5 Top We Buy Houses For Cash Companies in Virginia
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Melissa Holtje, Contributing AuthorClose
Melissa Holtje Contributing AuthorMelissa enjoys using her experience as a house flipper, investment buyer, and waterfront home owner to help buyers and sellers thrive in the housing market. When not scouting real estate, you’ll most likely find her at the beach.
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Taryn Tacher, Senior EditorClose
Taryn Tacher Senior EditorTaryn Tacher is the senior editorial operations manager and senior editor for HomeLight's Resource Centers. With eight years of editorial and operations experience, she previously managed editorial operations at Contently and content partnerships at Conde Nast. Taryn holds a bachelor's from the University of Florida College of Journalism, and she's written for GQ, Teen Vogue, Glamour, Allure, and Variety.
We Buy Houses companies in Virginia make all-cash offers for homes that often need some work, enabling sellers who lack the time, expertise, and money for repairs to move quickly and receive the cash proceeds from their home sooner if they need it.
Maybe a pressing coast-to-coast transfer from Virginia Beach to Newport Beach leaves you with no time to sell your house. Perhaps an aging family home in Lynchburg has you overwhelmed with too many repairs to handle. Or, unexpected medical issues have created a need to quickly downsize your Richmond home into a condo.
If you need to sell your Virginia home fast, a We Buy Houses for Cash company could be the best solution. However, before you request a cash offer, it’s important to understand how much a Virginia house-buying company might offer for your home and weigh your options. Once you’re familiar with the process, you can opt to select a company on our list of some of the top contenders and get moving.
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Disclaimer: This post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Links and mentions of Virginia “we buy houses” companies should not be considered endorsements.
Working with house-buying companies in Virginia
We Buy Houses companies in Virginia typically promise quick, all-cash offers and ultra-fast closings, often in as few as seven days. They tend to target distressed properties in need of repairs, and work with sellers who need to move ASAP.
Here’s how the process generally works:
- You request an offer and provide the company with some information about your home. Some companies may make a preliminary offer at this stage, but it’s usually subject to change once they’ve inspected your property.
- The company completes a walk-through of your property, usually within 24 to 48 hours.
- The company makes a firm offer (usually within 24 hours, sometimes on-site after the walk-through), which you can accept or decline. Most of these companies will not negotiate on price, so the offer is a take-it-or-leave-it scenario.
- If you accept the offer, you’ll both sign a contract, and the closing process will begin. Some companies offer a large deposit or moving cost assistance, and a few may even pay for the home upfront.
- Closing and getting paid is quick, typically within seven days to a few weeks. This can vary by company, and sellers who work with a house-buying company often enjoy flexibility in selecting a move-out date that works for them.
Popular We Buy Houses for Cash companies in Virginia
If these benefits of selling to a house-buying company in Virginia sound good to you, it’s time to find a legitimate operation you can trust.
We’ve compiled some of the top companies that will pay cash for your parents’ brick colonial in Williamsburg or your federal-style home in the Arlington suburbs. By selling to one of these companies, you should be able to sell your Virginia home in as little as a week or two.
4 Brothers Buy Houses
4 Brothers Buy Houses has been operating in the Washington, D.C. area for more than 12 years. The company was indeed started by four brothers, but their team has expanded over the years to accommodate more investment opportunities.
The process at 4 Brothers Buy Houses is similar to other cash-buyer companies: a quick, no-obligation offer and closing within 7-10 days after acceptance. They will work with sellers in difficult situations, including divorce, late payments, inheritance, code violations, unwanted tenants, and other sticky property scenarios.
Locations: In and around the DC Metro area
Closing costs: Sellers pay no closing costs.
4 Brothers Buy Houses holds an A+ BBB rating and has been accredited since 2016. Customers sing their praises with a 4.8-star Google rating. Former clients express gratitude for the company’s polite, professional service, as well as their ability to problem-solve difficult situations.
