As an update, we did go through the process of selling with Zillow Offers.
- They gave a Preliminary Offer online using 3 comps.
- They then sent someone out to inspect the home and this person took pictures/video/measurements which took about an hour.
- A few days later they presented their Offer which was the Preliminary Offer minus ~1% of repair costs based on their inspection. They also charged ~5.5% in fees (agent fees - they partner with John Hart, closing costs, Zillow fee).
- They let us pick a closing date up to 90 days after they present their offer. We opted for the full 90 days and then adjusted when we had a date for closing on our new home.
- They did a final walk through just before closing.
- They let us stay in the home up to 3 days after Close of Escrow. They do not allow any rent back so you can't stay longer even if you wanted to pay for that option.
It is very much a take it or leave it thing. They did not negotiate at all on anything. If we didn't take it, we could start the process all over (new Prelim Offer, inspection, new final Offer) as long as a month had passed.
We were pleasantly surprised with the price they offered (thank you Martin/USCTrojanCPA for your take) and though the itemization of the repair costs was BS, we felt that we would have had to spend at least that much to fix it up and stage it if we were going to sell it ourselves. And we did not want to do that while we lived in it. We also felt that showing we were In Escrow on our current home made us stronger contenders on homes we were making offers on.
I liked that there was minimal disruption for our day-to-day. It was just the initial inspection and the final walk-through. Everything else was online.
I did not like the take it or leave it aspect. They only gave $1000 as their deposit (whereas 3% is typical). I was concerned about this because if they decided to not go through with it at the last minute, I would be SOL. All the closing services, which are typically selected by the seller, are through Zillow as well.
At the time, Redfin Now and Opendoor were not available to me. Ideally, you'd want to get offers from all of them so you can pick the best one.