Three Ways to Sell Your House Fast in Tampa Bay

Every so often somebody asks whether we can just buy their house. We can, and it's one of three ways to sell quickly in Tampa Bay.

Owners ask for all sorts of reasons: an estate that has to be settled, a job starting in another state in six weeks, a listing that ran its course, or not wanting strangers walking through the house on a Saturday.

The three options line up in the same order every time. The faster you go, the less you get.

Andrew's short version

Andrew put the three options on video. It runs under a minute.

Read video transcript+

Every once in a while, somebody asks me if I can just buy their house, and yes, absolutely I can. Some people don't want to deal with the traditional process of showings and negotiations. Maybe they don't want people traipsing through their house, or they just want a cash price right now. Here are your options.

We can get you cash in 30 days from a builder, but this is going to be the lowest price and the quickest sale if it has good bones.

The second option is selling directly to an investor that would remodel and resell. We can set that up. It takes a little longer, 45 to 60 days, but it gets you a slightly higher price than you would get from a straight builder offer.

The last option and the highest sales price comes from listing on the MLS, where you're going to have access to the largest pool of buyers. It can take a little more time, but a well positioned listing should sell within 60 to 90 days.

At Gold Palm Homes, we have the flexibility to sell it fast. If you'd like to see an offer on your house, check us out at goldpalmhomes.com.

Option 1: A builder cash offer, about 30 days

A builder buys the house for cash, and you can be closed in roughly 30 days. Nothing else moves faster.

What it pays: the least of the three. A builder is pricing in the work, the holding costs, and their own margin, and the discount is how all of that gets paid for.

Best for: a house with good bones. Builders are buying a structure and a lot, so a sound roof, a sound slab, and a workable floor plan matter more than whether the kitchen is dated.

Watch out for: the number you hear first, which isn't always the number at closing. Get the offer in writing and read what happens after an inspection.

Option 2: An investor who remodels and resells, 45 to 60 days

An investor buys the house, renovates it, and sells it again. That takes longer than a builder purchase and pays somewhat better.

What it pays: somewhat more than a straight builder offer. The investor expects to add value through the remodel, so they can pay more for the house than someone buying it to replace.

Best for: houses that need updating rather than rebuilding, and owners who can give up two months rather than one.

Watch out for: the same two things, the offer in writing and the inspection terms.

Option 3: List it on the MLS, 60 to 90 days

Listing is the slowest of the three and it pays the most, because it's the only route that puts the house in front of every buyer in the market instead of one buyer at a time.

What it pays: the most. More buyers bidding against each other is what moves the price, and the MLS is where they are.

Best for: almost any house, if you have the time. A well-positioned listing should sell within 60 to 90 days.

Watch out for: your own timeline. The MLS route pays more only if you can wait for it.

What Tampa Bay is doing right now

Those timelines are what each route takes. The market underneath them decides how realistic the third one is for you.

Across Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Manatee counties, in the 30 days ending October 3, 2026:

• The median home that sold took 46 days
• The median home still sitting on the market had been listed 82 days
• The average sale closed at 93.1 percent of its original asking price
• There were 20,571 homes on the market, about 4.9 months of supply

Two things follow from those numbers. A correctly priced house is still selling inside the 60 to 90 day window. And the gap between 46 days and 82 days is mostly about price: the homes still sitting have been sitting because the first number was set above what buyers would pay. Our guide to pricing a home from recent sales walks through how to set that number from the sales around you.

Higher rates are part of what put those numbers where they are. The 30-year fixed was 7.28 percent on October 1, up from 6.34 percent a year earlier, and a higher payment thins the buyer pool at every price. We covered what the September Fed meeting changed when it happened.

How to choose

Three questions settle it for most owners.

How many days do you have? Not how many you'd like. If the answer is 30, the builder offer is the honest one and the discount is what 30 days costs. If it's 90, listing it will almost certainly pay more.

What condition is the house in? A house needing major work narrows the field toward the first two options, because the MLS buyer pool for a project house is smaller than it looks.

What's the difference worth to you? Price the gap instead of guessing at it. We'll put all three numbers in front of you, including what a listing would realistically bring, so you're choosing between numbers.

If speed isn't the only question

Some owners asking about a fast sale are solving a different problem, and two come up often.

If your listing expired and you're deciding what to do next, a cash sale is one of five options and not automatically the best one. Tampa Bay Rentals runs through all five options after a listing expires, renting it out among them.

If the house is empty and the carrying costs are driving the urgency, work out what the house is costing you per month first. Sometimes a sale is the right answer, and sometimes 60 more days on the market pays for itself several times over. Our property management side breaks down what an empty house costs each month.

Talk it through with us

We can set up any of the three. If you'd like to see what each one would pay on your house, reach out and we'll get you the numbers.