Website: 4brothersbuyhouses.com
Phone number: 202-601-4928
Simple Sale (a HomeLight platform)
Simple Sale, a solution from HomeLight, is an online platform where sellers in Virginia (and across the country) can request a cash offer for their home. Simple Sale connects you to the largest network of cash buyers in the U.S. Partner investors have a wide range of investment strategies, including fix-and-flip and buy-and-hold. This enables Simple Sale to provide cash offers for a wide array of properties, even those that need some or a lot of work, in different locations throughout Virginia.
With Simple Sale, you can get an all-cash offer in 24 hours and sell your home in as little as 10 days, skipping the months it can take to sell the traditional way.
Locations: Nationwide, including Virginia
Closing costs: No prep costs, no agent commissions, and no fees charged by HomeLight. Individual investor fees may vary.
Simple Sale is a HomeLight platform. HomeLight was founded in 2012 and is BBB accredited with an A+ rating. The company has 4.8 stars on Google based on hundreds of reviews. Below, you can hear about how Baohan Wu, a seller who used Simple Sale to sell his high-rise apartment, closed within three and a half weeks and what he thought of the process overall.
Website: homelight.com/simple
Phone: 844-488-8455
Advantage Homebuyers of America
Advantage Homebuyers of America has been in business for more than 25 years in the eastern Virginia area. They specialize in distressed properties and offer value to their clients in the form of fast, no-hassle closings. Customer service is a priority, as noted by the numerous video testimonies on their company website. Their process is quick and easy, and at times they can have a cash deposit in hand on the day the offer is accepted.
Locations: Virginia Beach and surrounding areas
Closing costs: Sellers pay no closing costs.
While they are not yet accredited by the BBB, they have an A+ rating. Advantage Homebuyers of America has a 5-star rating on Google with reviews from over 80 satisfied customers. Reviewers speak to both the company’s efficiency and trustworthiness in past cash deals.
Website: sevendaystosold.com
Phone number: 757-644-1313
We Buy Houses - Richmond
We Buy Houses – Richmond has been doing business in central Virginia for more than six years. Though they work mainly in Richmond, the company will gladly accept clients throughout the state. Their process includes a scheduled phone call to discuss the seller’s options, with no obligation to go with a cash-buy scenario. If an offer is accepted, closing can be scheduled on the seller’s timeframe, with as little as seven days to have cash in hand.
Locations: Richmond and throughout Virginia
Closing costs: Sellers pay no closing costs.
We Buy Houses – Richmond has an A+ BBB rating, having been accredited since 2017. The company also holds a 4.7-star Google rating. Customer reviews attest to the company’s friendly, professional nature as well as the ease and speed of closings.
Website: sellrvahouses.com
Phone number: 804-399-9337
WeBuyHouses–Quick
WeBuyHouses–Quick is an investment group that specializes in properties on the east side of the state, though the company says they’ll do business throughout Virginia. They buy houses in as-is condition, but their website is clear that the house must meet their buying criteria.
To work with WeBuyHouses–Quick, potential sellers fill out an online form with initial information. Company representatives will review the information against their buying criteria and set up an appointment if they see potential in the deal. At the appointment, they can usually make an offer and have cash in hand within seven days. Sometimes, they’ll even cut a check as soon as the deal is established.
Locations: Virginia Beach and surrounding Virginia counties
Closing costs: Sellers pay no closing costs.
WeBuyHouses–Quick has a 5-star Google rating with reviews from over 40 former clients. Customers highly recommend the company, saying they exceeded expectations and were a pleasure to work with.
Website: webuyhouses-quick.com
Phone number: 757-500-3544
Why sell for cash in Virginia?
There are plenty of reasons a Virginia seller may choose to go the Cash-For-Homes route, speed and certainty being chief among them.
In Virginia, it typically takes about 75 days to sell a home on the market using an agent. That includes an average of about 31 days to attract an offer, plus the typical 44 days a buyer needs to close on a purchase loan.
Compare that to the typical seven days promised by many We Buy Houses for Cash companies in Virginia, and you can see why these companies remain popular, even though they don’t always offer top dollar.
