How Much Do Cash Buyers Pay in Augusta?

What sits underneath any cash offer

Whatever company you talk to, the structure underneath the offer is the same. Start with what the house is worth once it is fixed up and sold retail. Subtract what fixing it costs. Subtract what it costs to own it in the meantime and sell it afterwards. Subtract the buyer's profit. What is left is the offer.

The only variables that legitimately differ between buyers are the accuracy of the after-repair value, the accuracy of the repair estimate, and the size of the margin. A buyer who lowballs the after-repair value or inflates the repair budget arrives at a low offer through bad inputs rather than an honest spread.

That is the economics every buyer is working with, us included. What differs is how it gets presented to you. Most buyers hand you the four-part version above and ask you to trust each input. We collapse it into one number, which is the next section.

Our number: 80% of as-is value

We do it with one multiplication, against what the house is worth in the condition it is in today.

If your house is worth $150,000 as it stands, the offer is $120,000. There is no separate repair deduction on top of that, because the condition of the house is already inside the as-is figure. You are not asked to accept a percentage and then absorb a second subtraction you cannot check.

Round numbers, used to show the mechanism. Your figure depends on comparable sales of houses in similar condition in your neighborhood.

Why that is different from the 70% rule

Most of this industry works to what is called the 70% rule: take the after-repair value, multiply by 0.70, then subtract a repair budget. It is taught openly in investor training and it is roughly what a typical national buyer is doing when they quote you a number.

Those are two different shapes, so the honest comparison is not simply 80 against 70. The structural difference matters more than the percentage:

The repair estimate is where a lowball usually hides. A buyer can quote a respectable-sounding percentage and then take it all back with a repair figure that is double what the work actually costs, and you have no practical way to audit it. A single multiple of as-is value cannot be gamed that way. There is one input, and you can check it against sales of comparable houses in comparable condition.

The reason we can work to a tighter margin at all is that we are local and we buy for our own account. There is no national marketing budget in the price and no intermediary taking a cut before a real buyer sees the file.

So ask any buyer two things: what percentage do you work to, and is it against as-is or after-repair value. A buyer who will not answer both is not giving you enough to judge their offer.

What each line actually covers

After-repair value (ARV)

What the house sells for on the open market once it is renovated, based on comparable sales in your neighborhood, not city-wide averages. In Augusta this varies sharply street to street, which is why a ZIP-code-level estimate is close to meaningless.

Repair budget

Roof, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, foundation, and the cosmetic work needed to sell retail. This is the line with the widest spread between houses, and it is where you have the most leverage if you have your own contractor estimates.

Holding and resale costs

Property taxes, insurance, utilities, and financing while the buyer owns it, plus the commission and closing costs on the eventual retail sale. Georgia's attorney closing requirement and transfer tax apply on that resale too. See Georgia closing costs.

Margin

The buyer's profit for taking on the repair risk, the market risk, and the capital commitment. This is a real cost of the transaction, not a hidden fee, and an honest buyer will tell you it exists.

What moves your number up

If your house sits in the left column, a direct sale costs you comparatively little versus retail. If it sits heavily in the right column, the gap widens, and it is worth reading whether you should sell to a cash buyer at all before you decide.

Judge the offer, not just the number

A written offer should tell you what the buyer thinks the house is worth repaired, what they budgeted for repairs, and what their costs are. If you cannot see those three inputs, you cannot tell a fair offer from a bad one, and you have no basis to negotiate.

Ask directly: are you the buyer, or are you assigning this contract to someone else? The answer changes what the number means. Are we-buy-houses companies legit covers how to check, and cash buyer vs iBuyer covers how the algorithmic offers differ.

Then compare it against the alternative properly. Cash offer vs listing with an agent works through the net-proceeds comparison, which is the only comparison that matters.