Sell your house fast. Get a real cash offer in days.
See the number online, see how it was calculated, and connect with a vetted local buyer when you're ready. A cash sale can close in about a week if the title work is clean. A financed sale on the open market usually takes a month or two, sometimes longer.
Below is what each path actually costs in time, what the tradeoffs are, and when paying for speed makes sense.
How fast "fast" really is.
There are five main ways to sell a house. Each one has a rough timeline from signed contract to cash in your pocket. The numbers below are directional ranges, not promises. Your deal will land somewhere in the range based on the title, the lender, and the buyer.
Cash offer from a direct buyer
Seven to fourteen days is the common range from accepted offer to closing. Some close in five. A few drag to twenty if there is a title snag (a lien, a missing heir on a deed, an old mortgage that was paid but never released).
Why it is fast: no lender, no appraisal, no financing contingency (the clause that lets a buyer back out if their loan falls through). The only gatekeepers are the title company and the attorneys.
iBuyer (Opendoor, Offerpad)
Typically ten to fourteen days if the house meets their box. An iBuyer uses an algorithm to price, sends an offer in 24 to 48 hours, then runs their own inspection before closing. If the inspection finds things, they re-trade (ask for a credit off the price). That re-trade is where the timeline can slip.
Investor with financing
Fifteen to thirty days. These are smaller local investors who use hard-money lenders or private capital instead of a bank mortgage. Faster than a traditional buyer but slower than pure cash because the lender still wants a few documents and sometimes a quick inspection.
Financed buyer on the MLS
Thirty to sixty days is typical once you have an accepted offer. Mortgage underwriting runs about 30 days. Add appraisal time, inspection negotiations, and a clean-up buffer and most deals close in the 45-day zone. A VA or FHA loan can push it past 60.
FSBO (for sale by owner) to a financed buyer
Same timeline as MLS, plus however long it took you to find the buyer. Median days on market across most US metros for listed homes has run in a 30 to 50 day window through recent reports[1]. FSBO tends to run longer because your house is not sitting on the MLS where buyers' agents search.
The honest takeaway. If you need out in under two weeks, cash is the only path that will actually deliver. If you have 30 days, an investor with financing works. Anything longer and the MLS is back on the table.
What "fast" costs you.
The reason a cash buyer can close in a week is the same reason their price is lower than a retail listing. Speed costs money. Someone is carrying that cost, and on a cash deal, the seller pays for it in the form of a lower price.
Peer-reviewed research on matched home sales in Florida from 2006 to 2015 found that all-cash transactions sold for an average 4.9% less than comparable financed sales, with the gap widening in lower-priced and distressed segments[2]. That is the baseline cash discount for a normal market. In a market with investor buyers who plan to fix and resell, the discount runs wider because the buyer is also pricing in repair costs, holding costs, and their own margin.
For a house that needs work, cash buyers in this market typically pay in a 65 to 85 percent range of after-repair value (what the house would sell for on the MLS after it is fixed up), after subtracting the cost of repairs. That spread covers the buyer's carrying costs (mortgage interest on their capital, taxes, insurance, utilities) during the renovation hold, plus the return they need to make the deal worth doing. The canonical "70-percent rule" used in flip underwriting is documented in academic work on the space[3].
Mortgage rates move that spread. When the 30-year fixed rate sits in the 6 to 7 percent range, as it has for most of 2024 through 2026[4], the carrying cost on an investor's capital is higher than it was in 2021, and the spread between cash and retail widens.
So: a clean, turn-key house sold for cash usually trades at a low single-digit discount to what it would fetch on the MLS. A distressed house sold for cash can trade at a 20 to 30 percent discount, sometimes more, because the buyer is covering repair risk too.
What you actually get for the lower price.
The discount is not free money to the buyer. You get things back for it. Honest accounting looks like this.
No showings, no open houses
You do not clean. You do not leave while strangers walk through. If you are still living there, life does not stop.
No repairs, no staging
The buyer takes it in its current condition. Your chipped trim, your old carpet, the thing the home inspector would have flagged. All of that becomes the buyer's problem.
No financing contingency
About 15 to 20 percent of financed deals fall through, most often because the buyer's lender pulls back. On a cash deal, that risk is off the table.
No appraisal risk
If you list for $300,000 and the buyer's lender appraises the house at $285,000, the buyer can walk or demand you cut the price. Cash skips that.
