An honest comparison
Cash buyer, real estate agent, or iBuyer: which is actually right for you?
We'd rather lose a deal than take one that shouldn't have been ours. Here is a straight comparison of all three, including the cases where you should not sell to us.
| Cash buyer (us) | Listing with an agent | iBuyer (Offerpad, Opendoor) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sale price | Below retail | Highest, if it appraises and closes | Near retail, before fees |
| Commission | None | Typically 5–6% | None, but a service fee usually applies |
| Service fee | None | None | Offerpad's has been 5% of the sale price, reported recently as high as 8% |
| Seller closing costs | We pay them | You pay them | Usually you pay them |
| Repairs before listing | None | Usually needed to show well | Usually needed to qualify |
| Repair deductions after inspection | None | Commonly renegotiated | Commonly deducted from the offer |
| Will they buy a house in poor condition? | Yes | Listable, but the buyer pool shrinks to cash | No. Offerpad's published rules exclude homes with significant foundation or structural issues |
| Will they buy a manufactured or mobile home? | Yes, on owned land | Yes, though financing is harder for the buyer | No, excluded by Offerpad's stated criteria |
| How often does an offer request become a sale? | We tell you on the first call if we can't buy it | Most listings sell, given time and price | Offerpad bought 1,210 homes in 2025 against 100,000+ offer requests |
| Showings | One walkthrough | Ongoing | Usually a virtual or single assessment |
| Risk of falling through | Very low, no loan | Real, financing and appraisal | Moderate, offers can be revised after assessment |
| Time to close | 7–21 days | Often 60–90 days | 2–6 weeks |
| Do they operate in Gaston/Cleveland County? | Yes, we live and work here | Yes | They publish a page for most towns here; whether they have bought in yours is a separate question worth asking |
iBuyer figures are from Offerpad's own published eligibility criteria and fee schedule and from their reported 2025 acquisition volume, as of September 2026. Terms change. Check them yourself before you rely on any of this, including our column. We name every buyer working this market here, including the ones we'd send you to instead of us.
The one thing we won't do to you
We don't re-trade you on condition
We only make an offer after we've walked the property with you. Once you sign, the price does not change because of what we find in the house. No repair renegotiation, no inspection deduction, no "our contractor came back with a bigger number." Being moved off the number a week before closing is the most common complaint people have about cash buyers, and it is the one thing we will not do to you.
What can end a deal is never our opinion of the house. It is the short list of things neither of us controls, and we would rather name them now than bury them in a contract:
- Every owner and heir on title has to sign. If one sibling won't, we cannot buy it, and that is not a renegotiation.
- Title has to be clear enough to insure. Unknown liens, judgments, boundary problems or a break in the chain of ownership can stop any sale, ours included.
- A tenant we agreed to inherit has to actually be there on the terms you described.
- Anything you knew about and didn't tell us changes what we were pricing.
If one of those ends the contract, it is void and you owe us nothing. No fee, no penalty, no hard feelings.
When you should not sell to us
This is the part most cash-buyer websites leave out. Do not sell to us if:
- Your house is in good condition and you have two or three months. List it. Even after a 6% commission you will very likely net more than our offer.
- You are only a little behind and can catch up. Call your servicer about a repayment plan or a loan modification first. Selling should be the fallback, not the first move.
- You owe more than the house is worth. A cash sale usually cannot work. Ask your lender about a short sale.
- One spouse can refinance and keep the house in a divorce. That is generally a better outcome than selling.
- Your relocation package includes a guaranteed buyout. Compare it carefully. Sometimes it beats us.
We will say all of this on the phone too. Telling someone the truth costs us one deal; taking a deal we shouldn't have costs us a reputation in a county this size.
A house we told the owner not to sell us
An older home out in the country on about six acres. Immaculate, a few spots wanted paint and the inside could have used updating eventually, but that was it. The basement had been redone and looked flawless. No deed restrictions, so you could put a horse on it. There was one odd add-on sitting a couple of inches higher than the rest of the house, which made no sense to us and made no difference to anybody.
A cash offer on that house would have been pointless. Drone shots, a proper photo tour inside and out, and it was going to sell fast on the open market at a price no cash buyer would touch. So that is what we told the owner, and that is what happened. It sold quickly, the price was good, and he was happy.
When a cash sale genuinely is the better deal
- The house needs more work than you can fund, and retail buyers can't get financing on it.
- You have a hard deadline. A foreclosure sale date, a job start, a court date.
- The house is inherited, full, and three hours away.
- You have tenants you'd have to evict before you could list.
- You've already had a listing fall through at financing and can't take that risk again.
- You simply want it done, and the certainty is worth more to you than the last few percent.
Get the number, then decide
A written offer costs you nothing and takes 24 hours. Compare it against an agent's estimate with real figures instead of guesses.
Worth reading before you decide
An AI Told You to Sell Your House to an iBuyer. Will They Actually Buy It?
Google's AI recommends Offerpad and Opendoor to sellers in small NC towns. What those companies publicly exclude, and how to check in two minutes.
Why Five Websites Give You Five Different Values for the Same House
Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com disagreed by $56,000 on one NC town in a month. What each number measures, and which to use.
How Much Do Cash Home Buyers Actually Pay in North Carolina?
The real formula behind every cash offer, why the discount is bigger on some houses than others, and how to check whether the number you were given is fair.