LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Buying and selling a home comes with a lot of built-in stress, but there is a trend in the real estate industry that aims to make the process a lot easier.
It's called iBuying and it moves much of the process online and removes a lot of the traditional steps for selling a home.
Debra and Richard Moniz were renting out an older condo after their daughter graduated from UNLV.
"It took a lot of abuse during that time so finally we decided let’s just sell it,” said Debra.
And as retirees the couple was looking to sell it fast and hassle free and the traditional process of listing and selling home just didn’t seem appealing.
“You know what? We're older, “Debra said. “We really don’t want to do that. Lets kind of take a look at the new way of doing it.”
It's called iBuying. And they decided to go with Zillow. You enter all the information about the home you want to sell online. Then if your home qualifies the company offers you cash for it. You can even do it on a mobile phone.
"And it was so easy,” said Richard. “They called. They came out, did the inspection and they got back to us within a week. And they made their final offer which was the same as they said it would be.”
"It's been kind of a new process, but it seems like its gaining traction,” said broker George Kypreos.
In the year Zillow has been offering the service in Las Vegas Kypreos said they’ve bought several hundred homes from owners and sold most of them.
Here are some of the advantages of iBuying:
- The seller doesn’t have to hold open houses.
- There are no random showings.
- And there’s no work or expense fixing up the home to sell.
That was a huge relief to Debra and Richard who didn't want to spend time or money fixing an old condo.
"So, we were looking at about $12,000 dollars for upgrading it. And then listing it with a real estate agent, six percent,” Richard said. “And so, by the time we looked at them both Zillow was the best way to go. Because they were going take the property as is."
Here in Las Vegas where the real estate market is hot there are other reasons people might consider iBuying.
Kypreos says more than half of the people selling their homes here are looking to buy another one.
"You know what you are getting. you know the money is set aside,” Kypreos said. “And you can go out there and shop with peace of mind knowing that you can buy.”
If you want the highest possible offer and to make the upgrades yourself the Richard said this may not be for you.
"I was like wow! That's basically what I would sell it for."
But for them the convenience was worth it.
