Most home sellers would assign some amount of value to not having to prepare your home for the market.

This might allow you to skip...

1.  Touch up paint

2.  Final organization

3.  Final cleaning

4.  Photos

5.  Showings

You can likely skip some or all of these if you are in touch with a buyer who you know wants to buy your house.

But... you probably wouldn't put tooooo high of a value on not having to prepare your house for the market...

If you believe your home will sell on the market for $375K... and the known buyer wants to pay $370K for your house, you'll probably go for it.  If they want to pay $365K you might still go for it.

But if the buyer only wants to pay $360K for your house... many or most sellers will go ahead and take the time to make the final preparations to get their house on the market.  After all, why potentially leave $15,000 on the table by selling to the known buyer who wants to pay that lower price for your house.

This also does not account for whether your house might fetch multiple offers and sell for a bit above the asking price.

If you hope to sell for $375K... and a known buyer wants to pay $360K... and you end up selling for $385K when you get your house on the market... you would have left $25,000 on the table by selling to the known buyer before listing your house for sale.

But... every seller's situation is different.  Let's think through and talk through what works best for you... and what your priorities are when it comes to pricing, timing and ease of sale.