Do Cash Buyers Pay Market Value

The straight answer

Usually no. A typical Baltimore cash offer comes in below what the same house would fetch on
the open market after repairs. The discount buys speed, certainty, and the buyer taking on the
condition risk. It is a convention, not a law.

Anyone in this business who tells you otherwise is either redefining “market value” or hoping
you will not check. So let us do the useful thing instead of the flattering thing, and take the
discount apart piece by piece. Once you can see what each piece is paying for, you can argue with
the pieces that do not apply to you.

What the discount is actually buying

Speed

A cash close can happen in as little as 7 days. If you have a foreclosure date, a job starting
in another state, or a mortgage you cannot carry another month, time has real value and you are
buying it. If you have six months and no pressure, you are buying something you do not need, and
you should not pay for it.
Here is what the timelines really look like.

Certainty

A listed sale can fail. Financing falls through, an appraisal comes in low, an inspection
reopens a price that was already agreed. A cash contract with a funded buyer removes those exits.
That certainty has a price, and it is a real one, not a story.

Condition risk

This is the biggest slice, and the one nobody itemizes for you. When a buyer takes a house
as is, they are guessing at what is behind the walls. Knob and tube. A cracked lateral line. A
rear addition that was never permitted. They price for the bad version of that guess, because they
eat it if they are wrong. That is why
as-is value and after-repair value are two different numbers.

What you stop paying

The discount is not all loss, and comparing a cash offer to a list price is comparing two
different things. What matters is what lands in your account.

Run your own numbers down that second column before you decide a cash offer is low. A house
that needs a roof, a furnace and eight months of patience is not the same asset as the comp down
the block that sold last spring. Sometimes the listing still wins anyway. We will tell you when it
does.
The full comparison is here, and
the iBuyer version is here.

Where the convention breaks down

Here is the part the industry does not say out loud. That discount is sold to you as a single
number, but it is four things bundled together. Speed, certainty, condition risk, and the savings
you get back. Most sellers only need two of them.

Condition risk is usually the largest slice. If someone else carries the renovation, that slice
should come off your price. It does not, because the industry prices by habit. A convention is
just a habit that nobody has been made to defend.

The other way to do this

We run a renovation partnership. We fund the repairs, our contractors do the work, and the
house sells at a price agreed in writing before anyone picks up a hammer. That agreed price is
set above the home’s current value. You pay nothing up front and nothing at closing.

That structure removes the condition slice from the discount, because we are no longer guessing
at what is behind the wall. We are fixing it. It takes longer than 7 days, and it is not right for
somebody with a foreclosure date next month.
Here is exactly how it works, and
here are real Baltimore sales we have done.

If the house is habitable and you are not on a clock, this is usually the better answer than a
straight cash offer. We will say so.

How to test any offer, including ours

• Ask for the after repair value the buyer is working from, and the repair number they subtracted.
• Ask what happens to the price after their walkthrough. A number that only moves down is a sales tactic.
• Get a second written offer. Bring it to us. We beat any verified offer, or we tell you to take theirs.
• Ask for the net, not the gross. Compare after everything comes out.
• Check whether the buyer is actually buying, or reselling your contract to someone else. That distinction matters more than people realize.

Start with a real number.
REBA gives you a free valuation in minutes, with no obligation and no phone call
required. If you want to understand how a value gets built in the first place, read
what your Baltimore house is actually worth and
whether repairs are ever worth doing first. The
wider guide lives at
selling a Baltimore house fast.

Before you act on this

This page is general information about how these processes work in Maryland. It is not
legal, tax, or financial advice, and your situation may turn on details this page cannot
know. Talk to a Maryland attorney or a licensed tax professional before you make a decision
you cannot reverse. If you are facing foreclosure, you can also speak with a HUD approved
housing counselor at no cost.