Cash Offer vs Listing in Houston: What You Net

What comes out of a listing sale

Net proceeds are what you keep after every deduction: the price minus commission, the owner's title policy, repairs or concessions, your share of the year's taxes, and the cost of holding the house until closing. The headline price is not the net.

Commission. Negotiable, and set in the listing agreement. Offers of compensation to a buyer's broker are no longer allowed on the MLS, though a seller may still offer it off the MLS (NAR, What the NAR Settlement Means for Home Buyers and Sellers, read 2026-10-27). The TREC contract has a line where the seller agrees to pay part of the compensation owed by the buyer to the buyer's broker (TREC 1-4 Family Residential Contract, form 20-19, paragraph 12, read 2026-10-27).

Owner's title policy. It insures the buyer's ownership after closing. Premiums are set by the Texas Department of Insurance, so every agent charges the same premium for the same policy (TDI title insurance FAQ, read 2026-10-27). At $400,000 it is $2,262: $400,000 minus $100,000, times 0.00494, plus $780 (TDI basic premium rates effective 2026-03-01, read 2026-10-27). Who pays is a contract term, not a law, and the TREC form leaves the box open (TREC form 20-19, paragraph 6.A, read 2026-10-27). In Harris County the seller usually pays, by custom rather than statute (HAR, How Much Does It Cost to Sell a House in Houston, read 2026-10-27).

Repairs and concessions. A financed buyer inspects, then asks. No official Houston figure exists for what the request costs; it depends on the house. Get written bids before listing.

Carrying costs and the date. Houston homes took an average of 58 days to sell in September 2026 (HAR September 2026 Housing Market Update, dated 2026-10-14, read 2026-10-27). Taxes, insurance and utilities run the whole time, and the tax bill is prorated so you pay the part of the year you owned the house (TREC form 20-19, paragraph 13, read 2026-10-27). Proration is not a fee. A financed contract also carries a financing addendum and an appraisal (TREC form 20-19, paragraph 3.B, read 2026-10-27), and the terms for a loan that is not approved sit in that addendum, not in the contract form.

What comes out of a cash sale

A cash sale removes the financing. No loan addendum, no appraisal contingency, no underwriting, so the closing date comes from the title work, not a bank. The title company still clears title, and the seller furnishes the commitment within 20 days of the contract reaching it (TREC form 20-19, paragraph 6.B, read 2026-10-27). Probate, heirs, liens or a survey problem move that date.

The house sells as it stands: no repairs, no showings, no staging. A buyer who wants the land prices it differently from one who will live in it, which is what our teardown lot page covers. What you give up is price, because the buyer carries the risk and the time; the owner's title policy is often still the seller's by custom, and can be negotiated either way (TDI title insurance FAQ, read 2026-10-27).

A worked example

An illustration, not a quote: one house at $400,000, both routes, round numbers (illustrative assumption, 2026-10-27). Each rate is stated in its line except the title premium, which comes from the state chart.

Listing route

• Sale price: $400,000, assuming it sells at that figure (illustrative assumption, 2026-10-27).
• Commission, 3 percent to the listing broker and 3 percent to the buyer's broker: $24,000 (illustrative assumption, at a rate agents commonly quote in Houston, 2026-10-27).
• Owner's title policy: $2,262 (TDI basic premium rates effective 2026-03-01, read 2026-10-27).
• Repairs and buyer concessions: $6,000, or 1.5 percent of the price (illustrative assumption, 2026-10-27).
• Carrying costs, three months at $900 a month: $2,700 (illustrative assumption, 2026-10-27).
• Net: $400,000 − $24,000 − $2,262 − $6,000 − $2,700 = $365,038 (arithmetic on the lines above, 2026-10-27).

Cash route

• Offer: $360,000, which is 10 percent below the $400,000 figure (illustrative assumption, 2026-10-27).
• Commission, repairs and seller closing costs: $0, assuming the buyer pays closing costs and takes the house as it stands (illustrative assumption, 2026-10-27).
• Net: $360,000 (arithmetic on the lines above, 2026-10-27).

What the two lines say. Here the listing nets $5,038 more and takes about three months longer, the price unknown until a buyer signs. A cash offer of $365,038 leaves you level: $34,962 below the $400,000 figure, or 8.74 percent (arithmetic on the lines above, 2026-10-27). Change one assumption and it moves: at $25,000 of repairs the listing nets $346,038 (arithmetic on the lines above, 2026-10-27). Hence the arithmetic on your house, not a slogan.

How far below market is a cash offer really

No Texas agency and no federal agency publishes a figure for how far below market a cash offer sits. We found none. Offers vary by buyer, house and week, so any single percentage is somebody's assumption.

The closest published number is academic. A 2024 study from the UC San Diego Rady School of Management found all-cash buyers paid on average 10 percent less than mortgage buyers, nationally, and read the gap as the price sellers put on certainty (UC San Diego Rady School of Management, 2024-04-02, read 2026-10-27). It is national and about buyers paying cash, not a Houston study of investor offers; it is also where the 10 percent above comes from.

What should I compare

1. A net sheet from a title company, on your house and your terms, with commission, owner's policy, proration and concessions as separate lines.
2. A cash offer, saying what the buyer deducts for condition and who pays which closing cost.
3. A date for each. A listing's date depends on a lender; a cash sale's on title work. If a court, a lease or a lender set your date, that settles more than price.

Then compare net to net, same house, same day. If you inherited the house, the date comes first. If a listing would net you more, we say so and you do not need us. The home page explains both ways we work, about names who we are, and the form gets you a cash number.

Terms used on this page

• Net proceeds: what you keep after every deduction, not the price itself.
• Commission: the brokers' fee in the listing agreement, set by negotiation and not by law (NAR, What the NAR Settlement Means, read 2026-10-27).
• Owner's title policy: insures the buyer's ownership after closing, at a state-set premium (TDI title insurance FAQ, read 2026-10-27).
• Buyer's closing costs: the lender, appraisal, survey and escrow charges on the buyer's side, some of which a seller covers as a concession.
• Proration: the split of the year's tax bill at closing, so each side pays for the days it owned the house.

Questions people ask