How Sundae Works

Sundae helps homeowners get the best outcome when it’s time to sell a house that needs some love. By providing a marketplace for distressed houses, Sundae offers sellers a reliable and trusted way to sell effortlessly without doing any work on the property. Instead of talking to multiple mom and pop property investors to find the right buyer, Sundae does the hard work for homeowners by ensuring their property is exposed to thousands of qualified buyers, securing the maximum amount investors are willing to pay. 

Sundae currently operates in San Diego, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. We are planning to expand to other cities in the near future. Learn more. 

None! You pay zero fees and no closing costs when you sell your house to Sundae.

It costs nothing. The home visit and offer are free and come with no obligation. We don’t do a full home inspection until after the purchase and sale agreement has been ratified by both parties. 

Our business is built on the promise of paying sellers more than anyone else. Sundae is able to offer you more for your house than other off-market competitors because we have a different way of doing business. We’re willing to earn less per transaction than other buyers, and we can afford to because of our scale and efficiency. This creates a win-win. Sellers earn more, and Sundae continues to grow.

The objective of most of our competitors is to buy from you at as low a price as possible. This is how they make money. At Sundae, on the other hand, our goal is to pay sellers as much money as possible by taking less profit. We can afford to do this because of Sundae’s operational scale and efficiency.

At Sundae, we’re focused on building trust by providing a transparent and reliable process. Our team will advise customers on how to get the best outcome for their situation even if that means not selling to Sundae. This unique approach is reflected in the reviews we receive from our customers. In addition to delivering a worry free process people can trust, customers also choose us for the convenience and offer price. \

Sundae is different from iBuyers in two important respects.

First, because we focus on buying distressed houses that need significant renovations. While most iBuyers offer the convenience of selling without an agent, they typically won’t purchase properties that need a lot of love (i.e. a lot of renovations or repairs). In fact, many of our customers come to us after being rejected by an iBuyer because their property requires too much work.

Second, most iBuyers provide an offer before seeing the house, which means the price almost always changes later on. Sundae won’t give an offer until our local Market Expert has walked through and viewed the house. We also pay all fees and closing costs, while most iBuyers have fees associated with a transaction.

Read more about the differences between Sundae and iBuyers. 

When we say “outdated,” we mean older houses that haven’t been remodeled in 10 or more years, require substantial repairs to structures or systems that aren’t functional, or contain materials that are not up to code or have been proven to be unhealthy. Don’t get us wrong. We LOVE the beautiful mid-century features that many older homes still have. That’s why Sundae prioritizes preservation whenever possible. Some outdated houses need a little TLC before the average buyer would consider purchasing one.

Many of the homeowners we help don’t want to or aren’t able to get their house market-ready due to the time and cost required. Many do not want to deal with stresses that come with paying for and conducting an appraisal, doing research on local market conditions, or they aren’t sure where to begin when drafting a construction budget to get their home to top of market condition. 

We are fully transparent in providing our valuation report, scope of work, comps, and other property factors for every house we make an offer on, and calculate our offer based on taking a smaller margin compared to other off-market buyers. It is our mission to empower the homeowner and to advise them on the best option for selling their home. If that means selling off-market, we’ll offer the highest price. 

Read more: How to Decide if Sundae Is Right for You

If a customer is interested in getting an offer from Sundae, the first step is to speak to one of our Customer Advisors. They will gather information about the property and the seller’s needs, and explain how our process works. If Sundae is a fit we’ll schedule an appointment for one of our local Market Experts to conduct a brief in-person walkthrough of the house and we’ll present the offer at the end of the visit. 

We follow a careful valuation process using market data, comparable sales, scope of repair work, and other information to calculate a fair offer for your home. To get a more in-depth look at how we come to this price, check out this article: How Sundae Calculates Your Offer.

It is Sundae policy to see every house in an in-person visit before making an offer. However, due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, in some cases we may be able to conduct a virtual tour to provide a cash offer. 

In the vast majority of cases, a Sundae Market Expert will provide you an offer on the same day of the in-home visit. In fact, we typically provide the offer within 30 minutes of the end of the walkthrough. Exceptions can occur due to factors outside of our control, such as a disputed title. In these situations, the Market Expert will need to consult with our valuations team and follow up with you later, usually no more than one or two business days.

One of the advantages of working with Sundae is flexibility in the closing process. We aim to make things as convenient for you as possible. For that reason, you can close in as little as 10 days, or if you need more time before vacating the house, you can take up to 60 days to close. If necessary, sellers can stay in the house for a few extra days so they can purchase their next home concurrently. Exceptions do apply. Always ask your Market Expert.

Yes! We believe in transparency. Our Market Experts will be happy to share details with you on how we came to our offer price. We can also provide some insight into how much the house may sell for after renovations, but that number is likely to be a very rough estimate, with market conditions and remodeling decisions subject to change before the house is ready to sell. 

In some cases, we’ve invited some sellers to come back and see the house after it’s been renovated. Here is one of those customer’s stories.

Sundae makes it easy on you, the seller. That means we handle the closing process with minimal need for you to get involved. For every house in which we come under contract, Sundae assigns a closing coordinator. The closing coordinator will talk you through the steps in the process and work with you to resolve any issues that arise. In most cases, all you’ll need to do is sign some paperwork and cash your check.

Our customers give us great reviews. In fact, we have an average of 4 stars or more (out of 5) across multiple reviews platforms, including Yelp, BBB, Google, and Reviews.io. The feedback we see in those reviews highlights a sense of trust, the friendliness of the team, and that Sundae puts the customer’s interest first. But don’t take our word for it, check out our Reviews page.

We’ve also received a few positive reviews from non-customers who appreciate our helpful, transparent approach and how we advised them on other options that were better suited for their situation. You can read more customer stories here.

We provide a cash offer, but the key benefit is that we buy the house “AS IS” in as quickly as 10 days. In other words, the seller doesn’t have to deal with the time, money, or hassle of any work to sell the house. No cleaning, repairs, showings, or people walking through the house.

We have more than 1,000 property investors in our marketplace and we’re continuing to add more. Interested investors can join our marketplace by visiting investor.sundae.com.

Compared to what properties sell for on the MLS, an off-market offer for your house may appear low. But MLS prices do not take into account repairs, closing costs, agent commissions, transaction fees, and holding costs incurred during the time it takes to sell a house on the market. Consider the following scenario, based on a typical off-market sale:

A weathered house with structural issues that hasn’t been updated in years may sell on the MLS for $525,000 assuming it receives a full remodel. The owner also has the option to sell that same house off market in as few as 10 days for $355,000. At a glance, the MLS price makes the off-market offer look ridiculous. Easy decision for the seller, right? Maybe not.

A conservative estimate to sell the house on the MLS would require $90,000 to remodel it, $32,000 in agent commissions, $11,000 in closing costs, $4,000 in interest on the loan for repairs, and around $20,000 in holding costs (mortgage, taxes, insurance) for the months it will take to repair and then sell the house. After accounting for these expenses, the seller would net $368,000 after a six-month odyssey, which comes with its own set of risks, stresses, and daily challenges. 

This is a lot for the seller to endure to pick up an extra $13,000. And that assumes everything goes smoothly and the market doesn’t shift in the meantime. The off market route may not make sense for every homeowner, but before deciding on what constitutes a “fair offer,” sellers should always take into account net proceeds from a home sale.