Zillow Offer hard to refuse

[K Sue Dorsett]

Anyone have experience selling to Zillow? Out of curiosity, we got a Zillow quote and then after they sent their inspector to the home, they surprisingly sent an offer and a sales contract that would net us more than if we list with a realtor! Their market value was $5000-$10000 more than local realtors we interviewed would list the house for. Zillow’s  sales fee was only .1%; vs. a realtor at 5%. Their list of repairs was less than $500; whereas we have to do painting, repairs, cleaning and landscaping that will cost thousands. They offered net cash of $2000 more than the list price suggested by two realtors. Is there a catch? Because our house would have to have a bidding war, cash buyer paying $35000 - $40000 more than list price with no concessions from us and a quick closing to net what Zillow is offering.  Any thoughts?

[K Sue Dorsett]

I have good news. It all went exactly as they said it would. No gotchas. No added fees. Closed in three weeks with the Closing Team walking us through it step by step. It couldn’t have been easier to go through closing. The walkthrough was 15 minutes of checking no one had trashed the house and we had not left junk behind. There were no additional inspections after the first evaluation and offer. Before I signed the contract I was so suspicious, I used public county real estate and tax records to track down three recent sellers to Zillow in our county and left messages asking them to call me. They all returned my calls and were very enthusiastic about their Zillow experience. Like me they had expected gothchas, but none came. One buyer had a 20 year old roof with leaks that would have made selling difficult at all, but Zillow even didn’t mention it. Fees ranged from .01% to 4.2%. If you are going to accept the Zillow offer, stop spending money on the house for cleaning and repairs! They don’t care. Also, we could have saved money we spent on an attorney to review the contract. They will not change the wording. And double check the ALTA to make sure they deduct for any recent utilities or pest contract bills you already paid that they could not see.