3 Simple Questions To Prevent Low Ball Offers On My House
Hi. Are you a homeowner that is considering selling a house to a cash home buyer, maybe a wholesaler, or one of those investor guys? Maybe your house does need some work and updates and have decided that it’s just easier to sell it to a cash buyer.
Don’t Let An Unscrupulous Home Buyer Steal Your House!
This short video is, I think, very important and something that could save you thousands or possibly tens of thousands of dollars from dealing with the wrong investor person or home buyer. In this video, I’d like to share three simple things to help you avoid getting low ball offers on your house.
My name is Ben Souchek, and my company is The Sierra Group Pro Home Buyers. I have been a cash home buyer for more than 20 years. Unlike some companies that are out there these days that say they can buy your house or that advertise that they can buy your house, whether they have the intent or ability to or not, my company actually does, and has done so for 20 years.
We’ve helped hundreds of house sellers by buying their property. When that solution wasn’t always the right one, we have referred them to a traditional real estate agent so that they could help them that way.
We Provide The Best Solution To Sell Your House
I have always done what I could to provide the best service for the seller, unlike some people that are in the business these days.
How To Avoid A Low Ball Offer On Your House
So, I wanted to create a short video to provide a few simple steps to avoid a low ball offer on your house.
First, ask: “Are you going to take a look at the house physically?”
In the current market, there are not only local home buyers, but companies that are nationwide or basically advertise themselves as nationwide home buyers. They may be located in one geographic area and do business all over the country. They deploy marketing, they run advertisements online, and basically they’re all very similar stating that they can buy your house. But in reality, it could be much different.
With these companies, they will typically ask you, if you come to an agreement with the numbers, which they can only do by online information, they will ask you to send them pictures of your house, and of course that does sometimes have some legitimacy, but for the unscrupulous companies, they will use these pictures once they get an agreement with you to then advertise your house, looking for that end buyer.
They will delay closing until they find someone that they can actually bring into the house.
They will typically say that they need a 21 day closing, at least, in order to have their “inspectors” or “contractors” take a look at the house. This is simply a way to get their potential buyers into the house to see if they can find a real buyer. Sending them pictures might be a start, but it’s not very adequate for a buyer, a real buyer, to make a decision.
If a company makes an agreement with you as a seller based on pictures, just know that, even if they did want to actually buy the property, typically they’re going to have to send somebody in to physically inspect the property for them. If they haven’t done that initially, just know that the number that they have told you they could pay, is most likely going to change, and change for the lower.
Some companies will make a practice of giving an offer that seems good, seems higher than maybe what some people expect, and once they’ve looked at the house though, they will tell the seller that they didn’t realize that maybe the HVAC system was outdated, maybe there were repairs that they didn’t know or weren’t aware of because of the pictures, and so those numbers will change. Without having a person that actually goes and inspects the house right away, take a look at things, just know that the numbers may likely change.
Also, it’s important to have a person or a company that at least has a local presence, so that that local person knows the market, they’re not surprised at some of the areas that you may be calling from, because every area is different.
Without that company having a local presence at some type, they just don’t really know what they are dealing with. You can look all the numbers up online that you want to, but it’s very difficult to get the nuances of some of the neighborhoods and subdivisions. Again, to recap, just ask the question, “Is your company going to be looking at the house to inspect before you make an offer on the house?”
A second item is: “Can you close in seven days or less?”
If they’re a real cash buyer, the only thing that stops a cash buyer from closing, such as my company, is having the title company check title and prepare closing paperwork. Typically, we can do that in seven days or less. Unless it’s at the very end of the month where title companies are very busy or there’s some other situation with the title company. A good company should have a good title company can do that.
As I mentioned earlier, some of the companies and wholesalers that are just looking to tie your property up will typically always want a 21 day or more inspection period so they have time to market the property (what they won’t tell you) in some way, get it to their buyers list, and get their buyers in the house in some way to look at that house. Just know that whether you want to close that quickly or not, that is something you can ask them to ensure or to help with ensuring that you’re dealing with a real buying company.
Again, as I mentioned, that inspection period, it’s legitimate to have maybe a pest inspection or something small like that, or if there are major issues with foundations, then it’s reasonable to expect a company to have a professional look at some of those things that maybe the company themselves are not an expert at.
But just be aware that if your house is in relatively good shape but it’s just cosmetics that need to be updated, then that 21 or more day inspection period is typically a way for these companies to just wait on closing until they can find a real buyer to step in and close for them. Again, just asking the question, “Can you close in seven days or less?” And see what they say.
Ask “How Did You Come Up With Your Offer?”
