How are cash offers calculated? How Jason works out yours
A cash buyer pays what the house will be worth once it's fixed, less the repairs, less the costs of buying, holding and reselling it, and less a margin for the risk. Jason works out each of those numbers after walking through your house, and the offer comes in writing with every cost listed.
It takes about a minute, there's no obligation, and your details are never sold.
or call Jason (425) 242-4673
- Real Estate Investor Since 2003
- Licensed Real Estate Broker
- Much of Washington, from Skagit to Thurston County and beyond
How much will a cash buyer pay for a house?
Less than the house would sell for fixed up and listed, by the cost of the work, the cost of buying and reselling it, and a margin for the risk. How much less depends on your house. Jason puts a number on it only after walking through it, and the offer comes in writing with every cost shown.
A cash buyer starts from the end of the job: what the house would sell for once the work is done, judged from recent sales of similar houses nearby. From that price come the repairs the walkthrough turned up, priced at what contractors charge. Then come the costs of a second sale that a seller never sees on a listing: the buyer's closing costs on the purchase, the excise tax and closing costs again when the house is resold, plus property tax, insurance, utilities and interest for every month the work takes. What remains has to leave a margin for the risk that the roof is worse than it looked or the market slips before the resale. The offer is whatever is left. That is why one buyer's number can sit far below another's on the same house, and why it pays to ask any buyer to show you each line.
What we look at on the walkthrough
The finished price
Sales of similar houses close by in the last few months, adjusted for size, lot and condition. A street of 1960s split-levels in Lynnwood and a block of craftsman houses in Tacoma's North End price very differently, even at the same square footage.
The work
Roof, crawlspace, furnace, water heater, electrical panel, windows, kitchen and baths, each priced as a contractor would price it. Older Puget Sound houses often bring the same surprises: moss under the shingles, a wet crawlspace, an oil tank in the yard.
Buying, holding and reselling
Two closings, the excise tax on the resale and the carrying costs in between. On a $495,000 resale, Tacoma's median sale price in May 2026 (Redfin), the state excise tax alone is about $5,445 at the Department of Revenue's graduated rates, before any local rate.
The margin
What is left for the risk and the time the job takes. It sits inside the price, and you are free to ask how the rest of the number was built.
What the written offer shows
The offer you take home names the price, the buyer, the title or escrow company, the earnest money and the closing date, and it lists what comes out of the price before you are paid: the loan payoff, any liens, the excise tax and the title and escrow fees as the offer splits them. If a number on it surprises you, ask about it before you sign. Nothing is binding until both sides have signed.
The cash home buyers page walks a Seattle example through the same four inputs, line by line, if you want to see them with numbers filled in.
Why does a cash offer come in below a listing price?
Because the listing price assumes a house that is ready for buyers, and the cash offer prices the house you have today. The difference is the work and the money the cash buyer takes off your hands, plus the costs of a second sale, so the fair comparison is your net from each route.
Out of a listing price come the commission, the excise tax, your share of title and escrow, any repairs a buyer's inspection turns up, and the mortgage, tax and utility payments while the house is on the market. A cash offer has some of those costs too, but no listing commission and no repair bill before closing, and the written offer shows which closing costs you pay.
Take Tacoma's median of $495,000 as an example. A listing at that price still pays commission, excise tax and closing costs out of it before you see a dollar, and a buyer's inspection can add a repair credit on top. A cash offer has already taken the repairs and the second sale into account, so the number to compare is what each route leaves you after its costs.
When a house needs little and you have a few months, the listing usually wins. When it needs a new roof and a gutted kitchen, or you have a date you can't move, the gap narrows and the cash sale can come out ahead.
What raises or lowers a cash offer?
Four things move an offer more than anything else: the condition of the house, where it sits, what the title report shows, and how much time the sale has. Each one changes either the finished price, the repair list or the months the buyer carries the house, and the offer follows those numbers.
- Condition: a roof with a few years left, a dry crawlspace and a furnace that works keep the repair list short, and the offer goes up with every line that comes off it.
- Location: the finished price comes from the sales around you, so the same house is worth more on a street where fixed-up houses sell quickly.
- Title: liens, an estate that still needs letters from the court, or a boundary question add time and paperwork. Most liens are simply paid from the sale, but they still have to be cleared first.
- Timing: a seller who can wait for the title work and a normal closing gives the buyer less risk than one with a hard date next week.
Work done without permits counts as condition as well: a finished basement, an added unit or a deck built without permits may have to be permitted or taken out before the resale, and that work goes on the repair list like any other line.
