How much do cash home buyers actually pay for a house?
Cash home buyers typically pay between 50% and 90% of your home’s market value, and the exact number comes down to who’s making the offer. Local “we buy houses” investors and wholesalers usually land at 50–70%, fix-and-flip investors at roughly 70–75%, and iBuyers like Opendoor and Offerpad at about 85–90% — minus a 5–7% service fee and any repair deductions. For a move-in-ready home in Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, or East Cobb, accepting a cash offer often means leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table compared to a traditional sale.
By Tim Maitski | June 24, 2026
If you’ve gotten a text or a postcard promising a fast cash offer on your home, the first question in your head is the right one: how much will they actually pay? Most of the ads imply it’ll be close to what your home is worth. The honest answer is that it almost never is — and the size of the gap depends entirely on which kind of buyer you’re talking to.
I’ve spent years walking Atlanta homeowners through this exact decision, and the sellers who get burned are almost always the ones who took the first offer without knowing where it fell on the scale. So let’s put the real numbers on the table.
What each type of cash buyer actually pays
“Cash buyer” is a broad term that covers several very different businesses, and each one is built around a different profit margin. Here’s how they break down:
- Wholesalers and “we buy houses” franchises — usually 50% to 70% of fair market value. These are the lowest offers, aimed at distressed or dated homes. Many of these buyers don’t even keep the house — they lock you into a low price and resell the contract to a real investor for a fee.
- Fix-and-flip investors — about 70% to 75%, following the well-known “70% rule.” They’re pricing in renovation costs, holding costs, and their resale profit.
- Buy-and-hold (rental) investors — roughly 80% to 85%, since they’re keeping the property and don’t need a fast flip margin.
- iBuyers like Opendoor and Offerpad — generally 85% to 90% of market value, minus a service fee that typically runs 5% to 7%, plus any repair credits they deduct after their inspection. These companies prefer homes already in good condition — which describes most homes in the neighborhoods I serve.
That last category is the one most of my clients are actually dealing with. If your home is well-maintained and in a desirable area, a flipper isn’t your buyer — an iBuyer is. And here’s the catch that surprises people: because your home doesn’t need much work, there’s very little for them to “fix.” You’re not getting a discount because the house is rough. You’re getting a discount purely for the convenience of a fast, certain sale.
Why the offer is lower than the ads suggest
The headline offer is never the number that lands in your bank account. A few things quietly shrink it:
- Service fees. Some companies advertise “no fees” but simply build their margin into a lower offer. Others charge an explicit 5–7% fee. Either way, what matters is your net proceeds, not the headline.
- Repair deductions. Many cash buyers make a strong initial offer, send an inspector, then come back with a list of credits that lower the final number — often close to your scheduled closing, when you’ve already mentally moved on.
- No competition. A traditional listing creates a bidding dynamic where buyers compete and push the price up. A single cash buyer eliminates that entirely. You’re negotiating against one party whose entire business depends on paying as little as possible.
- One-sided contracts. Investor purchase agreements often include easy exit clauses for the buyer and tight deadlines for you. The terms are written to protect them, not you.
There’s a deeper reason these offers come in low, and it’s worth understanding. A cash buyer treats your home as a commodity — square footage, year built, and a ZIP code, run through a formula. They never set foot in what makes it yours. You can’t get a premium on a story a buyer never bothered to learn. A marketed listing does the opposite: it sells the feeling of the home to the buyer who falls in love with it, and that emotional connection is what produces offers a cash buyer will never match. That difference is the whole reason listing usually nets more.
What this looks like in real dollars
Say you own a move-in-ready home in East Cobb worth about $750,000. An iBuyer might offer 88% — that’s $660,000 — then subtract a 6% service fee and a few thousand in repair credits, leaving you somewhere around $615,000 to $625,000.
Sell that same home as a properly marketed listing and it closes at or near $750,000. After a typical listing commission and closing costs, you’d net somewhere in the range of $690,000 to $705,000.
That’s a difference of $70,000 or more — real money that belongs to your next home, your retirement, or your family, not to an investor’s margin. Your specific number depends on your home’s condition, location, and timing, which is exactly why running an actual comparison matters before you sign anything.
A quick Georgia note while we’re talking costs: closing here is handled by a real estate attorney, and the state transfer tax runs $1 per $1,000 of the sale price. Those are predictable line items in either path — they don’t explain the gap. The gap is the discount itself.
When a cash offer still makes sense
I’m not here to tell you a cash offer is always wrong. Sometimes it’s the smartest move you can make — and any honest agent will tell you when that’s the case.
Cash is often the right call when speed matters more than squeezing out every dollar: you’re relocating on a deadline, you’ve already bought your next home and can’t carry two payments, or you’re settling an estate. It’s right when certainty matters and you can’t risk a buyer’s financing falling apart two weeks before closing. And it’s right when your home needs major work you can’t or don’t want to do, and you’d rather skip showings altogether.
In those situations, the discount can be worth it. The key is knowing what you’re trading away, and making sure that even when cash is the right path, you’re getting the best cash offer — not the first lowball in your inbox. Those are two very different numbers.
How to find out your real number
Here’s what I tell every homeowner who asks me about a cash offer: don’t compare it to a guess, compare it to the truth. Before you accept anything, find out two figures — what a legitimate cash buyer would realistically pay, and what your home would net on the open market. Once you see them side by side, the decision makes itself.
That comparison is exactly the kind of thing I walk my clients through before we ever talk about listing. It costs you nothing, and worst case, you confirm cash is right for you and move forward with confidence.
If you’re weighing a cash offer right now, grab my free guide, The Five Mistakes Sellers Make That Cost Them Thousands, at truthrealestategroup.com. And if you want the full system for getting the most money out of your sale, my book Home Story Branding walks through it step by step on Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do cash home buyers pay market value?
No. Cash buyers almost always pay below market value — anywhere from 50% to 90% — because they’re absorbing the cost of repairs, the risk of resale, and their own profit margin. The trade-off is speed and certainty, not top dollar.
Are “we buy houses” companies a ripoff?
They’re not illegal, and for the right situation they can be genuinely useful. But many make their lowest offers, sometimes 50–70% of value, and some don’t actually have the cash — they resell your contract to a real investor and pocket the difference. The risk isn’t fraud; it’s accepting far less than your home is worth without realizing it.
How much less will I get selling to an iBuyer like Opendoor or Offerpad?
iBuyers typically offer around 85–90% of market value, then subtract a service fee of 5–7% plus any repair credits. On a well-maintained Atlanta home, that often nets you tens of thousands less than a traditional sale, because a move-in-ready home gives them little to “fix” — you’re paying purely for convenience.
Should I sell my house for cash or list it on the market?
If your top priority is the highest possible price and your home shows well, a marketed listing almost always nets more, even after commissions. Cash makes more sense when speed, certainty, or an as-is sale matters more to you than maximizing the dollars. The only way to know for sure is to compare both numbers for your specific home.
Can I get more than one cash offer to compare?
Yes, and you should. Cash buyers count on sellers not shopping around. Getting competing offers — or comparing the best cash offer against an open-market estimate — routinely surfaces a higher number, often by tens of thousands of dollars.
About Tim Maitski
Tim Maitski is the founder of Truth Real Estate Group, brokered by Atlanta Communities Real Estate Brokerage, and has been a Realtor since 1999. He created the Home Story Branding system, which helps sellers earn more by transforming a home from a commodity into a property with a story that connects emotionally with buyers, who then perceive it as more valuable. Tim is the author of two books, Home Story Branding and Don’t Buy These Homes, and serves homeowners and buyers across Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, East Cobb, and the greater Atlanta metro.