Sell My House Fast In Tampa: The Questions Sellers Ask Me

I’m Mike Youngblood. I’ve been buying houses across Tampa Bay since 2015 — seven counties, Hernando down to Sarasota — and I’ve walked more than a thousand of them myself. I’m also a licensed Florida real estate agent, SL3213954, under TMWRK Brokerage LLC. Most cash home buyers aren’t licensed.

These are the questions that come up on almost every call. Some have their own page and video, because the honest answer takes longer than a paragraph. The rest I’ve answered right here.

If yours isn’t on here, call or text me at 813-200-7665 and ask it. I’ll tell you either way, including when the answer is don’t sell to me.

How fast can you actually close?

Seven to fourteen days is normal. I closed one in Brandon that the sellers asked me to do in ten, and it took eleven — we were waiting on an HOA estoppel letter.

That’s the honest version: the slow part is almost never me. It’s a payoff letter from a bank, an estoppel from an association, or a title problem nobody knew about. There’s no lender and no appraisal on my side, which is where most of the delay lives in a traditional sale.

And fast is a choice, not a requirement. You pick the closing date. If you need sixty days to find your next place, we write sixty. If you need to close and then stay in the house a couple of weeks while you pack, we’ve done that too — most sellers have no idea it’s an option.

How do you come up with your offer?

Four subtractions, and you’re allowed to check every one of them.

I start with what the house sells for finished, in your neighborhood, in today’s market. Then I subtract the cost to sell it, the repairs it needs, what it costs me to hold it while the work gets done, and my return. What’s left is your cash offer.

That last subtraction is the one most cash home buyers won’t say out loud. Yes, I make money on this. Anybody who tells you they don’t is lying to you, and you should wonder what else they’re lying about.

The full arithmetic, with the four questions to ask any cash buyer →

Do I pay any fees or commissions?

No commission, and we pay the closing costs. The one exception is anything attached to the title — liens, back taxes, a judgment. Those come out of the proceeds at closing the same way they would in any sale, and I’ll tell you about them before you sign, not after.

What you don’t avoid is the price. A cash offer comes in below retail — that’s the entire trade, and the commission you’re not paying is already baked into my number rather than handed to you on top of it. Anybody presenting “no commissions” as free money is doing arithmetic at you.

Will you lower your offer after you see the house?

I can’t. I’ve already been inside.

That’s why I walk it before I give you a number. There’s no inspection period in my contract, so there’s nothing left to discover and no second conversation about price two weeks from now.

This is where most cash deals quietly die, and it’s worth understanding before you sign anything with anybody: how to tell a wholesaler from a real investor.

Do I have to clean out the house before I sell it?

No. And I’d rather you didn’t.

Furniture stays. Clothes in the closets stay. The garage stays — I’ve walked garages in Seminole Heights you couldn’t get three feet into, and it didn’t change anything. Take the photographs, the paperwork, anything with a name on it. Leave the rest.

Cleaning it out does move the offer a little, usually a few thousand. But I’ve got dumpsters and a crew and I do this every week, and it costs me a lot less than it costs you in retail junk-removal pricing and four weekends of your life. If the house is nearly empty already, finish it. If it’s full, don’t start.

The longer answer, including estate sales and what to do with medical equipment →

Can I sell a house that’s in really bad condition?

That’s most of what I buy. Selling a house as-is in Florida is the normal case here, not the exception.

Roof gone, no AC, flooring torn up, water damage, a kitchen somebody started and never finished, a house a tenant wrecked on the way out. None of that is a problem, and none of it needs a repair estimate from you before you call me.

Here’s the part worth knowing: a house in that condition usually has no retail buyer at all. Not at a lower price — at all. It won’t pass a lender’s inspection, so the pool of people who can buy it is cash buyers and nobody else. That’s exactly where a cash offer makes sense.

What types of properties do you buy?

Single-family houses, townhomes, condos, duplexes and small multifamily, mobile and manufactured homes on their own land, and vacant lots.

Geographically: Hillsborough and Pinellas are where I’ve been buying since 2015 and where my pricing is sharpest, but I buy across seven counties, Hernando down to Sarasota.

What I’m not good for is a house in great shape in a hot neighborhood. You’ll do better on the open market and I’ll say so.

Can I sell a house that’s in probate?

Yes. I buy them regularly and it’s a normal week around here.

What I need is the address and a rough idea of where the estate is in the process. I don’t need the house cleaned out, I don’t need repairs, and I don’t need the whole family to have agreed on anything yet. It’s easier to agree on a real number than on a maybe.

What I can’t do is tell you how long your case takes or whether you have the authority to sign yet. Nothing official happens with the house until somebody’s been appointed personal representative and has letters from the court, and which path your estate takes is your attorney’s call, not mine.