Certainty of close
You sign a contract. You close on the date in the contract. The deal does not fall apart three weeks in because the buyer's debt-to-income ratio looked worse than they thought.
Time
If you are facing a foreclosure sale date, a move-out deadline for a job, or a probate court schedule, two weeks versus two months is the whole game.
When fast is the right trade, and when it is not.
Speed is not always worth the discount. Here is a rough guide to when each side of the tradeoff is real.
Fast makes sense when
- You are behind on the mortgage and a foreclosure sale is on the calendar. Foreclosure runs on a judicial track in roughly half of US states and a non-judicial track in the rest, with statutory timelines either way[5]. Either way, the sale date is real and not flexible once it is set.
- The house needs major work and you do not have the capital, the time, or the interest to do it before listing.
- You inherited a house out of state and you are paying utilities, taxes, and insurance on a house you will never live in.
- You are going through a divorce and you both want out fast so you can stop arguing about it.
- You have a medical event, a job transfer, or a family situation that does not wait for a 60-day listing.
- The house is vacant and every month it sits empty is another month of risk (water damage, theft, vandalism, insurance issues).
Fast does not make sense when
- The house is in good shape, you have time, and the local market has buyers lined up. A cash sale on a clean house leaves real money on the table.
- You want top dollar and you can handle a month of showings and a 45-day close.
- You have the cash and the energy to do modest repairs. A few thousand in paint and trim can change which price band buyers see you in.
- A family member, a neighbor, or a tenant has said they might want to buy it. Give that conversation a few weeks before you go to an outside buyer.
The point is not that one path wins. It is that each path is a different product. A cash sale is not a bad MLS sale. It is a different transaction, with different math.
What "fast" does not mean.
Some things get sold as "fast" that really are not.
- "Cash offer in 24 hours" is an offer, not a sale. The offer is fast. The close is not necessarily. Read what the contract actually says about the closing date and the due-diligence window.
- A buyer who is still lining up their own funds is not a cash buyer. A real cash buyer has proof of funds (a bank statement or a letter from their bank) dated within the last 30 days. Ask for it.
- A low earnest-money deposit is a warning sign. On a fast cash close, a serious buyer puts down $5,000 to $10,000, sometimes more, and they put it in the title company's escrow account (a neutral holding account that releases at close), not in their pocket.
- A long inspection or "due diligence" window on a supposedly fast deal is a re-trade setup. The buyer is leaving themselves room to come back in 14 days and ask for $20,000 off. If fast is the selling point, the due-diligence window should be short or waived.
- "We buy houses as-is" does not override your disclosure duty. Sellers still have to disclose known material defects under their state's residential real-property disclosure statute[6]. As-is protects the buyer from expecting repairs. It does not let the seller hide things.
What happens in the first week of a cash sale.
Day one, you accept an offer. The buyer sends a signed contract. You review it, sign it, and send an earnest money deposit to the title company.
Day two through four, the title company pulls the title (the legal record of who owns the property and what is owed on it) and checks for liens, unpaid taxes, and any clouds (old claims on the property that would block a clean sale). They run a survey if the contract calls for one. You gather your paperwork: mortgage payoff statement, HOA letter if you have one, tax bills.
Day five through ten, the buyer's attorney reviews the title commitment. If there is an issue, it gets cleared. You schedule the closing date. You pack. You coordinate with your utility companies.
Day eleven through fourteen, you close. You sign the deed (the document that transfers ownership), sign a statement that you are not still on title, and walk out with a cashier's check or a wire. The buyer takes the keys.
That is what "fast" actually looks like. It is not magic. It is a real transaction with real paperwork, run on a tight schedule because no lender is involved.
The honest summary.
Selling fast means days, not hours. A real cash close in this market is one to two weeks. The price is below what the same house would fetch on the MLS after a full listing, and the gap reflects real things (the buyer's repair risk, their carrying costs, their margin, the value you are getting from no showings and no financing risk).
If your situation needs the speed, cash is worth the discount. If your situation does not, it usually is not. A good number to start with is the offer range we show you above. Compare it to your own read on the market, your own timeline, and your own patience for a 45-day close. The right answer falls out of that comparison, not out of anyone's sales pitch.
See your cash offer.
About a minute. No signup. The math is on the next screen.