Last updated: July 2026. Every third-party figure on this page comes from the companies’ own published materials, dated and linked in the sources block at the bottom of this page.
The Real Math: The Same House, Three Nets
The table below compares the three paths on the three axes that decide your outcome: what you net, how long it takes, and how certain the result is. Every third-party figure is drawn from Opendoor’s and Offerpad’s own published materials as of July 2026, and each is dated so you can verify it yourself.
| Traditional Listing | iBuyer | Direct Cash Buyer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who buys the house | An open-market buyer, usually with a loan | The company, planning to resell it | The company, as the end buyer |
| How the offer is set | Market competition | Automated valuation, adjusted after inspection | In-person evaluation, offered as a firm number |
| When the price becomes final | At closing, after inspection, appraisal, and loan approval | After you sign; the offer adjusts for condition following inspection | The day you sign; escrow opens the same day |
| Service fee | None as such; commissions instead | Opendoor: variable, no longer published as a fixed percentage, disclosed in your offer breakdown, described by the company as typically around 5% (as of July 2026). Offerpad: 5% per its published FAQ (as of July 2026) | None |
| Commissions | Negotiable; seller commonly pays a listing commission and often some buyer-agent compensation | None | None |
| Repairs and prep | Seller pays before and during listing, plus buyer-negotiated repair credits | Deducted from the offer after inspection as a condition adjustment | None; house purchased as-is |
| Closing costs | Seller’s share, commonly 1–3% | Still apply; roughly 1–3% per the companies’ own materials | Paid by us |
| Carrying costs while you wait | Every month on market: mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, HOA | Minimal | Minimal |
| Typical timeline | Weeks to months, plus 30–45 days of escrow | Opendoor: as few as 14 days. Offerpad: 8–90 day window | 7–14 days standard, on your date |
| What can still go wrong | Buyer financing falls through; appraisal comes in low; inspection reopens the price | Final offer drops after inspection; cancellation terms vary by company and agreement | Nothing priced remains open; price, terms, and date are in writing, backed by earnest money |
What iBuyer Fees Actually Include (as of July 2026)
For years the iBuyer pitch rested on a simple, published 5 percent fee. As of July 2026, that simplicity is half gone: Offerpad still publishes 5 percent on its FAQ, while Opendoor’s own help center now states that it does not publish a fixed service charge percentage; the fee varies and appears in your individual offer breakdown. Neither number is the real cost anyway. The real cost is the fee plus the condition adjustment deducted after you sign, plus standard closing costs, measured against an offer that was built for resale margin in the first place. That is not an accusation; it is the business model, described in the companies’ own materials. It is also why comparing headline offers across paths is meaningless. The only comparable number is the net.
The Sequence Is the Fee You Cannot See
In a listing, the price is renegotiated at inspection while you still have leverage: you can counter, credit, or relist. At an iBuyer, you sign first and learn the condition adjustment second. With a direct buyer, the evaluation happens before the offer, so the number you sign is the number. Our version of that promise is written down: the SafeClose Program puts price, terms, and date in writing, backed by at least $5,000 in earnest money in escrow the same day you sign. If we fail to close under the terms of our agreement, that earnest money is yours.
Seller accounts on both companies’ Better Business Bureau profiles repeatedly describe final offers landing well below the preliminary number after inspection. Read them before you sign anything, the same way you should read ours.
The same house, three paths: Scenario A, move-in-ready
A representative Valley house at a market value of $450,000, in move-in-ready condition. To keep this conservative, both iBuyer assumptions below are the generous ones: the offer equals full market value, and the condition adjustment stays token.
| Listing | iBuyer | Direct Cash | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sale price / offer | $450,000 | $450,000 (full market granted) | $385,000 (representative) |
| Commission (5.5%, negotiable) | −$24,750 | $0 | $0 |
| Service fee (5%, per published/typical) | $0 | −$22,500 | $0 |
| Prep and repairs | −$8,000 | $0 | $0 |
| Condition adjustment after signing | $0 | −$4,000 (modest; clean house) | $0 |
| Buyer concessions | −$4,500 | $0 | $0 |
| Seller closing costs (~1%) | −$4,500 | −$4,500 | $0 (paid by us) |
| Carrying costs, ~3 months on market plus escrow* | −$8,400 | $0 | $0 |
| Net | ≈ $399,850 | ≈ $419,000 | $385,000 |
*Assumes a typical mortgage at roughly $2,800 per month all-in. A free-and-clear seller carries less.
