What you are replacing
Sundae started in San Francisco in 2018. One of its market experts walks your house, the property goes on a private marketplace for a few days, and vetted investors submit cash bids. Most sellers have offers in 3 to 5 days and close 7 to 21 days after accepting one. You pay nothing, since Sundae collects its fee from the investor.
One detail matters for the rest of this page. You sign a single contract with Sundae, and Sundae assigns that contract to the winning bidder. The company that closes is a different party from the one you signed with.
How long each option takes
Speed is usually why people look at Sundae in the first place, so here is the clock on each alternative.
| Option | Time to an offer | Time to close after you accept |
|---|---|---|
| Sundae | 3 to 5 days | 7 to 21 days |
| We Buy Ugly Houses | At the walk-through or within 24 hours | 7 to 30 days |
| HomeLight Simple Sale | Varies | 10 to 30 days |
| Opendoor | About 24 hours for a preliminary number | 14 to 60 days, you pick |
| Offerpad | About 24 hours for a preliminary number | 8 to 90 days, you pick |
| Local investors | Depends on the buyer | Depends on the buyer |
| Listing with an agent | Not applicable | Typically 30 to 60 days |
Opendoor and Offerpad buy move-in-ready homes, so they only belong on your list if the house does not need major work.
Why bids on the same house differ so much
Investors are not interchangeable, and the same investor is not even consistent from one month to the next. My own operation shows it. In March 2026 it made written offers on 2.2 percent of the leads it resolved. In May 2026 that figure was 21.8 percent. Same team, same markets, same lead source.
A seller who called in March got a very different result from one who called in May, and neither could have known which month they had landed in. Collecting bids from several buyers at once is how you take that luck out of the sale, and it is the real value of what Sundae built.
Run your own bidding
You can build a small version of Sundae's marketplace yourself. It takes a few phone calls and about a week.
Find three buyers. Use a directory of vetted local buyers, or search for cash buyers in your city and confirm each company with your secretary of state.
Give all three the same information on the same day. Share the address, the problems you know about, and the date you need to close by. Tell each one you are collecting offers and will decide on a set day.
Ask for every offer in writing, with the closing date, who pays the closing costs, and the size of the earnest money deposit.
Compare what you would net, then ask the best two whether that is their final number. Buyers who know they are competing sharpen their price, which is the whole reason Sundae's model works.
Vetting the bidders yourself
Sundae screens its investors before they are allowed to bid. When you run the process on your own, that job is yours, and it takes about fifteen minutes per buyer.
Search the company name on your secretary of state's business registry and make sure it is active. Ask for a proof of funds letter dated within the last 30 days. Look the company up with the Better Business Bureau and read the complaints as well as the letter grade. Then tell the buyer the closing will happen at a title company you select. A serious buyer agrees to all four without an argument, and one who stalls on any of them has told you what you needed to know.
National options that reach places Sundae does not
We Buy Ugly Houses is run by HomeVestors through roughly 1,100 independently owned franchises in 47 states, so it covers far more ground than Sundae. You get one offer from one franchisee, usually between 50 and 70 percent of after-repair value, with no fee.
HomeLight Simple Sale reaches nationwide through its investor network, though whether an offer comes back depends on how many investors work your area. It also returns a single offer. Either one is a useful extra number to set beside the local offers you collected.
If the house is cleaner than you think
Sundae is aimed at distressed houses, and investors on any marketplace discount for the resale they have planned. If your house is close to move-in ready, a listing or an iBuyer will usually beat an investor's bid. Opendoor charges a flat 5 percent and Offerpad typically 6 to 10 percent, and both pay closer to retail on a clean home.
When Sundae is still the better choice
If your house is in one of Sundae's metros, needs real work, and you do not have the time or the stomach to make calls and compare contracts, use Sundae. It does the walk-through, gathers the bids, and screens the buyers, and it costs you nothing.
The alternatives on this page are for everyone the service does not reach, and for sellers who would like to keep the process in their own hands.
Assigned contracts and your state's rules
Sundae's process ends in an assignment, and many local investors assign contracts too, so it helps to know what your state says about it. 23 states now have a law on wholesaling, which is the business of selling a purchase contract to another buyer. In seven of those states a seller can back out within a fixed window, as short as 2 business days in Oklahoma and as long as 30 days in Pennsylvania.
The five states where Sundae is most concentrated are split. Our state-by-state research covers the rest of the country.
| State | Wholesaling law | What it means for a seller |
|---|---|---|
| California | None | A bill that would have required a license, AB 1850, died in 2026 |
| Texas | Yes | Since January 1, 2024 the seller must be told in writing when the buyer holds only a contract interest |
| Florida | None | Only the general real estate license law applies |
| Georgia | None | A wholesaler disclosure provision was cut from a 2026 bill before it passed |
| North Carolina | Partial | Regulator guidance only. A bill with a 30-day cancellation right passed the House and has not become law |
As of September 30, 2026. Information, not legal advice.