How to sell your house fast "We Buy Houses" guys for sure
If today’s housing and economic chaos suddenly makes you see little yellow signs and big billboards that say, “We’ll Buy Your House”, you probably need to sell a house fast and you’re wondering who these guys are behind the signs and they can really do anything to help.
The signs have been around for probably three decades, but like everything else, you only see the things that are of immediate importance to you. While anyone can buy and sell homes in the United States, most people only buy and sell the home they live in or expect to live in.
Buying homes without the expectation of living in them, as a business, really began to take off about 30 years ago when several seminar speakers crisscrossed the county peddling home buying and selling training for profit.
Like any business, you can expect some of the people buying homes to be honest, qualified professionals and some not so qualified and some you’d want to avoid.
The bottom line is that some of these people can actually help you sell a house quickly, sometimes in as little as a few days, and solve problems. Others, I’ve found, won’t even answer the phone or call you back, if you call and leave a message. Oddly enough, I’ve found that this reluctance to follow a lead occurs in several areas of sales.
So the first thing I would suggest when selecting a home buyer to deal with is to call a few, see who answers the phone, and see who leaves your house and arrives when they agreed to arrive. It’s not high-tech, but it’s a good start.
Who am I to tell you how to get around these guys? I am one of them and have been doing creative real estate for two decades in Florida, previously a stockbroker and financial reporter for the Chicago Tribune. It’s sort of like going to a hacker to figure out how to make your computer work safe.
And as one of them, let me assure you that there are good, competent people out there who can raise the money to buy and know how real estate works where you live.
Also, and always, there are waves of new people learning how to buy homes and some of the people who need to sell a house fast will help these newcomers learn the trade.
In addition to seeing if they answer the phone and actually show up on time for an appointment, I would like to know how long the person has been buying houses and how well they do. In the second installment of this series, we’ll look at methods to verify them, and in the third article, we’ll look at phrases in the contract that you’re offered that you may want to avoid.
One of the biggest advantages that the best of these guys and gals will bring to the table to help you is that they have been taught that there are several ways to sell a home, methods that have been used in commercial real estate for years. but which are rarely used in residential real estate.
I learned the use of these creative methods the hard way twenty years ago when I lived on the east coast of Florida and had unknowingly purchased a house in an area where a garbage incinerator was planned. It was to be built about a mile from where my house was and when I was ready to sell the house to move to the Tampa Bay area, I was unable to sell.
Everyone knew about the plans when I was ready to sell and no one wanted any of the houses in my area. I finally left the house with a real estate agent and moved in assuming the cost of two houses.
While many real estate agents don’t like creative real estate, my agent was knowledgeable and suggested a way to sell my house. We were marked down, but after thinking about it we sold and it worked out fine.
There was risk in what I did then and risk in any creative response to a real estate sales problem, but my experience was what ultimately led me to the We Buy Houses business and in future articles we’ll tell you how that can be. help you and discuss the risks.