Hey, all April Crossley here with Berks County House Buyers. And today we’re going to talk about how do you know that your cash buyer can actually close on your property. This morning, we got a call from a homeowner who needed to sell their house quickly for cash, but they were scared because they said that a title company told them that they have some cash house buyers that are unable to close on properties. They put them under contract. Then they just drag out the contract, keep the seller tied up under contract forever, and don’t close on the properties. We cannot stand these type of companies. They are typically not legitimate cash buyers. So how can you tell if you’re dealing with a reputable cash buyer, in Berks County, as opposed to a cash house buyer ho isn’t going to be able to actually buy the property.
Tip number one, ask for proof of funds. You can ask your cash buyer to send you a bank statement, showing that they have money in the account to buy the property. I much prefer a bank statement over a letter from a hard money lender. I want to see that there’s cash, liquid in someone’s bank account, and that they’re able to buy the property. Number two, you can call the title company that they close with. Ask the cash house buyer what title company do you close with, and who is the title agent. Call that title agent and ask them, “Are you familiar with this company? Are you familiar with this cash buyer? Have they closed on properties in the past?”
The third thing you can do is ask your cash house buyer for what we call HUD-1 settlement statements. These are statements showing that they have recently closed on properties in the area. Why would a cash buyer tie a house up under contract? I’m not sure. We just helped a seller last week, who was working with another cash house buying company that had him tied up under contract for 60 days and never purchased the home. A lot of times it’s because they actually do not have the money to buy the property cash, or they’re wholesaling the property, which there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as they have buyers. But what a lot of these cash house buyers do is they’ll ask you what you want for the property. And instead of contracting it at a reasonable price that makes sense, they just tell you that they’re going to give you whatever you’re asking. And then they’re unable to actually get financing for the property, because the purchase price makes no sense.
So we have to buy at a price that we can get approved, either buy our bank, even if we’re purchasing for cash, we’ll typically buy cash and then cash out refinance and replace that cash with a loan from the bank. So sometimes they have to get pre-approved and show, “Hey, I’m buying it at this, and I want to get a loan to replace it after I’ve purchased it.” And if they’re contracting the house way too high in price, they’re not going to be able to get that. So they tie up sellers under contract for a long time. Our seller last week was so anxious and worried that we were not going to buy his property, because other cash home buyers had ruined how he views cash home buying companies.
Berks County House Buyers is a reputable cash house buying company. We typically work with Stewart Abstract of Wyomissing, Barb Cammarano or Carol Chelius. You are welcome to call there and ask them about April Crossley, Modesta Heredia, Lorena Gomez. We all work together to close on properties for our sellers. If you are in need of selling your home quickly for cash in Berks County, and you’re looking for a reputable cash house buying company, check us out on our website, Berks610.com, or give us a call 610-816-6205 for a free, no obligation consultation.