When you’re just not able to sell your home and you’ve been trying for a while, you’re going to find that you’re not left with a whole lot of options. But that’s why so many real estate investors have capitalized on the market, by providing you with supposed deals, if you will sell your home to them. However, you’re going to find that this may not always be the best way to do this, and you’ll find a telling statement on the ads can be, we buy houses. You’re going to find that this is the slogan for both trusted companies that will give you a fair deal, and those that won’t quite deliver the same type of trustworthy attitude.
That’s why you have to be careful, and why you have to do your homework. You’re going to find that there are plenty of avenues out there, and the we buy houses scam is one that you really want to avoid falling for when you legitimately want to be able to sell off your house. There are a few things to look out for here, and some of the most important are going to include:
1) Where are you seeing the advertisement?
This is really vital, as you’re going to find that not all of them are from trust worthy places. Usually you have to think about this as your first warning sign as to whether or not the company is even legitimate. For example, on a full out advertising billboard, you can usually trust the company is legitimate, because of how much it costs to buy them. But you’re also going to find that this is true of internet sites as well. The people that are trying to facilitate a scam are not going to pay for a banner ad on a trusted site like Google or Bing, but rather they will be one of the random one off sites that shows up in search results.
2) Pay attention to how you contact them.
Something that you’re going to find when trying to spot a scam, is that in the way their contact number is written or posted, you’ll find this as a big clue as to their legitimacy. When someone is putting forth an offer by saying something like “we buy houses for cash” you’re not going to want to be calling a random long distance number to talk to them. But rather you want to know they have a dedicated 800 number because they are so serious about being able to take your call, and the calls of other interested home owners.
3) Always ask for professional references.
This is a necessity, as it affords you the opportunity to talk to other companies that have gone through this type of realtor before. You’re going to find that this is going to tell you a lot about any given service, and is going to offer you the chance for you to really investigate and determine whether or not what they’re selling is really for you or not. Usually this comes in the form of other customers, as well as banks and the like that do business with that organization. Any company that cannot provide such information is probably one of the we buy houses scams, and you really want to avoid them.
4) But just how can these scams be so damaging?
You’re going to find that there are actually a lot of ways that a we buy houses for cash faux company can damage you and your home. It’s so invaluable that you pay careful attention to what they’re asking you to do, otherwise the following can happen to you:
- Equity theft.
One of the largest ways that this actually affects anybody is through the theft of your equity, or the actual valuation of what your home. The way that this is done is by getting you to sign over the deed before the sale is complete, at which point they own your property and actually don’t owe you anything when it comes to having to pay you for the home itself. By the time that you’re able to stop them or track them, the home is already sold and you’re out the value of the house.
- Overseas buyer organizations.
But finally, another key way that we buy houses scams tend to work is almost like the famous Nigerian bank account scams. What these are is overseas persons that claim to be interested in buying your home and moving in from a different country. However, they are just ploys to get a hold of your personal information, like your bank account number so that they can access your funds. So obviously, don’t let them get a hold of that information no matter what you have to do to stop them.