will tell you the kitchen needs a refresh, the bathroom tile is cracked, the carpets have to go, and the front steps are a liability. Contractors come in. You spend $18,000 getting the house “show ready.” Reality check: most sellers in our market spend $12,000 to $25,000 on pre-list work. Down to $681,250.
Carrying costs for 45 days on market plus 30 days to close (75 days total): property taxes ($750/month in Nassau), utilities ($220/month), homeowner’s insurance ($180/month), mortgage interest if you still have one ($1,400/month assuming a $400k balance at 4.5%). That’s $2,550 per month, times 2.5 months, equals $6,375. Your net is now $674,875.
And we haven’t counted the weekends you spent clearing out the basement, the staging rental fee, or the times you had to leave for showings with 30 minutes notice.
The cash path: starting at $680,000
Our offer is $680,000. You accept. Here’s what comes out.
Commission: zero. Repairs: zero. We buy as-is. Closing costs: we cover everything except your attorney (about $1,500). Carrying costs: we close in 14 days, so you pay half a month of holding expenses, maybe $1,275.
Your net: $680,000 minus $1,500 minus $1,275 equals $677,225.
Compare the finals: $677,225 (cash) vs $674,875 (realtor best case). Cash nets $2,350 more. And you’re done in two weeks instead of two and a half months.
When the realtor path nets more
I’m not going to tell you cash always wins. It doesn’t.
If your house is move-in ready, no deferred maintenance, updated kitchen and baths, and you’re in a hot pocket where buyers are competing, you might sell for $775,000 in three weeks. Run that math: $775,000 minus the same $41,250 commission minus $9,500 closing minus zero repairs (house is pristine) minus one month of carry ($2,550). You net $721,700. That’s $44,000 more than our cash offer.
If you have no time pressure, no mortgage to cover, and you’re willing to wait for the perfect buyer, the realtor path can absolutely net more. Especially if your house shows well.
When cash nets more (or saves you from disaster)
Change one variable and the math flips hard.
Say the inspector finds knob and tube wiring in the attic. Buyer wants $15,000 off or they walk. Or the appraisal comes in at $720,000 because comparable sales dropped. Buyer can’t get the loan. Deal dies. You’re back on market.
Two months later you accept $710,000. Run the math again: $710,000 minus $39,050 commission minus $9,500 closing minus $18,000 repairs minus now four months of carry ($10,200). You net $633,250. Suddenly that $680,000 cash offer looks pretty good.
Other scenarios where cash wins: house needs major work (roof, foundation, mold), you inherited it and live out of state, there’s a tenant you can’t evict before showing, you’re three months behind on the mortgage, the house has open code violations, or you’re splitting proceeds in a divorce and every extra month is another argument.
We bought a house in Hicksville last year. Seller had been trying to list it for six months. Roof leaked, basement flooded every rain, and there was an illegal apartment in the back. No retail buyer would touch it. Realtor told her she’d need $60,000 in work before it would even appraise. She took our $580,000 cash offer and walked away with $575,000 net after her attorney. If she’d spent the $60,000 on repairs and then listed at $680,000, she might have netted $590,000 after all costs. Maybe. But she didn’t have $60,000 to front, and she didn’t have six more months to wait.
The variable everyone forgets: time
Seventy-five days is the average in our market right now (45 days to contract, 30 to close). But averages hide disasters.
I’ve seen deals die at the finish line because the buyer’s financing fell through on day 29. Seller goes back on market, now it’s been 90 days, new buyers smell desperation, offers come in $30,000 lower. Another 60 days to close the second deal. Five months total. Carrying costs are now $12,750 instead of $6,375. Suddenly your net is $50,000 lower than the original math suggested.
With cash, you close when we say we’ll close. Fourteen days is typical. Three weeks if you need more time to move. The day you sign the contract, you know the exact net number. No appraisal contingency, no financing contingency, no inspection renegotiation.
How to decide for your situation
Pull out a piece of paper. Write down your actual numbers.
What will you really sell for? Not Zillow’s number. Pull the last three comparable sales on your street. What did they close at? Subtract 3% for negotiation.
What repairs will the inspector find? Be honest. That roof has another two years, maybe. The furnace is 18 years old. The deck boards are soft.
How much cash do you have to front for repairs? If the answer is zero, the realtor path is hard.
What’s your timeline? If you’re retiring to Florida in 60 days, you don’t have time for a deal to fall apart and start over.
Run both scenarios with real numbers. If the gap is $15,000 and the cash path has you closing in two weeks with zero hassle, maybe that’s worth it. If the gap is $60,000 and you’ve got time and money to invest in getting the house right, list it.
If you want us to run the numbers on your specific situation, call (516) 964-7222 or email the address and details to info@ezhomebuyers.com. We’ll give you a cash offer and we’ll also tell you honestly if we think you’d net more by listing. I’ve told sellers to list plenty of times. If your house is in great shape and you’re not in a rush, you probably should.
But if there’s any complexity, any time pressure, any repair expense, or any reason a retail buyer might walk, the cash path often nets the same or better. And it’s done in two weeks instead of two months of showings, contingencies, and uncertainty.
Where the math typically lands
The Levittown 3-bed example above is representative of a middle-of-the-road case. The same math runs on every other property we look at, with two variables: the after-repair value (hyperlocal) and the work the house needs. We have done this exact comparison for sellers in Bayside, Manhasset, Forest Hills, and many of the other neighborhoods in our service area. The conclusions differ post-by-post but the framework is constant.
For a third-party perspective on how realtor commission structures actually work, the CFPB explainer on real estate agents is concise and unbiased.
Sellers in similar spots also ask us how to sell a house with code violations or sell a house with a tax lien.
We buy across Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Westchester and New Jersey, so you can sell your house fast in Westbury NY, sell a house fast in Newark NJ, or read about how we buy houses in Jersey City NJ.