Not every seller has months to prep, market, show, and close. Let’s look at some common reasons Virginia sellers choose Cash-For-Homes companies over listing the traditional way.
- The home has major repair issues common in Virginia, such as dry rot, mold, or foundation damage.
- The seller needs to move or cash in quickly due to divorce, job relocation, medical need, financial stress, etc.
- The seller doesn’t have the means or desire to make repairs.
- The seller doesn’t want the work of prepping the home, dealing with showings, negotiating, or navigating a long sales process.
- The seller prefers the privacy of selling their home off-market to a cash buyer.
- The seller is in the foreclosure process and wants to sell the home and settle up with the lender before it’s too late.
- The seller inherited the property and wants to unload it as quickly as possible.
- The seller is a landlord who has problem tenants or no longer wishes to manage a rental property.
- The homeowner is aging and moving into a care facility, prompting their family to sell the home.
- The seller is living out of state and prefers the ease of a cash sale.
If any of these sounds like you, requesting a cash offer from a We Buy Houses for Cash company might be a good starting point, though it’s not your only option, and it may not be your best move (we’ll dive into your other options in just a minute!).
Pros and cons of house-buying companies in Virginia
By now, you’ve probably figured out that We Buy Houses for Cash companies in Virginia are a bit of a mixed bag. You get speed and service, but you pay a sizable premium for that service. Let’s walk through a few pros and cons to consider while weighing your options.
Pros
One of the biggest advantages of working with We Buy Houses for Cash companies in Virginia is that you can sell your home as-is with no repairs required, and they’ll buy homes in any condition.
If your home was severely damaged in a weather event, or you’ve fallen years behind on routine maintenance, you can still sell without needing to make the extensive repairs that financed buyers may require.
Here are some other pros to consider:
- Speed: You can often sell your home in as few as seven days.
- Certainty: Since the company does a pre-offer walk-through, their offer is firm and comes with few (if any) contingencies. Cash-For-Houses companies are experts at clearing roadblocks and closing deals.
- No repairs: Again, if your home is in rough shape and you don’t have the funds or the patience to make repairs, you can skip them altogether and save yourself the stress.
- Less hassle: You don’t have to deal with staging, open houses, fielding offers, negotiating with picky buyers, worrying about the appraisal, or stressing about the buyer’s financing falling through. Overall, reputable We Buy Houses for Cash companies in Virginia offer a smooth ride from offer to close.
That all may sound pretty great to you as a seller if you’re looking to move within weeks rather than the months it might take you to list and sell your home on the market with an agent. However, there are downsides to working with Cash-For-Homes companies. Namely, they typically offer substantially below market value for your home.
Cons
When considering an offer from a We Buy Houses site, remember that these are house-buying companies, which means they’re ultimately trying to make a profit. They plan to fix up your home and either resell it or rent it out. That takes considerable time, skill, and investment.
Here are some potential downsides to weigh:
- Lower offers: Most companies follow the 70% rule, meaning they’ll offer you 70% of your home’s after-repair value (or the value that your house could sell for on the market once it’s all fixed up) minus repair costs. So, the price you get for your home may be appreciably lower than what you’d get on the market.
- Inconsistent market knowledge: Not all cash homebuying companies are equal. Some are more localized, have specific neighborhood knowledge, and are able to leverage that expertise into more competitive offers. Others are less knowledgeable about the specifics of your community, which could result in lowball bids.
- Not all companies are trustworthy: Some companies make extremely low offers to desperate homeowners and try to pressure you into making a quick decision. A few bad players may even engage in fraud tactics, though it’s uncommon.
- They may use pressure tactics: These companies know that homeowners looking to sell quickly are often desperate, and some do take advantage of that by using pressure tactics. You should never feel pressured to accept an offer, especially since there are plenty of We Buy Houses for Cash companies in Virginia to choose from. If anyone makes you uncomfortable, it’s time to move on to another option.
Your home is more than a place where you make memories with family; it’s also likely your biggest asset. Sure, you want to sell quickly, but you could be leaving major money on the table if you choose to work with one of these We Buy Houses for Cash companies.
