Calculator

Cash offer against a listing.

A listed sale almost always shows a bigger number at the top. These are the lines that come out of it before you see any of it.

Listed, before costs$280,000
Commission at 6%$16,800
Seller-paid closing at 2%$5,600
Repairs and inspection concession$19,200
Carrying, 4 months$5,600
Listed, net to you$232,800
Cash, net to you$196,000

Listing nets $36,800 more, and takes about 4 months longer to get there. If that gap is worth the wait to you, list it.

Why the top number moves so much.

Commission is the obvious one. The rest are the lines sellers forget: closing costs the seller pays, the concession after the inspection report, and the mortgage, taxes, insurance and utilities that keep running the whole time it sits.

None of that makes listing wrong. On a clean, financeable house where you can wait, it usually still wins, and the calculator will say so when it does.

What the cash column skips.

No commission, no repairs, no showings, no financing contingency, and the carrying cost stops at closing instead of running for months. That is what you are buying with the lower price.