What Clever Offers is, and what Clever mostly does
Clever Real Estate is a St. Louis company, started in 2017, whose main business is matching sellers with agents who list for a 1.5 percent commission. Clever Offers is a separate, smaller product. You ask for a cash offer, Clever passes your house to one of its partner investors, and that investor sends back a price. It costs you nothing because the investor pays Clever, and a cash sale through it usually closes in 7 to 30 days.
The limit is built into the design. Clever Offers returns one investor's price, and one price gives you nothing to measure it against.
Decide first whether you should sell for cash at all
Before you look for another cash offer, check whether Clever's main product fits you better. If the house is move-in ready and you can give it 30 to 60 days, listing with a Clever agent at 1.5 percent will usually put more money in your pocket than any cash offer on this page, including the ones my own directory would send you.
A cash sale makes sense when the house needs work, when you have to close inside a month, or when showings are something you cannot do. If that is you, keep reading.
| Listing route | Listing commission | In dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Clever partner agent | 1.5% | $3,750 |
| Standard listing agent | 2.5 to 3% | $6,250 to $7,500 |
Listing-side commission only. The buyer's agent commission, closing costs, and the weeks you carry the house are separate.
Cash alternatives to Clever Offers
Every option below gets you a cash price. What separates them is how many prices you end up holding and what kind of house each one wants.
| Option | Offers you see | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Local investors you call yourself | As many as you call | Sellers willing to make three phone calls |
| Sundae | Several, from a bidding window | Houses that need work in a metro Sundae serves |
| HomeLight Simple Sale | One | Sellers who want a single number quickly |
| We Buy Ugly Houses | One, from the local franchise | Rough houses in places with few buyers |
| Opendoor or Offerpad | One from each | Clean homes in the metros they cover |
| FrontPorchOffers | Several vetted local buyers | Sellers in the cities we cover |
The last row is mine. Check my claim the same way you would check anyone else's.
Why one routed offer is the weak spot
A single cash buyer is a single point of failure, and I have numbers on this from my own business. Out of 3,725 sellers who asked my home-buying operation for an offer, the most common reason a deal died was that no buyer could be found whose numbers worked for that house. That reason was logged 1,300 times. Those sellers were ready to sell and the deal still died, because the one buyer they had could not make it work.
More buyers looking at the same house lowers the odds of that happening to you. It applies to Clever Offers, to HomeLight, and to any service that hands you one number.
A request is not the same as an offer
Asking for a cash offer does not guarantee you get one. In my own pipeline, 7.5 percent of the 3,725 sellers who asked ended up with a written offer over the full period. During April through June 2026, when leads were being worked actively, it was 19.2 percent. Same operation and same markets both times.
When you rely on one routed request, you are counting on that one buyer wanting your house that month. Send the request to several buyers and the odds that somebody comes back with a number go up.
How each matching service gets paid, mine included
Sellers pay nothing to Clever Offers, and the partner investor pays Clever. My directory sits on the same side of the table. Sellers never pay us, buyers can pay a flat fee to be listed once they pass our vetting, and when a sale closes with a buyer we connected you with, we may be paid part of that buyer's fee. Sundae also charges the investor and leaves the seller out of it.
So every free matching service is paid by the buying side. That costs you nothing directly, and it is one more reason to hold several offers and judge them on what you would net.
| Company | How it gets paid | Fee charged to the seller |
|---|---|---|
| Clever Offers | The partner investor pays Clever | None |
| Sundae | The winning investor pays Sundae | None |
| HomeLight Simple Sale | Agent referral fees on HomeLight's listing business | None |
| We Buy Ugly Houses | The franchisee keeps the spread after repairs and resale | None |
| Opendoor | A service fee taken out of your proceeds | 5% |
| Offerpad | A service fee taken out of your proceeds | Typically 6 to 10% |
| FrontPorchOffers | A flat listing fee from buyers, and possibly part of the buyer's fee when a sale closes | None |
A buyer who charges you no fee still builds a profit into the price. Compare what you net.
When the single Clever Offers number is enough
There are sellers for whom one routed offer is fine. If you are in a small market where you cannot find a second investor, if the offer already clears what you owe and what you need to walk away with, or if your deadline leaves no room for more calls, taking a fair single offer is a reasonable decision.
Make it a decision, though. Spend ten minutes asking one more buyer first, so that taking the Clever Offers number is a choice you made with something to compare it to.
How to read the cash offer you get
Price is the first line of an offer and there are four more worth reading. The earnest money deposit shows how committed the buyer is. The inspection or due diligence period is the window in which the buyer can still walk away or come back asking for less. The closing cost line says who pays for title and recording. The assignment clause says whether the buyer can hand the contract to someone else.
Two offers at the same price can be thousands of dollars apart once you have read those four lines, so read them on every offer before you rank them.
Questions for whoever sends you a cash offer
Ask for the legal name of the company that will actually buy the house, since a matching service is never the buyer. Ask whether that company will close on it or might assign the contract to someone else. Ask to see proof of funds, and close with a title company you picked.
23 states now have a law on wholesaling, which covers buyers who assign contracts, and our state-by-state research lists what each one requires.