What Percentage Do Cash Home Buyers Pay?

The short answer: 50-85% of after-repair value

When people ask "what percentage do cash home buyers pay," the honest answer is a range, not a single number. A 2024 Clever Real Estate survey of 700 real estate investors found they paid a median of 67.5% of a home's after-repair value (ARV). Across the industry, offers commonly land between about 50% of ARV, when the buyer expects a long hold time before the house sells, and up to 85% for a landlord buying a rental.

Two things move you within that range:

• Condition. A home that needs little work earns an offer near the top of the range. A home that needs a roof, HVAC, or full interior work sits lower, because those repair costs come out of the buyer's math.
• Local prices. In expensive markets where home values run high, investors sometimes bump the percentage up to 75% or even 80% of ARV.

It is important to separate two figures people often confuse: a percentage of after-repair value (what the home is worth fixed up) is not the same as a percentage of current as-is value. A house that needs $50,000 of work has a much lower as-is value than its ARV, so an offer that looks like 70% of ARV can be much closer to as-is market value than the percentage alone suggests.

How a cash offer is actually calculated

Most reputable cash buyers use a version of the same formula that house flippers use, often called the 70% rule. It works backward from what the finished home will sell for:

Offer = (ARV × ~70%) − estimated repair costs

Here is a worked example using round numbers:

• Estimated after-repair value (ARV): $275,000
• $275,000 × 70% = $192,500
• Estimated repairs: $55,000
• Cash offer: $192,500 − $55,000 = $137,500

What the buyer holds back under the 70% rule is not all profit. It leaves room for holding costs, transaction costs and profit, the parts of the deal a seller never sees:

• Holding costs while the home is renovated and resold (property taxes, insurance, utilities, loan interest)
• Transaction costs on the resale (agent commission, title insurance, closing fees)
• The buyer's profit

This is why the percentage exists at all. A direct buyer takes on the repairs, the carrying time, and the resale risk that you would otherwise carry yourself.

Who is buying changes the percentage

"Cash buyer" covers several kinds of investors, and each one does the math a little differently. Knowing which one you are talking to explains a lot about the number you get.

Type of buyer	What they do with the house	Typical ceiling
House flipper	Repairs it and resells it	70-80% of ARV, minus repairs
Wholesaler	Signs a contract, then sells that contract to another investor	60-70% of ARV
Rental buyer (landlord)	Keeps it and rents it out	Up to 85% of ARV

A wholesaler's offer tends to be the lowest because a second investor has to make money after them. A landlord can sometimes pay more because they earn from rent over years instead of a quick resale. A flipper sits in the middle and leans hardest on the repair estimate.

That is also why two offers on the same house can be tens of thousands of dollars apart. Before you compare numbers, ask each buyer one simple question: will you close on this house yourselves, or will you assign the contract to someone else? A buyer who closes with their own money has fewer people taking a cut, and fewer ways for the deal to fall apart at the last minute.

Condition tiers and the percentage you can expect

Condition is the single biggest driver of where your offer lands. The table below shows general tiers. These are illustrative ranges, not guarantees, since every market and property is different.

Home condition	Typical work needed	Rough share of ARV
Move-in ready / light cosmetic	Paint, cleaning, minor fixes	~80-85%
Moderate updating	Kitchen/bath dating, flooring, some systems	~65-75%
Heavy rehab	Roof, HVAC, plumbing, structural, full interior	~50-65%

The logic is straightforward: the more a buyer has to spend to bring the home to market, the more those costs shift the offer down. The percentage is not a penalty; it is the buyer's repair budget plus their risk buffer, expressed as a number.

From our deals. This is what a heavy-rehab kitchen looks like in real life. In one house we bought, the kitchen ceiling was torn open around the fan, the 1970s cabinets had doors hanging off, and one bathroom was stripped to the studs with peeling walls. The sheds and the garage were full of junk. The seller did not fix or clear anything before the sale.

After we closed, we put in a new white kitchen with quartz and stainless appliances, redid both bathrooms, laid new floors, painted inside and out, and cleaned up the yard, all at our cost. That work, and the months it takes, is exactly the gap between a cash offer and the after-repair value in the table above. You can see this house and the others we bought on our our projects page.

Why the percentage is lower than a retail sale (and what it saves you)

A cash offer is usually below what a fully repaired home would fetch on the open market. But the headline sale price is not the same as what you keep. Selling on the open market carries real costs that come out of your proceeds:

• Agent commission. An August 2026 survey of 434 agents put the national average at 2.76% for the listing agent and 2.70% for the buyer's agent, about 5.46% combined. In Florida the same survey found 5.29%.
• Seller closing costs. Title insurance, settlement fees, transfer taxes, and prorated property taxes typically add another 1-3% of the price. In Florida, the documentary stamp tax on the deed alone is 70 cents per $100 of the price, which is $1,925 on a $275,000 sale.
• Repairs and prep. Painting, servicing major systems, staging, and landscaping before listing.
• Buyer-requested repairs and concessions after inspection.
• Carrying costs while the home sits. A buyer who needs a mortgage has to wait on the lender and the appraisal, while an experienced cash buyer can sometimes close in under two weeks.

When you subtract all of that, plus the risk of a financed buyer's deal falling through, the gap between a retail sale and a cash offer is usually smaller than the sticker prices suggest.

When selling for cash actually makes financial sense

A cash offer is rarely the highest possible price, and a good buyer will tell you that. It makes the most sense when speed, certainty, and avoided costs are worth more to you than squeezing out the last few percent of price. Common situations:

• The home needs significant repairs you can't or don't want to fund up front.
• You need certainty and speed, a job relocation, a closing deadline, or a financial timeline that a regular listing can't meet.
• The property is inherited or vacant and carrying it (taxes, insurance, upkeep) is draining money every month.
• You're behind on payments and need to resolve things before they get worse.
• You want to skip showings, staging, and inspection negotiations entirely.

If your home is in good shape, financeable, and you're not under time pressure, the open market may still net you more. The right move is to compare your real net proceeds, not the gross price, under both paths.

How to tell if a cash offer is fair

A fair offer is one you can check. Ask any cash buyer to show their work:

• What ARV are you using, and from which comparable sales? The finished value should match recent sales of similar, updated homes nearby.
• What repair number did you assume, and for what scope? You should be able to see the line items.
• What percentage of ARV does the offer represent? A transparent buyer will tell you.

If a buyer won't explain how they reached the number, that is a red flag. A legitimate direct buyer should welcome the questions, put nothing in writing as binding until you sign a purchase agreement, and never pressure you to decide on the spot. If you're also weighing an online iBuyer, compare the net after its service charge and repair deduction; we show how in cash offer vs. iBuyer (Opendoor and Offerpad).