Homeowner Domingo Gutierrez and his wife, Teresa, faced a common dilemma: They needed a larger home to accommodate their family and pets, but lenders kept insisting that they would have to sell their home first in order to get approved for a new mortgage.

“For a couple of years, this actually stopped us from getting into a new home,” says Gutierrez.

But the couple decided to explore their options, anyway. They met San Antonio real estate agent Chris Winstead at an open house and kept in touch. It wasn’t long before Winstead realized there just might be a way for the Gutierrez family to upsize with ease.

A powerful HomeLight combo to the rescue

Winstead presented HomeLight Trade-In to his clients — a program that makes a guaranteed offer on the existing home, thus eliminating the sales contingency and allowing homeowners to buy before they sell. The result? A highly competitive offer that also eliminates the stress of having to figure out where to go between homes, because sellers only move out after they’ve closed on their new house.

“HomeLight Trade-In was the right solution for Domingo and his family because they did have a home they needed to sell before they were otherwise able to buy their next home. This program made it more convenient for them,” says Winstead.

But his solutions didn’t stop there. Winstead was also able to help Gutierrez with HomeLight Cash Offer, which preapproves qualified buyers to give them the purchasing power of cash — no financing contingency necessary. And with the added bonus of providing an option to close in as few as eight days.

“With the HomeLight Cash Offer program, we were able to write stronger offers that close more quickly and without overpaying,” Winstead explains. “Offers are stronger because there’s less of a chance for things to go wrong — the seller gets their money faster.”

For Gutierrez, the HomeLight programs felt like a dream come true.

“We had previously stopped looking for homes because we couldn’t get out of ours. When HomeLight was introduced to us, that really provided a quick, smooth, easy transition.”

Cash Offer leads to a winning bid below list price

With Winstead’s help, the Gutierrez family found their ideal home, and now they were in a position to do something about it. They wrote an ultra-competitive offer, with no sales or financing contingencies to hold them back, and they successfully beat out eight other offers.

“We were in a multiple offer situation with this house, but due to the fact that we had a cash offer, we were able to come in under the list price and still beat other offers that were higher — because ours could close sooner,” says Winstead. “The seller was motivated to sell and get their money quicker.”

Winstead points out that without HomeLight Cash Offer, Gutierrez would have been no different from the other buyers who needed 30 days to close in order to get their financing squared away.

“We would have had to settle for getting a house instead of the house they wanted,” Winstead notes.

HomeLight helps good agents become great agents

Successful real estate agents are creative and resourceful, and having programs like HomeLight Trade-In and HomeLight Cash Offer in their back pocket only makes them more competitive.

“For me as an agent, HomeLight Trade-In sets me apart from the competition,” says Winstead. “It does the best thing for my clients, which is to get them the house they want with the least amount of stress.”

Of course, Winstead understands that clients may be skeptical about programs that might seem almost too good to be true.

“There’s always a thing of, ‘Hey, what’s the catch?’ and there is no catch,” he says. “Everything [with HomeLight Trade-In and Cash Offer] is transparent. Everything’s up-front. We know where the money’s going, we know what it’s going to cost.

“So really, the question is, do we want to put in offers and lose out, or do we want to put up a strong offer and get the house you want? HomeLight Cash Offer is the answer.”

From the client’s side, Gutierrez agrees.

“I really don’t think we’d be in this home if we hadn’t worked with HomeLight. We’d already gotten backed up in our home buying process because of the roadblocks we faced. If anyone is looking for a house and they want to actually get the house, I’d recommend the Cash Offer program,” says Gutierrez.

“That way, you don’t have to compete. You’re the one that wins the house.”