Express Homebuyers in Review: Read Before You Sell

Selling a home is an expensive and time-consuming process — a typical home sale takes nearly 60 days from start to finish. So it’s understandable that you might be interested in a faster, cheaper alternative.

Cash buyers like Express Homebuyers promise exactly that: a sale that can close in as little as a week (!), and with none of the hassles, negotiations, and payouts of a conventional real estate sale. 

But convenience comes at a steep cost. Cash offers from buyers like Express Homebuyers are always much lower than what you’d get from the open market, and even if you don’t end up selling with Express Homebuyers, just inquiring about a sale can have consequences that last for months or longer.

Let’s look at who Express Homebuyers is as a company, how they operate, some of the pros and cons of working with them, and some real life online reviews from people who’ve sold to them.

• What Is Express Homebuyers?
• What Is a Cash Buyer?
• How Does a Sale to Express Homebuyers Work?
• The Pros and Cons of Express Homebuyers
• Reviews of Express Homebuyers
• Should You Sell to Express Homebuyers?

What Is Express Homebuyers?

Express Homebuyers is a network of cash buyers who acquire properties in 27 states and the District of Columbia. Founded in 2003, Express Homebuyers uses a franchise model, which means each separate office works on the same company principles, but is independently operated.

Express Homebuyers is known for their “We Buy Your House in 7 Days” motto, and claims to have purchased over 2,500 homes in 15 years. Those numbers make them one of the most experienced U.S. cash buyer companies.

They operate in the following states:

What Is a Cash Buyer?

A cash buyer is a company or individual investor that pays cash for homes and offers an accelerated sales timeline. A conventional sale takes around 60 days, from start to finish, but cash buyers can close in 7 days or less, and Express Homebuyers claims to have closed on sale in only 24 hours.

These cash buyers are great options for people who are under pressure to sell fast— people who have to move for a new job, or inherited an unwanted property. The catch? Cash buyer offers are generally much less than the property’s fair market value, sometimes coming in at only 50% or less of what a property would fetch on the open market. 

Many of these cash buyers will buy any house as is, regardless of condition, although Express Homebuyers is a little more selective in what they’ll buy.

So let’s say you live in one of the 27 states where Express Homebuyers operate, and you’re interested in a fast, easy sale. Here’s what you can expect from a typical Express Homebuyers sale process.

How Does a Sale to Express Homebuyers Work?

The Express Homebuyers sale process is actually quite straightforward:

• Fill out an online questionnaire providing your address and basic information about your property like number of bedrooms, age, etc.

• A “Home Buying Specialist” will contact you within minutes, and provide a “valuation range” for your home; where your cash offer falls in that range will depend on the results of the inspection.

• An Express Home Buyers representative will visit your home, inspect the property, and make a cash offer.

• Most of the time, you’ll have 30 days to consider the offer.

• If you accept the offer, and your title is clear, you can choose a closing date— often in as few as 7 days.

The Pros and Cons of Express Homebuyers

Express Homebuyers offers some great advantages over a conventional sale, but they also come with some serious drawbacks. Let’s look at some pros and cons below.

Pros

Fast Cash Offers

Express Homebuyers advertises “offers in 7 minutes.” Although this is usually a range of offers, it gives you a good idea of where the transaction might be going— and whether you want to see it through. 

Most sellers who have an Express Homebuyers agent come to their property receive a cash offer the very same day, and they can close in a matter of days or weeks. That’s an incredibly fast timeline, considering the average conventional home sale takes about 60 days.

Easy Transaction

Express Homebuyers pay cash, which means there are no lenders involved to draw out the closing process. Since the transaction is so simple, they offer closing in as few as 7 days.

Ample Time to Consider

Most Express Homebuyers cash offers are good for 30 days, giving you time to think about it, explore other options, and come to a firm conclusion. 

Cons

Lowball Offers

The offer you receive from Express Homebuyers is almost guaranteed to be lower than what you could get on the open market in a conventional sale, and in some cases it will be much lower. In one review (detailed below), a home that would’ve been listed at $139,000 by a conventional agent received a cash offer of $40,000 from Express Homebuyers. 

If you’re trying to get fair market value for your home, Express Homebuyers is not the buyer for you.

Offers Decrease with No Explanation

Many sellers say the offers they received from Express Homebuyers decreased several times while the seller was considering the initial offer. While Express says that this was because inspections revealed flaws in the home, it’s suspicious that the offer would go down multiple times, and may be a pressure tactic.

