Sell Your House Fast in Denver: Top Colorado Cash Offer Options

With 300 days of sun a year, a walkable downtown, and an average home sale price that was $22,000 higher in February of 2023 compared to the prior year, it’s still a great market if you’re looking to sell your house fast in Denver.

Whether you’ve inherited a house, want to put a divorce behind you, cash out your home’s equity, or relocate for work, your two best strategies if you need to sell your house fast are: 1) pursuing a cash offer, or 2) working with a top real estate agent. In this guide, we’ll review each option to help you decide which makes the most sense for your home sale.

Sell Fast With an All-Cash Offer

If you’re looking to sell your house fast in Denver, requesting a cash offer can be one of the fastest methods available.

Step 1: Request Offer

Option 1: Selling your house fast in Denver for cash

With approximately 20% of Denver offers being made in cash, according to Denver top agent Madison Kissel, finding a cash buyer or investor who is eager to purchase your house for cash is a strong possibility for selling fast. Here’s how it can work.

Get a cash offer with HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform

HomeLight Simple Sale is an intuitive platform that connects sellers to a large network of investors for a fast cash sale. The platform combines the information you provide us about your home with local neighborhood data to get you a great cash offer in 24 hours and close on your home in as little as 10 days. Simple Sale is easy to use and by allowing homeowners to skip repairs, home prep, staging, and showings, Simple Sale clients get to closing more quickly than with a traditional sale.

“I’ve only seen HomeLight having success with that type of program,” says Kissel. “One thing that I really like is the contract is in the buyer’s name, whereas [some other companies] show the company as the buyer, which has caused a lot of confusion with the seller, making it seem like, in reality, it wasn’t a real cash offer,” says Kissel.

“When you’re able to overcome those objections from the seller and make it really streamlined, you want it to look like a basic, standard cash offer, and HomeLight does allow us to do that,” explains Kissel. “I also think HomeLight’s portal system works way better, having everything streamlined in our account portal, so we’re able to send those off effortlessly; that’s been huge as well,” says Kissel.

Who else will buy your house for cash?

iBuyers, investors, and flippers will also buy a house for cash. Here’s how they operate, the types of houses they look to buy, and their process.

• iBuyers: These buyers use an automated valuation model (AVM) to offer sellers an all-cash offer. iBuyers charge sellers a 5% to 6% fee, and are more competitive than flippers.
• House flippers: House flippers buy fixer-uppers from sellers and auctions in desperate need of repair. They repair and renovate properties in hopes of turning a significant profit. Looking to maximize their return, they typically offer sellers low offers.
• Buy-and-hold investors: Buy-and-hold investors focus on a long-term strategy by converting homes into rental properties.
• Franchising and house buying companies: These companies purchase homes in as-is condition acting as the buyer. They usually repair and sell the homes turnkey for a profit or may rent them.

Top cash buyers in Denver

Here are some of the top cash homebuying companies operating in the Denver area.

• Cash 4 Denver Homes

This local company buys houses in various conditions, including short sales and foreclosures, and provides a cash offer within 72 hours. The company earned an A+ on the Better Business Bureau website and 5/5 stars from Google Reviews.

• The Buy-Out Company

This company purchases various types of homes, including houses with foreclosure risk and structural issues. The company provides fast cash offers and $10,000 in earnest money and have earned an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau website and 4.8/5 stars from 93 Google reviews.

• HomeLight Simple Sale

A HomeLight platform, Simple Sale connects sellers with the largest network of real estate investors in the U.S. Sellers receive offers within 24 hours and close in as little as 10 days by skipping cleaning, staging, and repairs. HomeLight earned an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau website and 4.6/5 stars from 534 Google reviews, the largest number reviewed on Google.

• Watson Buys

This company buys and renovates properties throughout Denver in various conditions.

Watson Buys earned an A+ Better Business Bureau rating and 5/5 stars on Google Reviews for its Denver location.

• We Buy Houses, Colorado

This national company serves Denver, however, the business pays between 50% to 70% of the fair market value for most properties. We Buy Houses earned an A+ Better Business Bureau rating and 4.4/5 stars on Google Reviews.

• We Buy Ugly Houses®, Colorado (Homevestors®)

This business is a national company that buys homes in poor condition located in flood plains and run-down neighborhoods. Due to these conditions, the company pays sellers less than most buyers and investors. The company earned an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and 4.9/5 stars from Google Reviews.

Pros and cons of selling a house for cash

While your experience can vary by company these are some general pros and cons of selling a house to an investor for a cash sale.

Pros:

• Fast closings
• Some companies have access to a large network of investors.
• Sellers can forgo repairs and staging.

Cons:

• Lower price than a traditional sale
• Seller fees can be high for some companies.
• No bidding wars

Option 2: Working with a top agent to sell your house fast in Denver

Do you need to sell your house quickly but have a little more time than the cash offer route provides? Then working with a top real estate agent can be a successful strategy to sell your house quickly and maximize your home sale when you need to pay down debt, sell a loved one’s estate, or alleviate the sting of a divorce.

HomeLight data shows that top agents sell homes quicker than the average agent, and the top 5% of agents can get their clients 10% more money for their homes than average agents.

How fast are homes selling in Denver?

Partnering with a top agent can help you understand your local market conditions, which determine how quickly or slowly your home can sell in your area. “Denver saw a huge uptick of population from the pandemic in 2020 and 2021,” says Kissel. “In 2023, we’re now seeing more of a stabilization.”

“The biggest draw that I see from people moving in from out of state is our weather. We have outdoor activities all year round. Additionally, job security is strong, with a low unemployment rate. There’s a lot of economic growth,” says Kissel.

Kissel says that younger people especially “gravitate toward downtown that offers access to outdoor amenities such as hiking trails and walkability to retail restaurants and coffee shops.”

Denver real estate — current conditions and trends

Strategies and tips for selling a house fast in Denver

A top agent adds value through their expertise in pricing, marketing, prioritizing home upgrades and repairs, staging, and skillful negotiation. When Kissel does a walkthrough, her goal is to maximize a seller’s return on the sale. She recommends the following tips that appeal to Denver buyers.

• Touch up paint and integrate pops of color: Kissel says black and gold hardware is popular in Denver, and she also sees a lot of two-tone cabinets in kitchens with pops of color in sage green, navy, black, and even brown.
• Declutter the space, including the closet: Kissel recommends decluttering 50 percent of the closet space to help make storage space appear larger.
• Make a space feel bigger and more airy with staging: “Whether I sell a $100,000 condo or a $3 million home, I stage every single property I list,” Kissel says. “Impression is everything in this market, and buyers only look at a house for five minutes. So staging is huge and deep cleaning is a must,” says Kissel, who also recommends swapping out a larger couch for a smaller one.
• Create a spacious and lovely outdoor space: In Denver, a “nice spacious, cool outdoor space is huge,” Kissel advises. You can achieve this with shade and firepits. Hot tubs are also big in the winter.
• Consider xeriscaping: “We see a lot of people opting for lawn grass alternatives to save water for the landscaping, because we’re in such a dry climate, and with water being more and more of an issue,” says Kissel.

When you need to sell your house fast in Denver, whether you opt for an instant cash offer or a traditional sale with a top agent who sells homes fast, either choice can make a viable option for your home sale.

Header Image Source: Yaroslav Muzychenko / Unsplash