If you’re selling your home, you know what a frustrating, time-consuming process it can be. Because it can take so long, many sellers look to those “We Buy Any House” companies to create a fast sale. After all, the promise is always that they’ll take any house in any condition and give you cash in as little as a week. With a promise like that on the line, why wouldn’t a potential home seller take them up on the offer? It’s not always as good as it seems, though, and there are still many things that could go wrong in that situation.
Your company overpromises on the initial offer: Your home may look fantastic at a glance, and a We Buy Any House company is absolutely on the search for great homes. Because it looks so good, that company may promise you one price for the home originally, yet as they begin to do the paperwork and research on your home, they realise they’ve overpromised on that price, and then they have to come back with a much lower offer later. That can be frustrating, but as long as you haven’t signed a contract saying you can’t back out of the deal, at that point, you can still walk away.
Your company backs out after the survey: Even if your home looks great at a glance, you could have serious, expensive repair issues lurking. Every company like this will conduct a complete survey to be able to identify those issues, and if they’re too costly, the company purchasing your home may back out after they’ve initially made their offer because your home is just too expensive to repair and still make a profit from.
You get a better deal before the exchange of contracts: At any point in time before the exchange of contracts in any sale, you can walk away from a deal. It’s possible that while you’re working with the fast cash home sale company, you get someone who is willing to make an offer on your home. After all, you can see what a fast cash sale company has to offer while your home is still on the market. If that’s the case, you may need to weigh your options. Remember that a good buyer could still end up creating problems and slowing the process for you, but if you’d prefer to go for the higher offer, you can tell the company that you’ve already accepted another offer on the home.
You work with a scam company: There are plenty of legitimate cash buyers out there. Along with those, though, there are some scams. Watch out for those. Make sure the company you select never asks for money upfront, requests extensive fees or asks you to sign a lock-in agreement.
How It’s Supposed to Work
Not all of these companies are scams, and not all of the things listed above will go wrong with your sale. In fact, most will offer to buy your property for a reasonable amount of money and complete the sale fairly quickly. In many cases, though, you can expect not to get more than 85% of the value of your home, and in some cases, it will be quite a bit lower. The goal of these companies is simple – purchase many properties for the least amount of money, then invest a bit of extra money and care into those properties so they can be remarketed to potential buyers or even renters. If they sell the property, they keep the profit they made from the extensive renovations. If they rent the property, they have a dependable stream of income for years to come. Either way, these companies profit from properties that they can buy low and sell or rent high.
Should I Sell to a “We Buy Any House Company”?
The decision to sell your home, to anyone, is a personal one. Many of these companies offer you a legitimate opportunity to get rid of your home fairly quickly and for a reasonable price. If speed is of the essence in your sale, and you’re willing to take a lower price, as a result, vet your potential company, and take the deal. If, though, you want the best price for your home, you may need to wait until the perfect buyer comes along.