May Not Buy Your Home

Express Homebuyers is not We Buy Ugly Houses; they may not buy your home at all, if its condition or location doesn’t meet their standards. 

Overly Persistent Sales Techniques

Many reviews for Express Homebuyers state that they continue to call and text, sometimes multiple times a day, for months after the seller made initial contact to explore a sale. While this policy may vary between Express Homebuyer franchises, potential sellers should keep this in mind when they’re considering making that initial call.

Unless you need to sell your house quickly, a cash buyer often won’t make financial sense. 

Consider reaching out to our friends at Clever Real Estate for top-rated agents that work for 1% or a $3000 flat fee. You’ll save thousands on commission fees and still receive amazing service from an agent that can sell your home quickly — and for top dollar! 

Reviews of Express Homebuyers

Let’s survey some real online reviews of Express Homebuyers to see what their customers have to say. You’ll notice a few patterns…both good and bad. 

This Prospective Seller Was Upset With Decreasing Offers

One trend kept coming up within the Express Homebuyer reviews: the company makes an initial offer, and then lowers it, often several times, with little explanation. One of the heads of Express Homebuyers has responded to this Yelp review, explaining that the offers went down (several times, according to the seller) because the home “needed more work than we originally estimated.” 

The fact that there are several reviews, across several franchises, describing this behavior, means that sellers should expect that no offer will actually be firm and final until the check hits their bank account.

A Prospective Seller Receives an Insulting Lowball Offer

We all know how cash buyers make their money: they buy low, and sell high. Still, many reviewers describe offers that are so low they border on insulting. 

This Pennsylvania seller explored a sale with a conventional agent, who suggested listing at $139,000; when the seller checked in with Express Homebuyers to look into a quicker sale, they received an offer of $40,000. While the agent may have been generous in their pricing, the massive, nearly $100,000 gap between the two numbers is eye-opening. 

While Express Homebuyers does cite some relevant factors in their lowball offer— the property wasn’t in the city— their offer suggests they either didn’t really want the property, or that they may extend offers that border on exploitative.

A Fast Sale and a Satisfied Customer

This positive Yelp review describes the ideal Express Homebuyers transaction; a seller under external pressures to sell, who isn’t looking to make “top dollar” on the home sale. Express Homebuyers came in with a fast cash offer, closed with no hitches, and everyone got what they wanted. 

Overly Persistent Communication

This is, by far, the most common type of review for Express Homebuyers, on every platform. Many people say that, after they submitted their information to Express Homebuyers, they were contacted again and again, sometimes for months, even after they firmly declined their services. 

One frustrated reviewer even described calling Express, talking with a customer service rep to have their number removed from the system, and receiving several more calls the very same day. If you’re considering using Express Homebuyers, it might be a good idea to wait until you’re pretty sure you want to go with them— lowball offer and all— before getting in touch. Sellers who make contact casually, just to explore a potential sale, often regret that initial contact, as the calls and texts drag on for months.

Should You Sell to Express Homebuyers?

Express Homebuyers is great for a certain segment of sellers. If you’re under a looming deadline to move, or you find yourself with an unwanted property on your hands and you truly don’t care about getting a good price, Express can come in with a fast cash offer. 

If you don’t fall into one of those categories— or even if you’re not sure if you do— they may not be the ideal choice for you. Their business model is predicated on lowball offers, a fact that’s confirmed by many reviews, so sellers who are on the fence likely won’t be convinced when they see an actual number. 

On top of that, reviews describing offers that drop with no explanation, and months of unwanted calls after making an initial inquiry, leave sellers with little incentive to casually explore a sale with Express Homebuyers. 

The bottom line: If you definitely know you want to sell quickly – and don’t mind a low offer or persistent phone calls – you should go ahead and pick up the phone. If you’re not sure, it’s probably best to explore other options.

What other options are there for sellers who want a quick sale, and a fair price? The fact is, a good real estate agent can arrange a fast sale without leaving a ton of money on the table. Using an aggressive pricing strategy and timing the market will often yield a much better price than selling to a cash buyer, on a timeline that’s nearly as fast. 

Our partner Clever Real Estate connects sellers like you to top agents in your local market. If you’re thinking of selling, but want to do it fast and easy, they can help you do that! They’re intimately familiar with the local market, they know what buyers want, and they know how to price a property to move quickly. 

Best of all, they’ll sell your home for a low, flat fee of only $3,000, or 1% if your home sells for over $350,000 — a huge savings over a conventional agent. Contact Clever today for a free, no obligation consultation!

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