How to compare cash buyers for your home

Two cash offers with the same price can leave you with very different amounts. The number that matters is what you walk away with at closing.

1. Get every offer in writing

   A number on the phone is not an offer. Ask for the contract or a written term sheet.

2. Ask each buyer for an estimated net

   Ask the buyer, or the title or escrow company named in the contract, for an estimated seller’s net sheet before you sign.

3. Line the terms up side by side

   Use the same table for every offer: price, fees, costs, credits, deposit, inspection days and closing date.

4. Ask what could change the number

   An inspection period, a repair credit or an assignment clause can all change your net or your closing after you sign.

On Texas’s standard resale contract, a seller fills in many terms besides price. Each one changes how much you receive or how likely the sale is to close.

Texas’s form gives many of these their own blank or checkbox, including the earnest money and option fee, the owner’s title policy, possession and the items the seller keeps. It has no assignment clause.¹

The same form says the cash portion of a price does not include proceeds from borrowing of any kind, or from selling other real property unless the contract discloses it. An offer that depends on a loan or on selling another home is not all cash.¹

These two terms decide how firm a cash offer really is.

On the Texas contract, the buyer must deliver the earnest money and option fee to the escrow agent within 3 days of the effective date. If the earnest money is late, the seller may terminate by giving notice before the buyer delivers it.¹

A buyer who pays the option fee gets an unrestricted right to terminate during the option period. If it does, it loses the option fee and gets its earnest money back. After the option period, if the buyer defaults, the seller may end the contract and keep the earnest money as liquidated damages, unless another term of the contract lets the buyer out.¹

A Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center article notes that Texas sellers usually prefer a shorter option period because it increases the certainty the buyer will stay in the contract.²

A buyer can ask. Whether you agree is up to you, and that is why the inspection period matters.

Texas’s standard form says accepting a house as is does not stop the buyer from inspecting it, negotiating repairs in a later amendment, or terminating during the option period. The contract can be changed only by written agreement.¹

The same research center article points out that an option period does not obligate the seller to negotiate or agree to any proposed amendment.² If you say no during the option period, the buyer may walk away. Weigh a requested price cut against your next-best offer, not against the original price.

Some buyers say up front how they handle repairs. Offerpad says repairs found after its walkthrough are handled through a credit adjustment.³

Opendoor deducts a condition adjustment for repairs in its offer breakdown.⁴ Those methods are disclosed, but the dollar amount can still change your net, so ask for it in writing before you sign.

“We pay closing costs” is only as good as the contract and the settlement statement.

On Texas’s form, the seller’s default expenses include releasing existing liens, preparing the deed and half of the escrow fee. Whether the seller or buyer pays for the owner’s title policy is a checkbox.¹

Most all-cash sales have no federal Closing Disclosure. That form’s rules cover consumer mortgage loans, and the seller’s copy is required only in those transactions.⁶

ALTA publishes standardized settlement statements for title and settlement companies, including cash and seller versions.⁷ We found no federal rule that requires a particular form in a cash sale, so ask the title company, escrow company or closing attorney which statement you will receive.

The company on your offer may close itself, charge a fee, pass your contract on, or pass your details on. Each changes what you should compare.

Offerpad says it charges a 5% service fee plus approximately 1% in closing costs, and lets sellers choose a closing date from 8 to 60 days out.³

Opendoor says its service charge varies, is shown in your offer breakdown, and that it does not publish a fixed percentage.⁴

Not every dollar is always paid at closing. Opendoor’s “Cash Now, More Later” adds a possible final payment after it resells the home, and says that amount is an estimate until the home sells.⁵ Compare offers on the cash you receive at closing.

An offer to take over your payments, or to buy “subject to” your mortgage, leaves the loan in your name. If your loan has a due-on-sale clause, federal law lets the lender, at its option, call the loan due when the property is transferred without its consent.⁸

Our illustration: three hypothetical offers on the same house, not any company’s actual terms. The seller owes $120,000 on the mortgage and spends about $30 a day to keep the house until closing.

On paper, Offer C nets the most. But it has a $500 deposit, a 21-day inspection period and an assignment clause. If its buyer asks for $15,000 off after inspection and you agree, your net drops to $75,670, the lowest of the three.

Offer B’s repair credit can grow too. At $15,000 instead of $7,500, B nets $80,300, still just above Offer A’s $79,580. Offer A has the lowest net but the fewest ways to change: a large deposit, a short inspection period, no fee and no assignment.

A cash offer competes with listing the house. Clever Real Estate’s August 2026 survey of 434 agents put the average total commission at 5.46%.⁹ Clever sells discounted listing services, so treat that as a commercial survey.

Realtor.com’s national median days on market was 61 in September 2026.¹⁰ Depending on the data, that count can end when a sale goes pending rather than at closing, so closing can add more time.