Cash Offers
Cash Offers on Your East Bay Home — and What They Cost You
A cash offer buys you speed, certainty and no repairs. It usually costs you something to get those. Every cash offer site shows you the offer and stops there — none of them sit down and work out what the same house would have left you selling it the ordinary way. I'll bring you the offers and that second number both, and you decide which one you actually want.
Get cash offers — and the number they leave out
I'll put the property in front of local and national cash buyers, then walk you through what each offer would actually leave you against selling it on the open market. No cost, no obligation, and no pressure to list.
How it works
Both numbers, then you decide
- 1
Send me the address
That is the whole first step. No account, no obligation, and nothing happens to the property until you say so.
- 2
I run it through the cash buyers
The property goes to local and national cash buyers through the marketplace I have access to as an eXp agent, and I bring you back what they say.
- 3
We go through both numbers
What each offer would actually leave you, against what the same house would leave you listed — worked out on your house, not a city average. Then you pick, including picking neither.
Straight answer
When a cash offer is the right call
Plenty of the time it is. An agent who tells you listing always wins is selling you a listing. These are the situations where I would tell you to take the cash — and the calculator below is built to show it when that is true.
The house needs real work
The most common reason
A cash buyer takes it exactly as it stands. If getting it market-ready means a roof, a kitchen, or work you would have to manage from a distance, the repairs can cost more than the higher sale price returns.
You are carrying two homes
Every month counts
Mortgage, taxes, insurance and utilities on an empty house add up fast. Months on the market are not free, and that cost belongs in the decision alongside the offer itself.
You need a date you can count on
When timing is the whole problem
A closing date you choose is worth real money when there is a purchase on the other side, a probate timeline, or a job starting somewhere else.
You would rather nobody knew
No sign, no showings
No yard sign, no open houses, no strangers walking through on a Sunday. For some sellers that is the deciding factor and the price difference is worth paying.
Your city, by the numbers
What selling costs where you are
These are published city and county figures — true of every house on your street, not an estimate of yours. They are also the part a cash buyer is quietly counting on you not knowing, because the smaller your real cost of selling, the better their offer has to be.
Pick a city
Transfer tax, escrow and title all depend on where the property is, and they differ enough between these cities to change what selling actually costs. Three of the fourteen charge a city transfer tax on top of the county's; the other eleven charge none.
Why the numbers differ here
A national calculator does not know where you live
In Alameda and Contra Costa counties the buyer customarily pays the escrow fee and the owner's title policy. In most of the country the seller does — which is why almost every online net-proceeds tool deducts both from your side. On a $1,000,000 sale that is roughly $3,350 taken off your estimate for charges that, by local custom here, are not yours.
Transfer tax varies just as sharply. Eleven of the fourteen cities I work in charge no city transfer tax at all. Hayward charges $8.50 per thousand, San Leandro $11.00, and Oakland runs on a tiered scale. On the same $1,000,000 sale, an Oakland seller's customary transfer tax share is roughly eight times a Fremont seller's.
That matters here because a cash offer looks better the more you overstate what listing would cost. When we go through the offers I apply the published transfer tax and the actual local custom to both sides, so the gap you are weighing is the real one rather than one produced by guessing high on the side I am not recommending.
Before you accept anything
Five questions worth asking any cash buyer
Including the ones I bring you. Ask them of every offer and the good ones hold up.
Is this offer final, or does it change after an inspection?
Some offers are firm and some are revised once the buyer has walked the property. Worth knowing which you are holding before you turn down anything else.
What fees come out of the offer, and are they on top of closing costs?
Ask for the number you would actually receive at closing, not the headline offer. Those are two different figures and only one of them matters.
Who is the buyer, and are they buying to hold or to resell?
A buyer reselling the property is pricing in their margin and their own costs of sale. That gap is where the difference between the two columns above comes from.
How long is the offer good for, and what happens if I need more time?
A short expiry is a negotiating position. It is reasonable to ask for enough time to get a second number to compare it against.
Can I see what the house would list for before I decide?
You should not have to choose between the two. Getting both numbers is the whole reason this page exists, and it costs you nothing.
Get both numbers
One address. I'll come back with what the cash buyers say and what the same house would net listed, and you decide from there — including deciding not to sell at all.
Get my cash offersKaran Singh, REALTOR® with eXp Realty · DRE #01950508
4061 E Castro Valley Blvd Ste 260, Castro Valley, CA 94552 · (510) 605-3937
Cash offers are sourced from third-party buyers through a marketplace available to eXp Realty agents. Karan Singh is not the buyer and does not purchase properties. Any offer is the buyer's, and its terms are between you and them.
Figures shown on this page are estimates for comparison only, not an appraisal, an offer, or a guarantee of sale price or proceeds. Transfer tax is the published rate for the city and county shown. Escrow and title figures are estimates based on current California rate schedules and vary by company and by transaction; who customarily pays each charge is local custom and is negotiable in any transaction. Karan Singh is a licensed REALTOR® with eXp Realty and is not an attorney or tax professional. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.
Equal Housing Opportunity.