Selling A Home To Investors – 40 Benefits You Didn’t Know

“Should I sell my house to a home investor?”

As the owner of a house buying company, I speak to hundreds of homeowners each year who are exploring the best ways to sell their home.

My company ends up purchasing homes from a small percentage of these homeowners. 

We couldn’t promise a skyhigh price on the market like Realtors can. Nor did we attempt to offer top dollar to try and convince them to sell to us.

The homeowners chose us because it’s not just about the price.

It’s about the value we can provide.

Real estate investors are known to buy the ugliest, most rundown houses in the neighborhood. The eyesores neighbors complain about. The vacant houses that attract the homeless.

That is not all…

What many don’t know is the variety of other services and assistance investors provide to homeowners. Sometimes investors are the ONLY people that are capable and willing to go the extra mile in order to solve these stressful and painful problems for the sellers.

We are problem solvers.

The homeowners we buy houses from often are facing some of the most uncommon and difficult situations.

Compiled below is a summary of many reasons why a seller chose to work with investors, including ourselves.  All are real life examples. All have a story behind them. 

We DO NOT use Seller Disclosure forms because we simply do not come back and sue the seller for marking a wrong box – we want to make sure the seller has no liability after they sell the house. 

Here is a simple statement we add to our addendums:

We cater the closing date to fit the sellers needs – We have closed as fast as 5 days for sellers that needed the money, or as far out as 6 months for sellers that just want the peace of mind knowing their house is sold.

   We work with the seller for them to stay longer during instances when they need time AFTER closing to move.

    We save items that were left behind or even deliver them to sellers after closing.

    For out of state sellers, we sort through to look for sentimental items they are looking for and mail it to them.

    We buy properties with tenants still remaining for landlords that doesn’t want to upset their long time tenants.

We commit to buying properties from landlords without seeing the inside of the house, so that the tenants do not get disturbed

We inherit squatters or family members that are squatting inside the house, and deal with them after we close on the purchase of the house.

We walk the seller through the entire process and answer all their questions (without making a commission of course)

    We buy in “as is” condition – We never ask a seller to come out of pocket to fix anything prior to closing.

We obviously don’t charge commissions but we will advise them to seek an Attorney to look over our contract to protect them, and we will cover the cost (most sellers could simply hire an attorney to handle the sale of the property and never pay any realtor commissions and save thousands)

We will handle any and all personal items, trash, automobiles, animals or anything else left behind at closing which allows sellers to take what they want and leave the rest

    We pay and arrange for shredding services to those who need it for sensitive documents.

We will move the seller (not just pay for a truck rental but actually physically move them) to their new home or to a storage unit.

    We handle clearing of all title issues (yes we actually do this- we don’t wait for the title company to do it)

    We handle and pay for the probate & other legal processes sellers find themselves involved in.

We handle and pay for the eviction process, bad tenant or non paying squatter issues that the owners simply do not have the capacity to handle or want to handle.

    We help with utility services at the current place and the next place.

    We prepay people’s rent and deposits for the next place they are moving onto.

    We get people to cash upfront to use for whatever they need (for things like bail, moving,  attorneys fees, etc).

    We work with our attorney to help stop foreclosures.

    We help mediate family disputes when it’s needed.

    We do not bring a mass amount of strangers into your house to invade your privacy.

    We do not post photos online for the world to see the inside of the house.

We always have cash funds to close the sale so no worrying about missing a closing date or losing lender financing.

    We find and fund replacement housing (rent and home-ownership) for the sellers.

    We offer transportation for sellers to get to appointments

    We bring in family members to make sure the seller is of sound mind and getting a fair deal.

We don’t come back and ask for price discounts like most traditional buyers working with realtors are taught to do.

   We do not back out of contracts because of the work needed to fix the house up

We do not order heavy inspections. (We do sometimes need oil tank, septic, and sewer line inspections since we don’t have x-ray vision and can’t see underground. Also in situations when the structural integrity of a house is in question, we bring in experts to rule things out, which could help us potentially offer more money)

     We secure (board up/change locks/remove squatters) property for out of town or out of state sellers.

    We handle negotiations for any insurance claims.

     We deal with HOA’s and mitigate fees and penalties and pay them.

We negotiate and mitigate with code violations, city nuisance lines and use our own cash to pay them off on behalf of the seller

     We take on properties that can’t get clean title.

     We handle left over permitting issues and fix the issues and the city violations

We get liens, mortgages, federal and state tax liens removed from the property so sellers get proceeds at closing.

     We do landscaping, and resolve other maintenance issues to get code enforcement off the seller’s back.

For sellers that had sold us a family house with deep sentimental value and memories, we offer them the chance to come back and visit once our renovations are complete.

These are by no means all-inclusive for what investors can provide a homeowner. Many experienced investors across the country are working alongside sellers on a daily basis to solve unique, difficult, sometimes painful problems revolving around a property.

I hope the situations I wrote about here give the public a deeper understanding of what investors do, and why sellers choose to forego the traditional route of listing a property to work with us.