What doesn't move a fair offer is how clean the house is on the day of the walkthrough. Clutter, an estate full of furniture or an unmowed lawn change nothing about the numbers, so there is no need to clean or stage before anyone comes out. Leave the furniture where it is.
Does Jason use a set percentage?
No. Jason doesn't price houses from a fixed percentage of the finished price. He works out the four inputs for your house (the finished price, the work, the costs of buying, holding and reselling, and the margin) and then tells you what he can pay.
Some of what comes off the price goes to costs every buyer pays on a resale. In Washington the resale carries excise tax: on a house that resells at Tacoma's median of $495,000, that is about $5,445 in state tax before any local rate, plus title, escrow and the months of holding costs.
That tax is graduated, so its rate rises with the price, and Seattle and Tacoma add a local 0.5% on top. A fixed percentage applied to every house can't account for that, or for the repair list a walkthrough turns up on the house in front of him.
When the price that works for him is too low to make sense for you, he says so, and listing with Windermere Real Estate may leave you more.
What if a cash offer doesn't work for your house?
Then Jason tells you, and helps another way. Plenty of houses don't need a cash buyer at all. When a sale through a listing would leave you more, he can list it as your broker, and when the house needs only a little work you can't pay for, he may pay for it and be repaid at closing. Jason Bryant is a licensed broker with Windermere Real Estate (license 101377).
- List it
- A house in fair shape, with a few months to spare, usually nets more on the open market. Jason lists it as a licensed Washington broker, and the terms are in the written listing agreement before anything is signed. Jason Bryant is a licensed broker with Windermere Real Estate (license 101377).
- Light upgrades, repaid at escrow
- When you don't have the cash and the house doesn't need much to show well, Jason can pay for light upgrades himself and be repaid from the sale at escrow. What gets done, what it costs and how the repayment works are agreed in writing for each house before any work starts. Repaid at escrow means the cost comes out of your proceeds at closing and shows on the settlement statement, the same way a lien payoff does. Read the part of the agreement that covers what happens if the house doesn't sell before you sign it.
- A cash sale
- When the house needs more than light work, or the timing rules out a listing, a written cash offer is still on the table, with every cost listed line by line.
How do you compare a cash offer with a listing?
Put both on the same page as a net: the cash offer minus your payoff and the costs it lists, next to a realistic listing price minus commission, repairs, excise tax, closing costs and the months of carrying the house. The larger net that still meets your deadline is usually the better choice for you.
The cash sale or listing page lays the two routes out side by side, with Washington's closing customs and the excise tax brackets, and who you're dealing with lists the checks to run on any buyer before you sign.
Jason has been buying houses in Washington since 2003, and when he writes a cash offer he can also tell you, as a broker, what a listing would likely leave you, so both numbers come from someone who has seen the house. Jason Bryant is a licensed broker with Windermere Real Estate (license 101377).
Questions sellers ask
How do cash home buyers decide what to pay?
They work back from the price the house would sell for once fixed, then take off the repairs, the costs of buying, holding and reselling, and a margin for risk. The walkthrough sets the repair list, and recent nearby sales set the finished price.
Is there a set discount for a cash offer?
No. The gap depends on the repairs, the location and the costs of a second sale on your particular house. A quote given as a percentage before anyone has seen the house is a guess, so ask for the numbers behind any offer and set them beside what a listing would leave you after costs.
Can I see how the number was worked out?
Yes. Jason goes through the finished price, the repair list and the costs with you, and the written offer lists every cost that comes out of your sale, line by line.
Do you make an offer without seeing the house?
No. The number comes after a walkthrough, because the repair list is most of what separates a fair offer from a guess. A call first is enough to tell whether a visit makes sense.
Does a cash buyer pay the closing costs?
Not by default. Who pays which closing costs is set in the written offer, and it can come up when you negotiate. The excise tax is customarily the seller's in Washington.
Will you pay for repairs so I can list?
Sometimes. When the house needs only light work and you don't have the cash, Jason may pay for it and be repaid from the sale at escrow. The work and the terms are agreed in writing for that house first.
What if I owe more than the house is worth?
Then no buyer can pay off the loan from the price alone, and the lender would have to agree to a short sale. The lender decides whether to allow one and on what terms.
See your four numbers
Send the address. We schedule a walkthrough, work out what we can pay, and tell you plainly when a listing or a few light repairs would leave you more.
It takes about a minute, there's no obligation, and your details are never sold.
or call Jason (425) 242-4673