Always do your research, compare your options, and consult with a trusted advisor before accepting any offer.
Vet cash buyers and know your home’s worth
For many home sellers, We Buy Houses for Cash companies can be a solid solution to get a property sold quickly or to access cash for an expected life challenge. On the other hand, the “cash for your home” rehabbing business model has also led to what some housing advocates call predatory tactics.
The level of integrity and customer service you experience can vary, even within an established house-buying company that strives to maintain consistent business standards. This is because many We Buy Houses for Cash companies are franchises and often use independent investors or local wholesaling outfits. Your experience greatly depends on the character of the person or group making the offer.
If you are considering a cash offer, vet the company thoroughly. Check reviews, read testimonials, and research its presence and performance in the market. And, of course, read the buying agreement carefully before signing.
Get a home value estimate
Before committing to a We Buy Houses for Cash company, HomeLight suggests you consult with a top agent to get a better idea of what your home might be worth if sold on the open market. Then, compare cash offers to what a top agent might be able to get for your home. HomeLight can connect you with a top-performing agent in your market.
You can also use HomeLight’s free Home Value Estimator right now to get an initial ballpark estimate in less than two minutes.
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Other options to sell your home quickly
iBuyers
Within the Cash-For-Homes industry, you’ll also encounter a particular group of companies known as iBuyers, or instant buyers.
iBuyer companies offer sellers many of the same conveniences of other house-buying operations, but they also leverage algorithmic technology, otherwise known as automated valuation models (or AVMs), to make you a near-instant offer on your home and provide a user-friendly, mostly online home sale experience.
iBuyers have been around since the mid-2010s, and are widely available across Virginia.
iBuyers offer all-cash and can close in a matter of days to a few weeks. But unlike more traditional We Buy Houses for Cash companies, iBuyers tend to look for homes in better condition and offer much closer to market value, typically in the 85%–95% range, particularly in a more active real estate market.
However, one thing to note is that major iBuyers like Opendoor and Offerpad usually charge sizable fees for their services, between 5% and 6%.
Sellers who may be a good fit to work with an iBuyer in Virginia include those who prefer to skip staging and showing their home, who live in an area with somewhat similar housing, and who have a home in relatively good shape.
Listing with an agent
You want to sell your house quickly, not in 75 days. But hear us out! With tight housing inventories in many markets, selling with an agent can still be swift, especially for homes that are priced strategically.
Going with an agent could pay off big time. Selling on the market generally fetches the highest home price, and that’s especially true if you work with a skilled professional. Our internal transaction data at HomeLight shows that the top 5% of real estate agents sell homes for up to 10% more than average agents.
This is a big financial decision, so it may make sense to consult with a trusted real estate agent who can complete a comparative market analysis (CMA) to help you understand your home’s value and how quickly it’s likely to sell.
Your agent may even be able to connect you with cash buyers who are willing to offer closer to market value for your home.
Plus, a CMA is usually free and you’re under no obligation to list with the agent, so this may be a good tool to explore your options. Even if you end up deciding to work with a Cash-For-Homes company, at least you’ll know you’re making a sound financial decision.
Overwhelmed by finding an agent? HomeLight would be happy to connect you with a top performer in your area today.
FAQs on Virginia house-buying companies
Most We Buy Houses for Cash companies are legit, and this business model has been around for decades.
However, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for scams or anything that just doesn’t seem right. Always thoroughly research companies ahead of time. Verify all professional licenses, check customer reviews, get a referral if possible, and vet the company on the Better Business Bureau website.
Most Cash-For-Homes companies follow the 70% rule, meaning they’ll offer you 70% of your home’s after-repair value, minus repair costs.
Here’s what that simple formula looks like:
(Your home’s ARV x .70) – repair costs
Now let’s take a look at a practical example. Let’s say your Virginia Victorian home could sell for $350,000 after repairs, but it’s going to need $80,000 of work to get there.
($350,000 x .70) – $80,000 = $165,000
In this example, a Virginia Cash-For-Homes company will probably offer you around $165,000 for your property.
