In the Military and Selling Your House: Explore These Resources

Options for your home sale

You have a few different options when it comes to selling your house. Ultimately, your choice will depend on a few factors, including how much time you have to sell. If you only have a few weeks, you might be more willing to take the quickest option available instead of trying to get the most money for your house.

Not sure where to start? Use HomeLight’s Home Value Estimator to get an approximate idea of what your house might sell for. Next, sit down with your family and talk about your goals. Then, consider these options:

1. Hire a real estate agent with relevant experience

There’s a reason why 89% of sellers choose to sell with an agent. They have the knowledge necessary to sell your house for top dollar and help guide you through every step of the process. You can focus on packing and finding your next place while they take care of the details.

You should contact a real estate agent as soon as you decide to sell your house for the move, says Payne, whether you have a few months or a few weeks. Payne’s husband was in the military for 23 years, so she knows what it’s like to move between bases first-hand.

You can then work with your real estate agent to discuss your goals, whether you want to get the best offer possible or would settle for an OK offer to get your house sold quickly. Either way, the sooner your agent knows about it, the better.

If you want to sell your home quickly, consider looking for an agent with a low days on market (DOM) record. You can ask your agent this directly, and see how it compares to your city’s average. The fewer days an agent’s listings have historically spent on the market indicate a better chance that your house will also sell more quickly.

Work with a Military Relocation Professional

Working with a military-friendly agent can also be a good option since they know what you’re going through.

“We understand that we speak the same language. That’s one of the things that I like to pride myself in, is that I’ve done this before,” Payne says. “We have that relationship off the bat where I understand.”

To easily find a military-friendly agent, consider searching for a Military Relocation Professional (MRP). This certification offered by the National Association of Realtors® teaches real estate professionals the procedures and processes involved in military relocation.

HomeLight can help you with your agent search by matching you with two or three top agents in your area. The HomeLight Agent Match platform allows you to search based on your top priorities, including military experience and low DOM.

2. Connect with a cash buyer

If you’re in a real time crunch, you may choose to sell your house off-market. Cash buyers can make you an all-cash offer, which will give you more flexibility and freedom as you search for your next home and will ensure that your buyer’s financing won’t hold up your home sale.

However, not all cash buyers are the same. Some will purchase your home with the intention of renting it out. Others will renovate and flip it to turn a profit. High-tech players — called iBuyers — have also cropped up in recent years.

Unlike flippers, iBuyers purchase homes in fairly good condition at a high volume, turn them around quickly and aim to offer a seamless home-selling experience online with easy-to-use digital platforms.

Depending on your home’s condition, price point, and location, your home will be a more desirable purchase to certain cash buyers than others. So you may have to shop around to find the right fit.

Through HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform, you can request an all-cash offer on your home and receive a competitive bid in as little as 24 hours with the ability to close in as few as 10 days. Using Simple Sale means you can cut a lot of work out of the typical home sale process. No home preparations, no staging, no open houses — Simple Sale provides cash offers for homes in almost any condition.

3. Go FSBO, but keep these risks in mind

To avoid paying a listing agent’s commission, some sellers will choose to sell their house themselves, going “For Sale By Owner” (FSBO).

However, a FBSO can come with significant challenges — especially for people without real estate experience — which is why only around 7% of sellers choose this route, according to NAR.

With FSBO, the owner is expected to manage all marketing, staging, negotiation, and other activities typically handled or facilitated by an agent. The complexity and timeliness of the transaction are overwhelming to inexperienced sellers, especially military sellers, who may be more pressed for time. FSBO transactions can take longer than agent-represented sales.

Payne encourages sellers to consider that paying the commission might be worth getting a much higher offer on your home.

“But at the end of the day, it’s not just about the commission,” Payne says. “We’re able to get you the highest offer. We’re able to get you the higher price, we’re able to get your home sold faster.”

4. Take advantage of military programs

Don’t forget to talk to other military families and your higher-ups about how to handle your move. If this is your first one, they can help you weigh your options. Plus, they’ll help guide you to resources and programs that can assist you with the move.

For example, some military personnel are eligible for funds such as dislocation allowances that can help offset the cost of their move. The Department of Defense’s National Relocation Program can even guarantee you a buy-out in some situations where a buyer has made an offer but the appraisal (which has the potential to disrupt the sale) has not yet occurred.