Super low mortgage rates should be able to generate a great deal of confidence about one's chances for buying or selling a home. But lately, not so much.

The average 30-year mortgage rate edged a bit higher and now rings in at 3.96%, still giving first-time home buyers a bit of a break, according to Bankrate.com, but above the record low of 3.5% in December 2012.

Will mortgage rates fall further? Some economists expect the Federal Reserve to cut short term interest rates again at the next meeting, set for Tuesday and Wednesday. But "mortgage rates are unlikely to decline in response to a Fed rate cut," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com.

"Mortgage rates would decline if there were additional signs of economic weakness or increased trade tensions," he said.

Uncertainty is the name of the game: Where's the economy headed? How, quickly, really could my house sell? Or how quickly, really, can I find a house I can afford?

Homebuying sentiment has weakened, according to the Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index for September. While many still believe it's a good time to buy and a good time to sell, the survey suggested more worries about potential job losses. Consumer sentiment is still strong, but the nagging feeling that something could go wrong is picking up.

Many people can't afford making two mortgage payments at the same time. So frankly, some are afraid to make a move.

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Enter some unusual signs, such as one that one real estate agent has been using, declaring: "Buy this home and we'll buy yours!"

In various spots in the country, a new trend is popping up, too — called iBuying — where players such as Zillow, Offerpad, and Opendoor offer sellers the chance to instantly sell their homes in select markets. Some communities in Florida, Texas, Nevada, North Carolina and Colorado are currently served by some instant buying firms. Not all homes are eligible.

In August, for example, Keller Williams entered a partnership with Offerpad to run Keller Offers, an iBuyer operation. The iBuyer option is to be available in Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Orlando, Florida and elsewhere.

Keller Williams agents in participating markets would be required to become a Keller Offers Certified iBuyer agent. Once certified, agents are able to submit a cash-offer request via Keller Offers.

The idea behind that instant sale — which is still a tiny fraction of the market — is to reduce some of the stress behind selling a home.

"We couldn't really move on anything without selling our house at this point," said Andrew Smith, 35, who works as a sales representative in the construction industry.

Smith and his wife Sarah wanted to find a bigger home. They knew they had rushed a bit when they were moving back to Michigan a few years ago from outside of Chicago.

Two-and-half years ago, they had settled on the three-bedroom, one-bath ranch as something that they could move into quickly in Rochester. It listed online for selling at that time for around $225,000.

Back then, there weren't a lot of homes up for sale in their price range, Smith said, and some say the same may be true for younger buyers even now.

Even so, they weren't sure they wanted to go with the hassle of trying to sell their house when they decided to move this year to a bigger home — four bedrooms, five baths, 3,200 square feet, $430,000 in Rochester Hills.

They always faced the possibility that their old house wouldn't move quickly enough.

They dreaded keeping the house clean enough all the time so that prospective buyers could drop in and see the home.

"We have a 5-year-old and a dog," Smith said.

So they jumped on a chance to sell their old house when they could take advantage of a cash offer made by real estate agent Jim Shaffer in Royal Oak, who paid $215,000 for the home in August. A sale on the home is pending.

Shaffer, the lead agent of the group, said he began using the "Buy this home and we'll buy yours!" slogan in the spring and the group has since bought 10 homes in such deals — nine in Oakland County and one in Detroit.

Shaffer copied the idea from another Realtor who tried it some time ago in the Washington, D.C., area.

What should you expect with a quick sale?

Instant sales aren't, of course, the surefire route to getting the very best price that a seller can hope to see.

In some cases, an instant sale could mean you're likely receiving 10% less — or even lower than that — than you might get otherwise with a more traditional sale. And you're giving up the possibility of a bidding war. Shaffer said he explains the tradeoffs up-front.

On the plus side, Shaffer said some homeowners who want to sell their property quickly like the idea that these are cash offers that close in 14 days or less.

"It's not one size fits all," Shaffer said.

Sometimes, the homes don't need much work and after the purchase, Shaffer's group is able to paint the homes, stage them for sale and find a buyer. In other cases, some homes have needed a complete overhaul.

Cash offers, of course, can be appealing to someone who is getting divorced, relocating to another city for a job, inheriting property or looking to sell a house soon in order to complete a deal on a new home purchase.

