If you’ve been driving around Dallas, chances are you’ve seen or heard some advertisements from companies that buy homes for cash. Or maybe you’ve seen ads pop up on google or your social media pages.
Oftentimes these advertisements say things like “We Buy Houses in Dallas!” or “Cash For Your House” or “We Pay Cash And Close Fast”.
Are These “We Buy Houses Companies” Credible?
How do you know if those house-buying companies out there are honest and credible?
Are you potentially looking into the national “We Buy Houses” companies often referred to as I-buyer companies? Sine of the most well know ones are Zillow, Open Door, and Offerpad. Did you know these are large companies funded by Wall Street? This is important to know, because that means these companies are not here for your best interests, they are only here for their own interests.
And… sometimes these companies all look the same at the start… but below I’ll walk you through some things to look for in a local house-buying company before you should work with them.
Buying and selling homes is a valid and respectable profession that can help communities and house sellers in many ways. But just like any other line of work – a minority of house-buying companies in any market are the ones who make the rest of us look very bad.
There are people, like us, who really do enjoy working with homeowners as well as redeveloping the community one house at a time. We sit down and really get to know our sellers and find out what their goals are. We’re not here to set our own goals, we’re here for you and for you only. After we figure out what your goals are, we give you some insight into what scenarios might work best for you.
But then there is always at least one shady and dishonest company that tends to put money ahead of the well-being of their sellers. These companies can be hard to miss sometimes. They might seem genuine with you at first, but then shortly before closing they attempt to renegotiate a lower price when you’re already in a time crunch and can’t afford to walk away from these new terms.
Others might sign an agreement with you at whatever price you want, knowing they can’t close at this price, and then turn around and try to sell the home to other investors without you even knowing. What makes this scenario even worse, is that they typically won’t find another investor to sell to, which unfortunately means they end up canceling the agreement with you right before closing. This ultimately leaves you high and dry and back to square one.
When you sign an agreement with someone, it’s important to have trust in this company knowing they can follow through on what they promise you. That’s what makes us stand out from the crowd. We never make any agreement with anyone if we feel like we ultimately would have to back out later.
We’ll help you avoid these “shady house buyers” so you can work with honest, ethical, and reputable local companies who can buy your house for all cash and close on your schedule.
But let’s not focus on just the negative – at least not yet.
Let’s go over exactly what honest home-buying companies are doing.
What Reputable Dallas House Buyers Are Doing
- Helping people improve their lives by accessing the money they need right away. People often need the cash in their home equity to cover unexpected medical expenses, or maybe to even relocate to be closer to a relative. Whatever the circumstances may be, we can make that happen in just a few days in order to deliver that peace of mind.
- Helping sellers get rid of a burdensome property without the hassle of having to list it with a broker and wait months and months for a sale.
- Creating local jobs. We hire plumbers, contractors, electricians, brokers, title reps, loan officers, administrators and so many other great people along the way. The average real estate transaction involves 86 people from start to finish. Our investments help create real jobs for people around Dallas Texas.
- Buying US products. We spend a good amount of money on materials that are made right here in the USA – that creates jobs in our timber mills, factories, supply shops, distribution centers, and more. The US economy depends on steady improvement, and that requires investment from people like us.
- Increasing the value of Dallas neighborhoods. When we improve a house, we’re helping to increase the value of the entire community. We often repair abandoned and neglected houses, turning them into beautiful homes for families to come in and create new memories. That activity strengthens the Dallas market.
- Increasing the tax base. When a new buyer takes over one of our properties, they’ll pay a higher tax rate based on the new and improved value. Those taxes go towards paying for our schools, fire, police, libraries, streets, and other valuable pieces of infrastructure. Again, just improving our neighborhoods.
Pretty cool stuff, right?
Lots of people think of home-buying companies are sleazy and only out here to steal people’s equity. And unfortunately, this didn’t start out of thin air. There are companies out there that run their business this way which is why it’s very important for you to do your research and only go with the credible “We Buy Houses” companies.
Most of our work is coordinating with dozens of people on any given day to make sure things are happening on time. We have to keep track of lots of moving parts. For example, the most important part of what we do is making sure we deliver our promises to our sellers on time. If we say we are going to purchase your home and close in 5 days, we are going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that happens. Everything else gets put on hold for the time being until we get your home closed.
So let’s get back to how you can use this information to find out if someone is a credible investor, and not just pulling a house-buying scam.
How Can You Ensure You’re Working With A Reputable Local House Buyer?
When you talk with a local house buyer to potentially buy your house… ask them some of the questions below to ensure they’re reputable, knowledgeable, and honest.
Ask open-ended questions like:
- How do you help your clients?
- What do you do for people?
- Can you tell me more about your services?
- What aspect of your business makes you the proudest?
- How would you describe your investment philosophy?
- How can I know that you’ll close on my house when you say you will?
Second, look for the tell-tale signs of tactics that those few potentially “shady” operators tend to use.
- “Kitchen table closings” – If a “We Buy Houses” buyer tries to get you to sign the deed (ownership) of your house over to them at your actual house, rather than a professional place like a closing attorney or title company… be leery. Reputable house-buying companies will perform the actual closing of the sale at a neutral 3rd party place… like a title company for example. This ensures everything is done right and on the up and up. There is only one scenario where signing the deed and other title paperwork at your home is fine, and that’s once the title company has done all of their due diligence and they send a mobile notary to deliver paperwork to your home and notarize your signatures that way. But again, it’s important to remember that this is still a third party responsible for this. If it’s the actual buyer having you sign this along with nothing else, this is not ok and I suggest you run away as fast as possible.
- Pressuring you into a fast closing – If a “We Buy Houses” buyer tries to pressure you into selling your house and says that you have to make the decision today, be suspicious. The reason reputable house buyers like ours at North Texas Cash For Homes don’t place deadlines on our offers is because the market changes and values can change week to week depending on other sales in the area. Something else to consider, we buy multiple homes a month, and when we make you an offer we’re assuring you that the cash to purchase your house is ready. And we’ll even reserve that cash for as many days as you need. That way, when you’re ready to sell your house and ready to move forward, we can close on your schedule. If you feel the offer isn’t a fit for you, don’t worry about it! We’re not always the right fit for everyone so if you truly feel that this isn’t going to work out, just let us know! We appreciate honesty more than you can imagine! And that also helps free up our funds for another homeowner that might be in the same scenario as you.
So look, most scammers are looking for a quick score, and not an in-depth interview.
Chances are good that they’ll find excuses to get off the phone and move on to someone who doesn’t ask too many questions.
Our mission here at North Texas Cash for Homes is to treat our home sellers fairly as well as make sure no other company comes in to take advantage of them. This is why have several blog posts discussing ways to avoid the scammer “We Buy Houses” companies by doing your research on them before moving forward.
True home buyers who run honest and ethical Dallas house-buying services, but are also building long-term businesses based on relationships and community development.
So when you’re looking at one of the “we buy houses in Dallas companies“… never be afraid to ask questions!