Frequently Asked Questions
Maybe you have a few questions.
That’s okay; most people do. Really, if you don’t have questions, that’s a concern for us because we want you to have all of the information you need to make an educated decision. 🤓
So here’s a quick collection of some of the questions people ask us… along with our answers.
And if you still have a question, don’t hesitate to contact us (or give us a call.) We’ll be happy to answer it for you.
Q: Will you just turn around and list my house on the MLS or are you actually buying it?
A: That’s a great and reasonable question. We’re not agents, and we don’t list houses.
We are professional home buyers: We buy houses in San Diego County that meet our purchasing criteria.
After we buy a house, we may repair the house and resell it to another homeowner, we might work with another investor, we might keep it as a rental ourselves, or we might find another option for us. But we don’t just turn around and list it on the MLS because we’re making an investment.
Q: Do you pay fair prices for properties?
A: Ah, the million-dollar question that everyone wants to know but most are afraid to ask us. (Don’t know why. We’re super-friendly people.)
Many of the houses we purchase are, for a variety of reasons, below market value (we do this so we can resell it at a profit to another homeowner).
Of course, it’s not a secret that we want to get a fair discount on a property because we can seal the deal quickly.
In our experience, many sellers aren’t necessarily expecting a large “windfall” on the property but truly appreciate that we can offer cash, we close very quickly (no waiting for financing), and no time or effort or expense is required on their part of fix up the property or pay agent fees.
Basically, we get a discount for making life so much easier for you. Or we have options where we can pay you full market value if you allow us to pay over time. This is called “seller financing” in which you essentially become the bank while we pay your mortgage and take care of everything.
If that’s what you’re looking for and you see the value in getting your house sold fast… let’s see if we can come to a fair win-win price. (Besides, our no-obligation pricing commitment means that you do not have to move forward with the offer we give… but it’s good to know what we’re offering!)
DOWNLOAD our free guide that walks you through the Pros and Cons (plus the cost and timeline) of selling your house to a real estate investor… plus learn the pros, cons, and costs of the other two alternatives… listing with an agent or selling it yourself.
Q: How do you determine the price to offer on my house?
A: Another great question!
We’re an open book and our process is straightforward.
We look take into account…
- The location of the property. Obviously, houses in better areas cost more.
- The current condition of the property and the repairs that are needed.
- The values of comparable houses sold in the area recently.
As you know, house values and markets vary widely. Some parts of the country took a huge hit in 2008-2009 and still haven’t fully rebounded even ten years later. Other parts of the country like where we are in San Diego are so hot that it’s getting really difficult for buyers.
We take many pieces of information into consideration… and come up with a fair price that works for the both of us.
Q: Are there any fees or commissions to work with you?
A: No.
Oh, were you expecting a more long-winded answer?
OK, if you want to waste your time, here’s the more detailed answer… 😉
This is what makes us stand out from the traditional method of selling your house…
There are NO fees or commissions when you sell your house to us.
We’ll make you an offer, and if it’s a fit for you, we’ll buy your house (and we’ll often pay for the closing costs too!)
No hassle.
No fees.
We make our money after we pay for repairs on the house (if any) and sell it for a profit (we’re taking the risks here on whether we can sell it for a profit or not, once we buy the house from you…
You can walk away without the burden of the property and its payments… and often with cash in your hand even if you have mortgage payments that are past due or liens on the property!)
Q: How are you different from a real estate agent?
A: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with working with real estate agents if they meet your needs.
Realtors and real estate agents list properties, market them, and hope that someone will buy them. The agent shows the properties to prospective buyers, if there are any (the average time to sell a property in many markets right now is 6-12 months), and then take a percentage of the sale price if they find a buyer. Even the best houses in the hottest markets can sell quickly but take months to finalize because of escrow and other things.
Oftentimes, the agent’s commission is 3-6% of the sale price of your house (so if it’s a $500,000 house, you’ll pay between $15,000 – $30,000 in commissions to an agent).
But don’t get us wrong. Great real estate agents are worth every penny because selling a house is not an easy process.
Real estate agents provide a great service for those that can wait as little as 90 days and up to 6-12 months to sell and who don’t mind giving up some of that sale price to pay for the commissions.
In fact, let us give you a little bit of advice. If don’t you choose to work with us, hire a Realtor (a real estate agent with additional training and which are held to a high ethical standard.)
Realtors might seem just like real estate agents and some real estate agents are just as good as Realtors. Even we have real estate agents that bring us deals that are better than some Realtors.
But those highest quality real estate agents are hard for the common home seller to find because they just don’t have the relationships to get referrals from experts. Whereas, if you see that a real estate agent is also a Realtor, you can feel pretty comfortable that they know what they’re doing and will get you top dollar.
When you choose a Realtor, it really comes down to a personality thing. Do you like them? If so, hire them.
And don’t even consider agents or brokerages that charge “just 1%” or give a discount. They simply do not get as much money as a good Realtor. Basically, the greater amount of money that they get you is, nine times out of ten, greater than the additional commission you’ll pay them.
(One last bit of advice regarding real estate agents. Stick to their initial advice and quote because when real estate agents sell their own homes, they get an average of $10,000 more than they get for their clients. Watch this video from Freakanomics to discover why.)
Alright. Now that we gone overboard with advice about real estate agents and Realtors, let’s get back to how we’re different.
Simply put, we’re not agents. We’re home buyers.
Our company actually buys houses. We don’t list houses.
Therefore, since we’re actually the one buying the house from you and we pay with all cash…
We can make a decision to buy your house within a couple of days (sometimes the same day) rather than weeks or months. And because we have relationships with other investors, we have a pool from which we can get instant cash to pay you.
Plus, because we’ve developed relationships with other real estate companies so they give us priority when doing their job for us. For instance, we can close escrow quickly because the title company we work with lets us jump to the front of the line… but don’t tell anyone! 😉
Again, we make our living by taking the risk to buy your house with our own cash, repair the house, and market it ourselves to find a buyer (which is the hard part in this market).
Q: Is there any obligation when I submit my info?
A: Nope.
There is absolutely zero obligation for you.
Zip. Nada.
Once you tell us a bit about your property, we’ll take a look at things, maybe set up a call with you to find out a bit more, and make you an all-cash offer that’s fair for you and fair for us.
From there, it’s 100% your decision on whether or not you’d like to sell your house to us… and we won’t hassle you… we won’t harass you… it’s 100% your decision and we’ll let you decide what’s right for you.
Of course, we’ll follow up with you until you say “Yes” or “No” but we won’t pressure you because we hate it when people do that to us.
Want To See What We Can Buy Your House For?
Fill Out The Quick Form Below To Get A No-Hassle, No-Obligation, All-Cash Offer
Learn The Pros and Cons Of Selling Your House To Local Professional Home Buyer– FREE Guide:
Download our FREE Guide here. Or, you can always feel free to Contact us anytime if you have questions, want a no hassle Situation Evaluation, or want to just learn more about how we can help homeowners sell unwanted properties for cash.
Get the FREE Guide and then give us a call at (888) 290-4353 and we’ll discuss what your home is worth and what we can offer to buy it for with our Cash Offer Program.