Two Ways to Sell. See the Real Trade-Offs, Side by Side.
Compare a cash offer to a traditional listing using your own numbers — dollars, days, and risk. Every assumption is visible and editable. No signup required.
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Your numbers
Only market value is required. Everything else starts from a smart default you can change.
What a well-prepared version of your property would list for today.
Seeds property tax, insurance, transfer tax and title-fee defaults.
Loan balance plus any payoff interest. Enter 0 if the property is owned outright.
Suggested from condition ($10,000). Edit freely.
Used only to seed default property tax and closing-cost assumptions.
Monthly holding costs
$1,899 per month · $62 per day.
Most as-is cash offers land between 75% and 88% of market value.
Cash Offer / As-Is Sale
about $144,000
Range $128,000 – $160,000 · point estimate $143,834
Net cash at closing · about 10 days until cash in hand
- Cash offer price
- Agent commission$0
- Seller-paid closing costs
- Seller concessions$0
- Repairs & prep$0
- Holding costs (10 days)
- Mortgage payoff
- Net cash at closing$143,834
Certainty & risk
- No financing contingency, so the deal rarely falls apart at the lender.
- The offer can be re-traded after inspection if serious defects turn up.
- You trade price certainty for a lower headline number.
List on the Market
about $174,500
Range $154,000 – $195,000 · point estimate $174,685
Net cash at closing · about 80 days until cash in hand
- Expected sale price
- Agent commission
- Seller-paid closing costs
- Buyer concessions
- Repairs & prep
- Holding costs (80 days)
- Mortgage payoff
- Net cash at closing$174,685
Certainty & risk
- Buyer financing can fall through and put you back on market.
- A low appraisal can force a price cut or a cash gap from the buyer.
- Repair budgets overrun; every extra week on market adds carrying costs.
The trade-off
Listing shows about $30,851 more net proceeds, and asks for roughly 70 more days of ownership plus about $10,000 of repair and prep spend before it sells. The cash path gives up those dollars in exchange for closing in about 10 days with no repair spend and no financing contingency.
Difference in net proceeds: $30,851, higher on the listing side. Difference in time to cash: 70 days, sooner on the cash side.
Break-even: a cash offer of $359,188 (89.8% of market value) produces the same net proceeds as listing. Above that figure the dollars favor cash, below it they favor listing — the days and the certainty are yours to weigh.
If the property sits longer, or sells off asking
Listing net proceeds by days on market and final sale price.
| Days on market | 5% under asking | At asking | 5% over asking |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | $157,138 | $175,622 | $194,106 |
| 60 days | $155,265 | $173,749 | $192,233 |
| 90 days | $153,392 | $171,876 | $190,360 |
| 120 days | $151,519 | $170,003 | $188,487 |
Cash offer for comparison: $143,834 in about 10 days.
Assumption summary
Every number behind the comparison, and where it came from. All of it is editable above.
Property
- Estimated market value$400,000Tool starting figure
- Remaining mortgage payoff$180,000Tool starting figure
- ConditionNeeds Minor UpdatesTool starting selection
- Repairs & prep budget$10,000Condition preset: Needs Minor Updates
- Desired timeline30 daysTool starting selection
- StateNot set (national medians used)Default: national medians
Monthly holding costs
- Mortgage payment$1,134Derived from payoff balance
- Property tax$340State table: national median effective rate 1.02%
- Insurance$175State table: national median average premium, scaled to value
- HOA dues$0Default $0 (no association)
- Utilities$250Default $250 planning figure
- Total per month$1,899Sum of the lines above
Selling costs & timing
- Agent commission5.5%Default 5.5% total, negotiable
- Seller closing costs1.08%State table: national median transfer tax, recording and title custom
- Seller concessions1%Default 1% of sale price
- Cash offer as % of value82%Default 82%, mid of the 75-88% as-is band
- Expected days on market45 daysSeeded from timeline: 30 days
- Days to close (financed)35 daysDefault 35 days contract to funding
- Days to close (cash)10 daysDefault 10 days on an as-is cash purchase
Taxes on your gain (optional)
A rough look at whether a federal capital gains bill is likely. Skip it if you would rather not think about taxes yet — nothing else on this page depends on it.
What you paid, before improvements.
Additions, new roof, remodels. Routine repairs do not count.
Enter your original purchase price to see a rough estimate.
Rough estimate only. This is a simplified federal calculation. It ignores state income tax, depreciation recapture on any rental period, the net investment income tax, partial exclusions, and your other income. Confirm your actual situation with a tax professional. Nothing here is tax or financial advice.
This is an estimate, not an appraisal. These figures are not a valuation, an offer, or financial advice. Real offers, costs, taxes and timelines vary by property and market. Confirm every number with your title company, tax professional, and licensed agent before making a decision.
Cash
~$144,000
List
~$174,500
How to read a cash offer against a market listing
Sellers usually compare two headline numbers: the cash buyer's offer and the price an agent thinks the property will fetch on the open market. That comparison is incomplete, because the two paths carry completely different costs and completely different amounts of risk. Three things move together here: net cash at closing, the number of days you wait to receive it, and how certain each of those figures is. A larger number that arrives four months later, after a repair budget and a financing contingency, is not automatically the outcome you want — and a faster, smaller, more certain number is not automatically a compromise. Only you can price that.
A market listing starts from a higher sale price, then subtracts agent commission, seller-paid closing costs, buyer concessions negotiated after inspection, repair and prep spending to make the property competitive, and holding costs for every day you still own it. Those holding costs are the quiet killer: mortgage payment, property tax, insurance, HOA dues, and utilities keep running through the marketing period and through the thirty-plus days between accepted contract and funding.
A cash, as-is sale starts lower but removes most of those deductions. There is typically no listing commission, no repair budget, no staging, and only a short holding window before funding. It also removes financing risk. A financed buyer can lose their loan, or the appraisal can come in under contract price, and either event puts you back on market weeks later with a stale listing.
Run the comparison above, then look at the break-even line: it tells you the exact cash offer price at which both paths produce the same net proceeds. Above that figure, the dollars point toward cash; below it, they point toward listing. Neither result is a recommendation. Speed, avoiding repair work, and removing the chance of a collapsed sale are legitimate reasons to accept fewer dollars, just as a longer timeline is a legitimate price to pay for more of them.
Use the sensitivity table to stress-test the optimistic case. A listing that shows more net proceeds at 45 days can show less at 120 days, especially with a high monthly carrying cost or a large ownership stake still tied up in the loan. Editing any line item directly in the waterfall recalculates the totals instantly, so you can model a real agent's fee, a real contractor bid, or a real cash offer you already have in hand. The assumption summary below the results lists every figure and where it came from, and the one-page net sheet downloads without an email address.
Keep going with the other calculators
Each tool answers one piece of the decision. Together they give you the whole picture, and none of them ask for your email.