Those two generous assumptions are doing all the work. If the offer comes in even a few percent below market value, or the condition adjustment runs past a token number, the listing wins: at 4 percent below market and a $12,000 adjustment, the iBuyer net drops to roughly $394,000 against the listing’s $400,000. Whether a given offer actually reaches market value is exactly the thing a seller must check. And for a turnkey house on no deadline, the direct-cash column is not pretending to compete on gross. That is the honest picture, and it is why the next scenario matters.
The same house, three paths: Scenario B, needs work
The same $450,000-value house, now needing a $60,000 retail repair package: roof, HVAC, and flooring.
| Listing (repair first) | Listing (as-is) | iBuyer | Direct Cash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sale price / offer | $450,000 | ≈ $355,000 (as-is discount typically exceeds the repair bill) | May fall outside purchase criteria where the work is extensive; where eligible, the full package is deducted from the offer after you sign, at the company’s estimate | $337,000 (representative) |
| Repairs before or at sale | −$60,000 retail | $0 | $0 | |
| Commission | −$24,750 | −$19,525 | $0 | |
| Concessions, closing, carrying (~4 months incl. repair time) | −$20,200 | −$12,500 | $0 | |
| Net | ≈ $345,050 | ≈ $323,000 | Not comparable at this repair tier | $337,000 |
Two things decide this scenario. First, the as-is market punishes needed work harder than the work costs: buyers discount for risk and hassle, not just for the contractor’s bid, and a $60,000 package commonly costs $90,000 or more in as-is price. Second, that same package inside our own renovation operation costs 20 to 30 percent less than retail. That difference is not marketing; it is the structural reason a direct buyer can pay more for a house that needs work than the as-is math above suggests. A repair-first listing can still win on paper, if you have the $60,000 in cash, the months the work and the listing take, and the appetite to run a renovation. Most sellers in this position have none of the three.
A cash offer, a traditional listing, and an iBuyer offer are not three versions of the same thing. They are three different products, with three different cost structures, three different timelines, and three different answers to the only question that matters: how much money lands in your pocket, and when.
Most cash buyers will not publish this comparison, because an honest version of it costs them business. Sometimes the honest answer is that you should list your house with an agent. We publish it anyway. We Buy Houses Arizona™ has purchased more than 2,000 Arizona homes since 1999, and the honest math below is the same math we would want if we were the ones selling.
This page covers what each path actually is, what each one actually costs, which houses each one is actually available to, and when each one genuinely wins. Every third-party figure on this page comes from the companies’ own published materials, dated so you can check them.
The short answer: A listing usually brings the highest price, with the highest costs, the longest timeline, and the most uncertainty. An iBuyer trades price for convenience, with a service fee and repair deductions set after you sign. A direct cash buyer trades gross price for speed and certainty, with no fees and no repairs. The right path depends on your home’s condition, your timeline, and what certainty is worth to you.
At a glance:
| Traditional Listing | iBuyer | Direct Cash Buyer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost to sell | Commissions + repairs + concessions + carrying costs | Service fee + condition adjustment + closing costs | None; buyer pays closing costs |
| Price becomes final | At closing | After you sign | The day you sign |
| Typical timeline | Weeks to months | 2 weeks to 3 months | 7-14 days |
| Available to | Every house | Homes inside the buy box | Nearly any house |
What the Three Paths Actually Are
A traditional listing is a marketed sale. You hire a licensed agent, prepare the house, put it on the MLS, and expose it to the full pool of buyers. You are selling to the open market, and the open market pays the most, most of the time. In exchange, you carry the costs of getting there: commissions, repairs and prep, concessions, and every month of mortgage, taxes, insurance, and utilities while you wait. Your buyer usually needs a loan, and a sale is not a sale until that loan funds.
An iBuyer is a technology company that buys houses with an algorithm. You enter your address, software generates a preliminary offer, and if you accept, you sign a purchase agreement before the company inspects the home. After inspection, the offer adjusts for condition, a service fee comes out, and standard closing costs still apply. The product being sold is convenience, and it is real: no showings, no staging, a closing date you pick.
Arizona sellers should know this model better than anyone, because it was invented here. Opendoor launched in Phoenix in 2014, choosing this metro as its first market. Offerpad was founded in metro Phoenix in 2015. For a decade, greater Phoenix has been the iBuying industry’s largest laboratory, and it is also where the model’s limits showed: Zillow Offers, once one of the largest national iBuyers, shut down in November 2021 after losing roughly $880 million in a single year buying homes its algorithm mispriced.
A direct cash buyer is a company that buys your house itself, with its own money, as the actual end buyer. No algorithm generates the offer and no loan needs to fund. A legitimate direct buyer purchases the house as-is, charges no service fee, asks for no repairs, and puts a firm price in writing. We Buy Houses Arizona™ is a direct cash buyer, and has been one since 1999, fifteen years before the first iBuyer arrived. More than 2,000 Arizona homes bought, and counting.
