Introduction
Have you ever wondered which different situations would be the best fit for a home seller to hire a Realtor and which circumstances would cause a cash buyer to make more sense for the seller? Turns out you’re not alone! We get inquiries all the time from folks that think they should go with a cash buyer, when a Realtor might be a better fit; and we often hear from folks that are looking for a Realtor, when it turns out that they would be much better off working with a cash buyer! Because of this, I will be starting a segment where I’ll be sharing some of the situations that we have dealt with. I’ll be writing articles about some of the cases where it was in the seller’s best interest to work with us, rather than a Realtor, and vice versa. Of course we’ll be changing the names of folks in the stories to protect their privacy – Maui is too small of an island!
At Maui Home Buyers we strongly believe that our reputation is the single most valuable asset we have, and we have worked very hard to build a solid reputation over the last 10 years. So when someone calls us interested in selling their home or condo in Hawaii, our first objective is always to find out as much as we can about the location and condition of the property, why they are selling, how soon they need to sell, and what the seller’s goals are so that we can make sure that working with a cash buyer makes sense for their circumstances and their particular property.
Why This Maui Homeowner Called Maui Home Buyers
One evening during the height of Covid lockdowns in 2020 while eating dinner I received a call from a man we’ll call Kai. Kai was a former military man who now worked as an engineer for Hawaiian airlines, and owned a newer home in the Kehalani part of Wailuku. He maintained the home meticulously, all the neighbors told us how crazy he was about cutting his grass almost every day! And it showed, his lawn was flawless, as was his carpet which he vacuumed every day. With his care, and the fact the home was just built in 2010, it was in pristine condition. The problem that Kai needed to solve was that Hawaiian airlines was laying of tons of workers, and Kai knew chances were very high that he would either be laid off or transferred to Oahu. Because Kai is such an incredibly responsible father and husband, he was not willing to take any amount of risk with his families’ security. He wanted to be prepared for whatever might happen, and if he was laid off he did not want to be stuck with a mortgage he couldn’t pay and risk putting his wife and daughter through the experience of foreclosure.
Kai has inherited a home on Oahu years ago, which they listed on MLS with a Realtor and could never find a buyer. It sat on the market for almost a year, getting many offers but every buyer would just back out once they got an inspection. Finally Kai found a cash buyer that bought the house from him to flip it (I actually don’t know who that was; Kai just shared this story with me when I asked him why he chose to call us). He said the cash buyer paid him a fair price considering the condition and all of the problems, did exactly what he said he was going to do, and made the process so much easier for him. He only wished he had called the cash buyer sooner. That previous experience is why Kai chose to call Maui Home Buyers right off the bat when he made the decision to sell in 2020.
Kai wanted to get a fair price for him home, but more importantly he wanted a fast sale and the buyer to work around his schedule – not the other way around.
How This Maui Homeowner Negotiated To Sell His Wailuku Home
So the first time Kai contacted me was around 5pm on that evening in 2020. We texted back and forth for a bit, I asked him a bunch of questions, he texted me 8-10 pictures of him home, and I did some research on my computer. By 7:30pm we had agreed on a price and completed a DocuSign document, which gave Kai the security of knowing that we were going to buy his house no matter what, even in that HIGHLY uncertain market, when everyone thought prices were going to crash bad. We don’t normally move as fast as we did in this story. But speed was very important to Kai, so we did what we had to do to make it happen for him. Obviously we had only seen pictures of the house when we agreed to buy it, so we did have one contingency that would allow us a couple of days to come see the house just to make sure we weren’t missing a major problem that we didn’t know about. Within 2 days we met Kai and saw the house, he and his family were absolutely wonderful, and the home was exactly as pictured, so we moved forward with the sale!
How Fast We Closed The Sale Of His Maui Townhouse
We initially agreed to close the sale in 12 days, but the rental property that Kai wanted to move into didn’t work out. So he ended up extending by about 2 weeks. So all together we ended up closing on the sale of the house exactly 30 days after Kai first found us and sent me a text during dinner.
Kai was grateful for our flexibility, because he knew he wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of getting a hotel and causing a major inconvenience (not to mention a huge expense) for his family due to the delay in their rental property. And we were happy to be there for him and meet his needs. We told him, we did all of our due diligence immediately in the first 2 days, so after that we put all of the cash funds into the escrow account and we were just waiting for Kai to tell us he was ready to sign the closing docs. We had the sale close on the same day Kai moved out, that way he didn’t have to pay not even one single day of pro-rated mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, HOAs, or any other expense! He was thrilled with that part!
This example is unique, but then again every single property we have ever bought has been a unique situation. Afterall, no two people have the same story, right?
I recommend that anyone considering selling a house, townhome or condo on Maui, or anywhere in the State of Hawaii, should always call Maui Home Buyers before listing their home with a Realtor. We are only here to help, and I promise to always help you find the best method to suite your needs and sell your property. I usually end up referring most of the people that call me to someone else that I feel is the best suited for that person’s specific situation and needs. You have nothing to lose, just chat with us for a few minutes, give us some details on the property, why you’re selling and how quickly you’d like to sell. Then I will take a couple of hours to do some research and get an idea of what we can offer you so you can decide if it makes sense to explore further, or if you’d be better off listing with a Realtor. There are absolutely no obligations; you just get a quick offer and if it makes sense to you we can move forward. If not, I’ll help you find the best Realtor for your particular location and type of home.
Call or text Maui Home Buyers anytime to see how we can help you: 808-359-3121 email: greg@mauihomebuyers.com or submit your address and phone number on our homepage: www.mauihomebuyers.com If we have an idea of what your reason is for selling, what your ideal or necessary timeline is, and the general condition and circumstances around the property, we can tell you pretty quickly if you should call a Realtor or if a cash buyer can offer a better alternative for your specific situation!
