A new report by Clever Real Estate of about 1,000 homeowners shows that 66% of homebuyers don’t think iBuyers yield higher sale prices than traditional sales, with only 34% think iBuyers will yield more money.
Key findings:
- A majority of American homeowners (65%) are open to selling their home with an iBuyer rather than listing with a real estate agent.
- iBuyers are most popular in the West, where 74% of respondents in the region say they would consider selling to an iBuyer compared to 61% in the Midwest, where iBuyers are least popular.
- Most American homeowners (72%) either weren’t previously aware of what an iBuyer is or were unable to correctly define one.
- Two-thirds (66%) of homeowners don’t believe that iBuyers offer more money than the open market.
- The average homeowner would accept $45,400 less for their home to sell instantly and choose their closing date.
- Almost all (91%) homeowners consider avoiding high realtor commission rates an important priority when selling their homes.
- Zillow Offers is considered the most legitimate iBuyer among homeowners, despite being defunct since late 2021.
- Most (87%) respondents overestimate the market reach of iBuyer companies (just 1.3% of homes purchased in 2021).
- 68% of homeowners believe iBuyers will become more popular in the next five years.
- One in five homeowners (20%) say they still trust real estate agents more than iBuyers.
- Nearly-three quarters (72%) of homeowners would still want to work with a real estate agent when requesting offers from iBuyers.
The takeaway:
“It may be surprising that 72% of homeowners surveyed did not know what an iBuyer is. However, the iBuyer market makes up less than 2% of the real estate market, a huge contributor to its lack of notoriety among everyday people,” writes Sam M. Huisache, Clever content writer and author of the report. “We also observed that a significant portion of homeowners (19%) thought they knew what iBuyers were but were actually mistaken. This indicates that there is a prime opportunity for iBuyer companies to better educate homeowners about what they offer.
To read the full report, including the top five reasons why homeowners have reservations toward iBuyers, click here.