What I need, what I can’t tell you, and when listing nets more →

Handling it from another state? There’s a longer page on exactly that: inherited a house in Florida and you don’t live here?

Can I sell a house with tenants in it?

Yes. Your tenant doesn’t have to be out before you sell.

Most people have this backwards — they think step one is getting the tenant out and step two is selling, so the whole thing gets put off for months. You can skip it. I buy them occupied. Tenant’s in there, their furniture’s in there, whatever lease is on it comes with the house. You don’t serve a notice and you don’t file anything.

The honest part: a tenant in place changes my number. It does for every buyer. If somebody tells you occupancy makes no difference to their price, they either haven’t thought about it or they’re not telling you the truth.

What happens to the tenant, and what I do if they’ve stopped paying →

What if I’m facing foreclosure?

You can still sell, and the sooner you call the more options you have.

Mechanically it isn’t complicated — your lender gets paid off at closing the same as any other sale, and if there’s equity left it comes to you. What’s hard is time. Every month that passes closes doors, and by the time a sale date is on the calendar there are a lot fewer of them.

Two things I’d say to anybody in this. Talk to an attorney, not just to me — I’m not one, and the legal side of a foreclosure is not my call. And be careful who you talk to, because this is the situation that attracts the worst people in my industry.

I’m not going to pressure you and I’m not going to pretend a cash sale is the only answer. Sometimes it isn’t.

How do I tell a wholesaler from a real investor?

Ask two questions: is there an inspection period, and how much is the deposit.

A wholesaler doesn’t buy your house. They sign a contract and then go find somebody else to actually buy it, and they keep the difference. The tell is a full-price offer with a long inspection period — there’s no room in that number for anybody, so what they’re doing is tying your house up while they shop the contract. Two weeks later they come back with a lower number, and by then you’ve told your family it’s sold.

I know exactly what that call sounds like because I used to be one. I started in this business as the sales guy for a wholesale company.

The $300,000 example, the deposit tell, and when a longer inspection period is actually fine →

Will you list my house on the MLS, or actually buy it?

Buy it. The money is mine or my lender’s, and I’m the one at the closing table. I’m not assigning your contract to a stranger.

I am also a licensed Florida agent, which cuts the other way and is worth knowing: it means I can tell you when listing is the better move. I do that out loud, on houses in good shape where nobody’s against a clock. If that’s your house, you’ll hear it from me.

How are you different from a real estate agent?

An agent markets your house to find a buyer. I am the buyer.

With an agent you’re looking at repairs before listing, cleaning, showings, an offer that depends on somebody else’s financing, an inspection that can re-trade the price, and a closing date that moves. What you get for all of that is usually a higher number, and on the right house it’s worth every bit of the wait.

With me there’s no listing, no showings, no repairs, no lender and no appraisal. One number, a date you pick, and nothing to discover later.

I’m licensed, so I’m genuinely on both sides of this and I’ll tell you which one your house belongs on. Selling a house without a realtor isn’t automatically the right move — it’s the right move when speed and certainty are worth more to you than the last few percent.

What does selling to a cash buyer actually involve?

You send me the address. I come walk the house myself — not a phone quote, not somebody I subcontract it to. I give you a number, usually the same day.

If you want it, we sign a one-page contract, it goes to a local title company, and they do a title search. We pay the closing costs. You pick the date. You show up, sign, and the money is wired.

What’s not in there: no showings, no inspection period, no appraisal, no financing contingency, no repairs, no cleaning, nobody walking through your house on a Saturday.

Is there any obligation if I ask for a number?

None. You don’t sign anything to get one, and there’s no expiring offer and no pressure call three days later.

I’ll come walk the house, tell you what I’d pay, and then you do whatever you want with that — including nothing. Plenty of people get a number from me and list the house instead, and that’s a fine outcome. I’d rather be the guy you called than the guy whose postcard you threw out.

When you shouldn’t sell to me

If the house is in good shape — roof’s fine, AC works, it’d pass an inspection — and nobody’s against a clock, list it. You’ll net more than I’d pay you, even after commission. That’s not me being modest, it’s just true, and being licensed means I can say it instead of talking around it.

Where a cash offer actually makes sense is the other house. Needs a roof, needs an AC, flooring’s gone, full of things nobody’s moved in years, somebody living in it who isn’t paying, or a clock you didn’t ask for. What you’re buying with the difference is not fixing any of it, not cleaning any of it, and not waiting six months to find out whether it worked.

This is general information about how these sales usually work in Florida, not legal advice. Every situation is its own thing — talk to an attorney about yours.

Send me the address and I’ll tell you what I’d pay

No obligation, nothing to sign, and a straight answer about whether I’m even the right fit for your house.

Call or text Mike: 813-200-7665
A+ Home Buyers · TMWRK Brokerage LLC
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