Are Cash Home Buyers Legit?

When you are looking to sell your home, in the modern housing market, there are lots of different options open to you. You can take the more traditional route and sell through an estate agent or you can try and sell your property through an auction. Although these are tried and tested and incredibly popular ways, they are not without their pitfalls.

For one thing, both options are not guaranteed to result in a sale, and even if your home does sell, it may not necessarily be for the price you want or think your home deserves.

Then there’s the issue of the timeframe. Selling on the housing market through an estate agent is not considered to be the fastest way to sell and you may need to re-list your home a couple of times before you find a buyer. All of which not only costs you time but money too.

Are Cash Buyers Really Legit?

As highlighted by the question in the title of this post, there is another option that allows you to completely bypass the pitfalls associated with both selling through estate agents and on property auctions – cash buyers. Often when you read of the fast purchase times and amazing price people get when selling to cash buyers you could be forgiven for thinking they seem too good to be true and may even be a con.

Is that really the case?

Well, just as you need to take care to use a legitimate certified estate agency and agent, and make sure that the auction you are putting your house up for sale on is legal and official, you need to take the same steps when choosing the property cash buyer you to whom you sell your home.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of unscrupulous individuals and organisations out there that operate property cash buying businesses that are merely a front.

How do you avoid these scammers and make sure the cash buyer is legitimate? We’ve put together a list of key things you need to look out for.

Not a Genuine Cash Buyer

A website simply stating repeatedly that they buy homes for cash is not enough to prove that a business is actually a genuine cash buyer, At the moment, the property cash buying sector is not officially regulated. This leaves room in the market for lots of companies to use terms like “we buy any home” and “we buy your home for cash” without having access to the available funds to buy your home.

They actually just put your home on sites like Zoopla and Rightmove and sell it in the same sort of way an estate agent would. The best way to determine if they are a genuine cash buyer or not is by requesting proof of funds, preferably through a letter from a solicitor stating that they do have the cash available to buy your property.

If they can’t offer you any proof or you are suspicious, you should look elsewhere.

Inaccurate Valuations

Scam cash property buyers will try to pull you in with inaccurate valuations that are either too low or interestingly, too high. For example, the government introduced a special ruling that meant a company like a property cash buyer couldn’t offer 100% of the market value, so if the company you are interested in selling to offers any more than 75% of the value, look elsewhere.

On the other side of things, if it feels like the company are undervaluing your home, be wary. It is obviously in their best interest for the valuation to deem your home cheaper than it may be because it means they need to spend less. The best thing you can do to avoid this from happening is to look for companies and individuals that guarantee RICS valuations are used.

Hidden Fees and Charges

Companies like Cash Home offer their property cash buying service for free and are very transparent about the fact that they take care of all the legal fees and even handle the documentation. Beware of companies that are not very transparent about the costs involved in buying your home, as you may be stung with various fees and charges further down the line, normally on the last day when you are just looking to complete the sale.