I will go through all the necessary steps (hire a RE agent, pay for house title insurance, etc...
It seems like most of the real estate world is set up for the benefit of the brokers: realtors, lawyers, banks and their mortgages, etc. When paying cash, it’s you, and your pot of money, against the world.
You can avoid signing up with a realtor, and the obligation of going
through the realtor, if you’re proficient with the internet. Do your own searches on Realtor/Redfin/Zillow.com. Look up taxes, assessed values, etc. in city and county databases. The more realtors (buyer + seller) involved, the more people to go through, like when making an appt or scheduling anything. Theoretically, this eliminates @2.5-3% of cost.
The seller will prob have an agent. When you decide on which house, and discuss $ offers, bring up the point of no buyer agent eating into realtor commission (usually 5-6% shared between buyer/seller realtors). Seller realtors, unless you push the issue, will have already planned to
act as your, the buyer’s agent and collect the whole 5-6% (dep. on sale price). So you insist that they
not, and pass some of that savings to you.
When you look at a house, be sure to have a well-charged phone (for taking pics) and comfortable/not dress-up clothes, in case you need to crawl somewhere.
Have your check-book available, in case you decide to make an immediate offer.
It’s useful to have funds in separate account/s that are approx to offer price. Eg. I wouldn’t want to give a statement showing $2m in the account, if the house is only $250k. $275k would be enough, purchase price+ closing costs + utilities for a year. I usually print statements, use permanent marker over the account #’s, then zerox the statement, so that the account # can’t be read/felt through the paper (yes, I’m paranoid). Keep them in a folder, and then it makes it easy to tour a house, make an offer, give your check deposit and hand over statement/s for proof of funds.
Yes, cash purchases can be completed very quickly. Once you provide a legit offer, and proof of funds, all parties will be happy to meet in a few days and collect your money. But don’t rush it. All cash offers have an advantage, so respect your timeline needs.
Be sure to schedule an inspection, with an inspector
you find, not a seller’s recommended inspector. Now would be a good time to look into this so that when you need one, you’ve figured it out already. Also, unless you grew up in the house, go step-by-step with the inspector for the entire inspection. Bring a well charged flashlight, a well charged phone for taking any necessary pictures, and lots of questions. If you don’t know any, then check a book out of the library and familiarize yourself with the bowels of a house. You’re paying a couple to few hundred dollars, so might as well get an education for yourself.
The inspection is a good contingency clause to add to your offer, as a way to back out of the offer, should you need to. Also, when you put down a deposit with your offer, put down enough to show your serious, but not too much that would hurt, should you change your mind and back out. If you back out b/c of an inspection related reason, then you would be able to get back your deposit.
Be sure to get title insurance, unless you feel super comfortable doing the legwork. And good luck!