However, different types of house-buying companies will offer varying amounts for homes. As mentioned previously, iBuyers tend to pay more like 85%-95% of market value while charging a fee for their services.
Selling a home to a We Buy Houses for Cash company shouldn’t cost you any money, though you’ll likely get less overall for your home.
Since these companies are geared toward distressed homes, they tend to have zero fees, and will even cover your closing costs. That means the offer you get is the price you should walk away with. Make sure to ask about any hidden program fees that could eat into your bottom line.
- Research and vet house-buying companies available in your area. The above list is a great place to start.
- Submit offer requests to your top few companies.
- Schedule any on-site visits.
- Field and compare offers. Choose the best option for you.
- Close in a week to 30 days and get paid (or you can often choose a later closing date, up to 90 days after receiving the offer).
We Buy Houses for Cash in Virginia vs. top Virginia agent
Wondering how a We Buy Houses for Cash company stacks up against working with a real estate agent? We’ve got you covered.
| Aspect of the sale | Sell to a We Buy Houses for Cash company in Virginia | Sell with a top Realtor® in Virginia |
| Sale timeline | 7 to 30 days | 75 days average; 31 to attract an offer, 44 to close the loan |
| Home preparations | None | Make necessary repairs, deep clean, declutter, landscape, stage home |
| Showings | None | 10 to 25 showings average |
| Inspections / repairs | None | May need to make repairs for the buyer or renegotiate price |
| Appraisal | None | May need to lower the price if appraisal comes in low |
| Title search | Cash-For-Homes companies often handle title issues | Must clear title before you can sell home |
| Financing contingency | None | Mortgaged buyers use a financing contingency that could hold up the deal if the loan doesn’t clear |
| Agent commission | None | 3%-5.8% average* |
| Closing costs | None | 1% to 3% of sale price on top of commission* |
Example net proceeds
Let’s say your two-story colonial home in Norfolk is currently worth about $400,000 and needs about $15,000 in repairs. Once the repairs are made, the home should be worth about $415,000.
| Sell to a We Buy Houses for Cash company in Virginia | Sell with a top Realtor® in Virginia | |
| Estimated sale price | ($415,000 x .70) – $15,000 = $275,500 | $400,000 |
| Market preparations | 0 | $4,000 (1% of sale price) |
| Agent commissions | 0 | $12,000 (3%* of sale price) |
| Closing costs | 0 | $6,000 (1.5%) |
| Estimated take-home for seller | $275,500 | $378,000 |
Financially, it’s usually in your best interest to go with a top agent, but depending on the condition of your home and any repairs needed, selling on the open market could be challenging.
Agent commission changes
*On March 15, 2024, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced a landmark lawsuit settlement that will change the way real estate agent commissions are handled in the future. These changes will “decouple” seller and buyer agent compensation. Industry experts predict that this decoupling will likely lower agent fees and give buyers the ability to negotiate commission amounts directly. Learn more.
Key takeaways
- We Buy Houses for Cash companies in Virginia can offer you a way to sell your home in as few as seven days with no repairs, showings, or hassles.
- There are many reputable cash homebuying companies across Virginia, and most sellers going this route can find a company that suits their needs.
- You could leave significant money on the table using a Cash-For-Homes company versus going with a top agent or iBuyer.
- HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform provides no-obligation, all-cash offers for homes in almost any condition in Virginia. Because the platform has partner investors with different buying parameters across the state, it can be a great starting point if you aren’t sure who would buy your home.
House-buying companies can be a good alternative for Virginia sellers in need of a quick exit from homeownership, but they’re not without drawbacks. However you choose to sell your home, it’s important to avoid making a hasty decision.
For best results, take the time to weigh your options, gather offers from multiple companies, and consider consulting with a top agent to see how easily your property could sell on the market. Whatever you decide, HomeLight would be happy to help with your real estate needs!
Writer Chelsea Levinson and Contributing Editor Frances Metz assisted with this post.
Header Image Source: (Derrick Brooks / Unsplash)
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