Those in the burgeoning iBuying, technology-driven universe say that they're not using the old fix-and-flip model where some buyers offer a significantly lower price and then the buyer soon puts the house on the market at a far higher price.

"We buy at fair market value and we sell at fair market value," said Viet Shelton, a spokesman for Zillow Offers in Seattle, which gives homeowners in 21 metro markets cash offers for their homes, then sells the houses through partner real estate agents.

Shelton said Zillow makes its money in this case mostly on the service fees, which can average around 7.5%. Fees would vary.

Shelton sees the iBuying concept growing, much like consumers use their smartphones to find instant solutions to everything from buying groceries to getting a ride home.

"Consumers expect all parts of their lives to be that straightforward," Shelton said.

What many consumers want, he said, is an easy way to sell their homes and to be able to focus their energy on what they really want to do, such as shopping for their next home.

"We get you a preliminary offer of what we would pay you for your home in a couple of days," he said. Then, someone would visit the home to take into account the home's condition before making a final offer.

Ask about hidden fees

Even so, consumers who deal with iBuying or cash sale options need to add up any costs — and consider how much time it might take to sell their home otherwise. Compare fees and read the fine print.

Also, try to figure out what your home might be worth in advance.

Stay away from scam outfits; do some research to make sure the company is reputable. Don't deal with anyone who asks for money upfront. Any fees should come out of the transaction at closing, which should be handled by a third-party title company.

Some consumers who have dealt with various cash offer sales, though, complain that they've later seen their own homes put on the market at 25% or 30% more than what they were paid.

As part of the arrangement with Keller Williams, real estate agents in markets connected with Offerpad present their clients with an estimate of how much their home will go for on the market, based on comparable sales, and then how much Offerpad will pay for the home.

The theory is that the homeowner doesn't have to deal with repairs or renovations, any delays in closing the deal or any other selling-related headaches. Once an offer through Offerpad is accepted, sellers can select their closing date to align best with their timeline — whether that is two weeks or 90 days, the seller is in control of the timeline.

What's the price for peace of mind?

Is this a wave of the future? It may be a niche area if things go well — but it's still a relatively new idea.

Todd Teta, chief product officer for ATTOM Data Solutions, said the idea by the Oakland County real estate agent is unique. But he said it seems similar to iBuying, where all-cash offers are given instantly for your home.

Some sellers are looking for convenience, he said, and less hassle, so they want nearly instant deals.

"And you are getting peace of mind that the deal will close," Teta said.

Chris Roberts, 34, a sales representative for a division of L'Oreal USA, used one of those quick-turn deals to sell a small home that he bought in Royal Oak in 2012 when he was single, in order to buy a bigger home about a half mile away. He paid $135,000 for the smaller house, thought he might list it at $230,000 this year, and then took around $200,000 for the cash offer from Shaffer.

Roberts and his future husband, Darrin Driesenga, 28, originally thought they might try to renovate the smaller home to stay there, but was turning into a six-figure project.

"It was just going to be so insanely expensive," Roberts said.

And then this summer, they ran across their dream home a short drive away.

The couple liked the expansive dining room and set up of the kitchen for entertaining, as well as the open feel to the home.

They had not put the old house up for sale and didn't want to lose the new house if they placed an offer that was contingent on the sale of their old house.

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"We were both like, 'This is home,'" Driesenga said. "It instantly felt like home and we needed to figure out how to make it happen."

"This all happened in a couple of weeks."

They bought the new home for $340,000. Their wedding is set for Nov. 9.

Driesenga, who had been a special education teacher, also ended up leaving that career to start another and joined the Jim Shaffer team later as well to begin selling homes.

Roberts, who often works out of his home as a sales representative for L'Oreal, said he didn't want to have to deal with potential buyers dropping by the house.

He also said he felt he'd have to do too much work to the old house to make it ready for sale, including painting the outside, doing landscaping and replacing carpeting.

"My dog had chewed through the wood at the bottom of the entrance upstairs," he said.

As for the instant selling deal, Roberts said, it made sense even if he might have been able to sell at a higher price by going through the traditional sale process.

You don't know, for example, what kind of fixes a buyer might come up with after a home inspection, or whether a prospective buyer is going to come back to you for "$1,000 for this or $1,000 for that."

"It took out a huge chunk of uncertainty for me," Roberts said.

Contact Susan Tompor at 313-222-8876 or stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @tompor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Instant home sales: What to know about new home buying trend