A third item, third question to ask them, is when they do have an offer for you, ask them how they came up with the offer. Ask them to explain how they arrived at that number. Whether it sounds good or not, if you’re considering accepting it, I would always ask them how they came up with their offer.
They should be able to show you comparables so that they can show you what they’re seeing for a market value for your area.
They should also have some type of a worksheet. In our case, we show comparables and we have a transaction worksheet, that we lay out exactly how we start with what we think the house’s value is if it was nice and fixed up. We take into account the transaction costs that my company is going to incur when we buy, hold, and resell the house, and we take into account the repairs or updates that my company or anybody else is going to put into the house to get it into its nice condition, its after repaired value condition.
We do all that we can to really thoroughly explain how we come up with those numbers. Someone else should be able to explain that to you as well.
Admittedly, some people don’t always agree with our numbers, but at least they understand how we’ve been able to arrive at our offers. I think that’s the most transparent, best way that I can provide that information.
Ask If They Provide Multiple Offers Or Solutions To Sell Your House
As a bonus item here, you can ask them if they provide multiple offers, or multiple solutions to get your house sold. I personally think, if a home buying company comes out and only says, “The only thing we can do is buy your house” (for a low cash price) and you really need to just sell your house to a cash buyer, is not necessarily the best thing for you, the seller, sometimes.
At the same time, if you have a real estate agent come out and say, “Really, the best way that you should go is you should list your house on the market and you should not do anything else, you shouldn’t talk to those investor guys, you shouldn’t talk to those home buyer guys. They’re just going to possibly rip you off. If you’re dealing with the wrong ones.
But, if you place value in the benefits that a cash home buying company offers, then they certainly can be a very viable, good alternative.
But having one or two of those people, the agent or the home buyer, telling you that you have to go in one direction or the other, I don’t think is always the best solution for the seller. That’s why we offer multiple solutions. Whether there are multiple buying options or multiple buying solutions that my company can offer, or when those aren’t always the best solution for a seller, we can offer the services of an agent that we work with, so that they can market and list their house in a traditional manner.
Multiple Solutions To Sell Your House
I want to give our sellers that we work with multiple solutions, and we explain the positives and negatives of each. We provide the service that is best for that specific seller. And, if you’re dealing with a wholesaler that may be calling from somewhere else geographically, they most likely don’t care about that. They’re just trying to buy your house or get a contract on your house at the lowest price possible and then flip that contract to somebody else for a profit. That’s typically what their mode of operation is.
Ask: Are You A Wholesaler?
Another bonus question that you can ask is just ask them, “Are you a wholesaler? Is that your business?” You can also research that as well, probably.
Those few questions may save you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars if you are looking at selling your house, and may very well prevent you from dealing with people that you would regret later on.
Again, are you going to look at my house or are you just going to go off pictures?
Can you close in seven days or less, to determine whether they actually have cash. Do they have proof of funds from a real bank that they can show you so that you know that they’re a real cash buyer? Do they have references from a title company, a local title company, so that the title company can say, “Yes, I’ve worked with them many times, they bring cash, they can close in a week as soon as we can get the transaction ready,” so they can confirm that? The company should have a reference, because we have plenty of references available.
Three, how did you come up with the offer? The company should be able to explain in a way that makes sense how they arrived at what they’re offering to you, and should, in our case, we try and educate a seller the best we can how we came up with those numbers.
And, the bonus items. Do you provide multiple options? Or is there language just that they’re pushing you in one direction or the other? Whether that’s a home buyer, wholesaler, or agent. I don’t feel that that’s necessarily the best guidance or best way to help sellers all the time.
Hopefully that information has been a good starting point. Again, a very quick video, but very simple things that you can ask the person that you’re doing business with to ensure that they’re a real home buying company that you hopefully will not regret doing business with.
After 20 plus years, I run into more and more sellers that have been involved with the wrong type of company, just because that company made them an offer that sounded great, had good phones selling skills, but unfortunately were not a good home buying company or a real home buying company.
If we can help you out, please let us know. But just know that those simple things can potentially save you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. If I or my company can assist in the future, please let us know. Thank you very much.
Just go to www.7DaysCash.com or call us (855)-291-5005.
Trusted Cash Home Buyers
7 Days Cash by The Sierra Group, LLC is based in Lincoln, Nebraska. We purchase houses here in Lincoln, and in many other areas such as the metro Omaha area in Nebraska, the Des Moines metro area in Iowa, and the Kansas City metro area! For the past 20 years, we have been helping people by purchasing their homes directly! In addition, we are licensed realtors in Nebraska and Missouri. We understand the process and the local markets, allowing you to receive the best service and the best all-cash price for your home! We are Veteran Owned, and hold an A+ rating with The BBB!