Sellers conflate the last two constantly, and the confusion is expensive. An iBuyer’s offer is a starting number that can adjust downward after you have signed. A direct buyer’s written offer is the number. That single difference in when the price becomes final drives most of the math in the next section.
Since 1999
Helping Home Sellers
2,000+
Local Homes Bought
A+ Rated
Better Business Bureau
When Each Path Wins
Most comparison pages skip the first question, which is not “which path pays the most?” It is “which paths will actually take your house?”
Stage one: who each path is actually available to
A listing is available to every house. The market will price anything. The only question is what condition costs you, and Scenario B above shows that answer can be brutal.
An iBuyer is available to houses inside a buy box. Per Opendoor’s own eligibility pages as of July 2026: no manufactured or mobile homes, including those on permanent foundations; no large acreage, very large lots, or agricultural zoning; some condos excluded depending on the community; homes generally must be owner-occupied or vacant, and vacant at closing; very old homes, pre-1930 in some markets, may not qualify; and homes needing extensive structural work, or with major unresolved issues like foundation, fire, severe water, or mold damage, may fall outside the criteria entirely. Offerpad publishes its own exclusions, including manufactured homes and homes that cannot be vacant at closing.
Read that list with Arizona eyes and it gets specific fast: the manufactured home in Apache Junction, even on a permanent foundation; the horse property or acreage lot in Cave Creek; the agricultural-zoned parcel outside Florence; the 1920s bungalow in a historic Phoenix district; the tenant-occupied rental anywhere in the Valley; the house with foundation trouble. Some of these vary by market and the criteria change; the company’s own address check is the only real answer. But the pattern is the point: the buy box is real, and a meaningful share of Arizona houses live outside it.
A direct cash buyer is available to nearly everything the buy box excludes. Condition is not a gate; it is priced. Acreage, age, septic, manufactured, mid-repair, fire-damaged, tenant complications: these are the houses we have bought since 1999. The houses algorithms decline are the houses direct buyers exist for.
Stage two: when each path wins on the numbers
List your house when it is in good condition, you can carry it for the months the process takes, and top price matters more than a certain date. A move-in-ready house with time behind it belongs on the open market. That is not a concession; it is the math in Scenario A. And if the listing route tempts you but the commission doesn’t, there is a fourth path we cover separately: selling without a realtor, with the real math.
Consider an iBuyer when your house fits the buy box, you value convenience, and you go in understanding the sequence: the price you sign is not final until the post-inspection adjustment lands. Compare the final net, never the headline offer.
Sell to a direct cash buyer when the house needs work, the timeline is real, the carrying costs are eating the difference, or certainty itself is the point: a probate, a divorce, a relocation, a foreclosure clock. And know how the offer is built before you take anyone’s number. The lazy version of our industry prices every house with one formula, 70 percent of after-repair value minus repairs. We price with real inputs instead, and we publish exactly how in the SOUP Framework. A buyer who cannot explain their number is telling you something. And on the cash path, the flexibility runs past closing day: the move-out date can be written to fit your timeline. See the Soft Landing™ program.
Whatever path you choose, choose it with the math in front of you. That is the entire reason this page exists.
A Note From Stephen W. Rockwell
I started buying Arizona houses in 1999. For the first fifteen years of this company’s life, there was no such thing as an iBuyer. Then the iBuyers picked Phoenix, my market, as the place to invent themselves, and I have had a front-row seat ever since: the launch, the billboards, the growth, and in one case the collapse. I have talked with sellers who used them and were satisfied, and sellers who called me after the post-inspection adjustment landed and the number they signed for was not the number anymore.
So here is what I actually think, for whatever it is worth from someone who competes with everyone on this page.
If your house is in good shape and you have time, list it. You read that right. The open market pays the most for houses that show well, and no cash buyer, including me, should pretend otherwise. When someone in my industry tells you a cash offer beats a listing for a turnkey house when you have no deadline, put your hand on your wallet.
If you are considering an iBuyer, do it with your eyes open. Read the seller reviews on their Better Business Bureau profile, not their advertising. Understand that the price is not final when you sign. Then compare the final net against every other option, because the final net is the only number that is real.
And if your house needs work, or the clock is real, or you simply need the certainty of a firm price and a chosen date, that is the job we built this company to do. We have bought more than 2,000 Arizona homes since 1999. The math on this page is the same math I would run for my own family, and I put my name on it.
