we buy houses bandit sign

Yep, I know you’ve seen those before, right? They may have been a different color or said something a little different. Maybe it said: “Stop Your Pennsylvania Foreclosure!” or “Avoid Foreclosure” or “We Buy Houses Fast” or any combination of those. You’ve probably seen them in every color too, from white with blue letters to yellow with black letters to everything in between.

And if you’ve had a house for sale you know that those little signs at least piqued your curiousity, right? Well, today is the day where I let you know if those “We Buy Houses” sign people really do work.

Here’s the deal: the people that put out those signs are generally local area real estate investors who actually are looking for houses to “buy.” Now I put the word buy in quotes, because you get all kinds of investors on the phone after calling on these signs and different investors want to do different things.

First things first, let’s talk about the actual investor that is on the other end of the phone when you call. You may be talking to a brand spanking new investor. I mean this investor is so new that it’s still crying from the doctor spanking it’s rear end. Know what I mean? These are called newbies. Pretty much, they have no idea what they are doing. They’re winging it. Now this isn’t to say that they can’t actually buy your house and that they can’t actually get the deal done…..because we ALL were new at something at one point or another, right?

Next you’ll have the intermediate investor. This investor has done a few deals, may even have some rental properties and such. They know what they are doing, in that they know what they can and can’t do. There are still probably some situations that they can’t handle though be it where you owe too much than your house is worth or that you have major foundation issues or that you have a very emotional and messy divorce or estate situation going on.

Finally, you have the experienced investor. They pretty much can handle just about any situation you throw at them ALTHOUGH they generally are very picky in regards to which deals they want to deal with and which deals they don’t want to deal with. Why you might ask? Well they know their business and they know which types of properties and deals fit their business model best. Some experienced investors may only want to deal with foreclosures, some may only want to deal with estates, some may only want to deal with “pretty” houses that don’t need any work and some may only want to deal with houses that are paid for and are owned free and clear. Each investor has their own business model that they have created and improved over time and they run their real estate business with that business model in mind.

Ok now on to buying your house. Well, not everyone of the people that has these signs out want to buy YOUR house per se and quite frankly, not everyone of them may be capable of buying your house, either.

You should be able to get a feel for the type of investor you’re dealing with my talking to them. Do they seem nervous? Do you get the sense they know what they are doing? Does it feel like to you that they’ve been through this process before? You’ll get a feeling for the kind of investor you are dealing with by just talking to them.

Next, if they say they will pay you CASH for your house, do they have proof of funds to show that they have the cash available to buy your house? Ask them that question. That question will let you know who is a real deal investor and who is a newbie that’s just “winging it.” Now, keep in mind, even an experienced investor may not have all cash available to buy you’re home, but they may still be quite capable of buying your home. So don’t be intent on dealing with investors who just have cash. If they can’t prove that they have all cash, ask for a pre-approval letter from a bank or mortgage company. Any experinced investor will not have a problem giving you a pre-approval letter or showing you proof of funds. It’s generally the newer and intermediate investors that may have a problem with these and that’s usually because they don’t have it!

Ok so some mean they are actually going to buy your house in the real sense of buying, where you have a settlement, you get money and they get the keys to your house and you both go about your separate ways. (They may have bought your house with all cash or with a mortgage, either way, at settlement you are walking away with a CHECK. The title company/attorney will not let you walk out with a pile of cash in bags, etc.)

Next, there are folks that when they say buy your house they actually mean other things. Like they may want to wholesale your house. What that means is that you and they agree on a price for your house and you sign a contract together. They in turn, turn around and sell their right in the contract to someone else for a fee. They generally sell the contract to another investor. The other investor is the one who actually brings the cash (or mortgage) to the settlement, where you will get paid. (And you didn’t think houses could be wholesaled like other things in the world are, huh?)

Then there are the people who want to actally do a Lease Option with your house. This is where you sign a lease with someone along with an option to purchase the property. So they are basically paying you rent (and you in turn are paying your mortgage) and what they do is sub-lease it out on a nt to own basis. The person they sub-lease it to is, of course, paying them a higher rent then they are paying you and they have also sign a purchase agreement, along with the lease. What happens is that when the sub-leased tenants are able to get mortgage financing then the initial investor will execute his option with YOU and in turn the person they sub-leased to will purchase the home from them.

You also have folks that will just take ove your mortgage payments. Some folks that use the lease purchase method will say they are taking over payments (and they are for a period of time with the lease) but if the lease ends and they can’t find a buyer, they do NOT have to pay you anymore. Keep in mind this is when their lease and option expires. But there is something called “subject to.” This is when you deed your house to someone and they take over your house subject to the existing financing. So all of the financing on your house stays in place, it’s just that someone else is paying it.

There are soooo many ways that folks can “buy” your house and honestly, every single way that I’ve mentioned above is absolutely and 100% legal here in Pennsylvania. And if you don’t believe me, ask a competent real estate attorney and they will confirm this.

So, if you call on one of these signs and you hear out they investor and they sound “experienced” and capable, but they don’t want to buy your house for cash….just hear them out. One of the options they talk to you about, may actually work for you, even though it’s not the way you are use to doing a real estate transaction.

One word of caution: If you ever encoutner an investor that wants YOU to pay them some type of fee upfront in order to stop your Pennsylvania foreclsoure, please do me a favor and RUN QUICKLY AWAY FROM THEM! Stay away from any type of person who says they are a foreclosure rescue person or company and that requires you to pay them a fee. If you don’t take my word for it, you can research plenty of info on local and state government websites that will tell you the same thing I’m telling you here. Do not do business with these people.

But if you want to get an offer right now from an experienced investor and don’t want to have to wait for a “We Buy Houses” sign then you can call Real Home Solutions, Inc. at 610-999-6410 or you can fill out our form online here.

We are experienced,, local Pennsylvania investors who can pretty much handle any type of situation that you throw at us and best of all, we’re easy to deal with. Don’t take our word for it, check out our testimonials.

Got any questions? Maybe you’ve already called someone and you want to know what they were talking about? Post your question here. We’ll help ya out.

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