A cash offer is usually below full retail market value. Here is the honest math on when that still comes out ahead, and when it does not.
The short answer
A cash offer on a Twin Cities house typically lands below what the same house would fetch listed on the open market after months of preparation, showings, and negotiation. Any company that tells you otherwise is not being straight with you.
But the sale price is not the number that matters. The number that matters is what ends up in your account, and how much of your life it costs you to get there.
What a retail sale actually costs
When people compare a cash offer to a listing price, they usually compare the wrong two numbers. A listing price is not proceeds. Here is what comes out of it:
Agent commissions on both sides of the transaction. Repairs, because a buyer's inspector will find things and a financed buyer's lender may require them to be fixed before closing. Seller concessions negotiated at the table. Holding costs while the house sits, meaning mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, and utilities. And the cost of preparation, which can mean paint, carpet, landscaping, and a cleanout.
Then there is the cost nobody prices: months of keeping a house showing ready while you live in it, or months of paying for a house you have already moved out of.
When a cash offer comes out ahead
The gap between a cash offer and net retail proceeds narrows or disappears entirely in a few specific situations.
When the house needs significant work. Deferred maintenance gets discounted twice on the retail market: once by the buyer's offer and again by the lender's repair requirements. A cash buyer prices it once.
When you need certainty. A financed buyer can fall out at appraisal, at underwriting, or at inspection. If a deal falling apart in week six would genuinely hurt you, certainty has value.
When speed matters. Foreclosure timelines, a job that starts in another state, an estate that needs to settle. Time has a price and sometimes it is higher than the spread.
When the house is occupied by a tenant you cannot easily move, or full of belongings you do not have the capacity to clear out.
When you should list instead
If your house is in good condition, you are not in a hurry, and you can tolerate the process, list it. You will very likely net more.
We say this to sellers regularly, and we mean it. A cash sale is a tool for a specific set of problems, not a universally better option.
How to compare the two honestly
Ask for both numbers. Get a cash offer, and ask a local agent for a realistic net sheet on a retail sale that accounts for commissions, likely repairs, concessions, and three months of holding costs.
Put them side by side. Then decide with the real math in front of you instead of a headline price on one side and a discount on the other.