— Stephen W. Rockwell, Founder, We Buy Houses Arizona™
Frequently Asked Questions
What fees does an iBuyer charge?
As of July 2026, Offerpad publishes a 5 percent service fee, and Opendoor states that its service charge varies and is no longer published as a fixed percentage; the company describes it as typically around 5 percent, shown in your individual offer breakdown. Both companies deduct repair costs from the offer after inspection, and standard seller closing costs of roughly 1 to 3 percent still apply. The service fee is the visible cost. The condition adjustment is the variable one.
Do iBuyers pay full market value?
The companies describe their offers as competitive and data-driven. The only way to know for your house is arithmetic: take the final offer, subtract the service fee, the post-inspection condition adjustment, and closing costs, then compare that net against a listing net and a direct cash offer. Seller accounts on the companies’ Better Business Bureau profiles repeatedly describe final offers landing well below the preliminary number, so run the math on the final offer, never the preliminary one.
Can an iBuyer lower the offer after you sign?
Yes, and it is built into the sequence. You sign a purchase agreement first, the inspection happens second, and the offer then adjusts for condition at the company’s estimate. A direct buyer works in the opposite order: evaluation first, then a firm offer. Our price is firm the day you sign, backed by at least $5,000 in earnest money in escrow the same day, under the SafeClose Program.
What does it cost to sell a house with an agent in Arizona?
Commissions are negotiable, and since the 2024 rule changes, buyer-agent compensation is no longer automatic. Sellers commonly pay a listing commission and often some buyer-agent compensation, plus roughly 1 to 3 percent in closing costs, plus repairs, concessions, and every month of mortgage, taxes, insurance, and utilities while the home sits on the market. In the worked example above, those costs total roughly $50,000 on a $450,000 move-in-ready sale.
Which puts more money in your pocket, a cash offer or a listing?
For a move-in-ready house with time behind it, a listing usually nets the most; in our worked example it clears a representative direct cash offer by about $15,000, and it beats the iBuyer path once real-world offer and adjustment numbers replace the generous assumptions in our model. For a house that needs significant work, the math flips: the as-is market discount usually exceeds the repair bill, and a direct buyer with its own renovation operation can pay more than the as-is listing nets. Condition and timeline decide the answer, not the label on the buyer.
Who is better than Opendoor?
Better for what, is the honest question. An iBuyer wins on convenience if your home fits the buy box and you accept that the price finalizes after you sign. A listing usually wins on gross price for a move-in-ready house with time behind it. A direct cash buyer wins on certainty, speed, and houses that need work, with a firm written price and no fees. The comparison table and worked examples above show how to run that decision for your own address, and the only ranking that matters is the net for your house.
Who pays closing costs in a cash sale?
It depends on the buyer, so ask before you sign anything. When We Buy Houses Arizona buys a home, we pay the closing costs, and every sale closes through a licensed Arizona title company, as we explain in how we buy houses. iBuyers, by their own published materials, leave standard seller closing costs of roughly 1 to 3 percent with the seller.
What is an iBuyer?
An iBuyer is a technology company that makes near-instant cash offers on homes using automated valuation, then resells them. Opendoor and Offerpad are the two largest national iBuyers, and the model itself launched in Phoenix in 2014, making Arizona the industry’s original market. An iBuyer is not the same thing as a local direct cash buyer, which purchases as the end buyer, with an in-person evaluation and a firm written price.
Still have questions?
Call or text (480) 444-2274
Run Your Own Numbers
You do not have to take this page’s word for anything, and you should not. Pull the fee schedules from the companies’ own sites. Read the seller accounts on their BBB profiles and on ours. Then get real numbers for your actual house: an agent’s opinion of your list price, an iBuyer offer if your home fits the box, and a firm written offer from us. Put the three nets side by side. The math will tell you what to do, and whichever path wins, you will know why.
If the direct-cash path is the one worth pricing, we will give you a number you can hold us to. Request your offer below and see how we buy houses from start to finish before you commit to anything.
Hours: Available 24/7. Live or assisted response any time.
Rather talk it through? Call or text (480) 444-2274.
Sources: Third-party figures on this page are drawn from Opendoor’s published Help Center and articles and Offerpad’s published FAQ, as of July 2026, from seller reviews published on the companies’ Better Business Bureau profiles, and from public news coverage of Zillow Offers’ November 2021 shutdown. Fee structures and purchase criteria change; verify current terms on the companies’ own sites. Worked-example figures are representative models, not quotes.
Content by Stephen W. Rockwell, Founder of We Buy Houses Arizona™. Mesa, Arizona. Est. 1999. BBB A+ Accredited. Updated July 2026.