Lead brokers, contract flippers and buyers
The first kind is a lead broker. They are not buying anything. They collect your details, sometimes with a form promising an instant offer, and sell that information to several buyers. The tell is that the "offer" never arrives as a figure, and you suddenly start hearing from multiple companies at once.
The second kind puts a house under contract at a low number and then sells that contract to somebody else before closing. This is wholesaling. It is legal and it is not automatically bad, but you should know it is happening, because the person you shook hands with is not the person who will close.
The third kind buys with its own funds and closes. That is the only one where the number you are given and the number at closing are the same thing by default.
The questions to ask any Hempstead cash buyer
Ask for proof of funds and watch what happens. A buyer with money treats this as routine. Everyone else produces a reason.
Ask whether they will close themselves or assign the contract to somebody else. Assignment is legal, common, and fine when disclosed. The problem is discovering it at the closing table.
Ask whether the number can change after an inspection. An offer that can be revised downward once you have stopped talking to other buyers is not really an offer, it is an option on your house.
Ask whether you can use your own attorney. In New York both sides use one. A buyer who wants to supply yours is solving a problem you should ask about.
The red flags, in order of seriousness
In rough order: a firm number given before seeing the house, a deadline designed to prevent a second opinion, any request for money from the seller, reluctance to show proof of funds, and evasiveness about who is actually closing.
None of these on their own proves bad faith. Together they describe a business model that depends on the seller not asking questions, and the remedy in every case is the same. Slow down, ask the question in writing, and talk to your attorney before signing anything.
The process, so you know when it is off-script
The buyer sees the house. Each side has an attorney, as is standard in New York, and yours reads the contract before you sign. The deposit goes into your attorney's escrow account rather than to the buyer. A title search turns up any liens, judgments or open permits. Then you close on the date written into the contract.
Three things should never appear in that sequence: a price cut because of an inspection, a different purchaser turning up, or a request for money from you. If one does, call your attorney before you call the buyer back. This is how it works across Nassau County.
Applying the same test to us
You should apply the same four questions to us, so here are the answers without being asked.
We will show proof of funds. Our written number does not move between offer and closing, because we price the condition once rather than discovering it later. You instruct your own attorney. And if you ask whether we will close ourselves or assign the contract, you will get a straight answer for your specific house rather than a slogan.
We also tell Hempstead sellers when listing would net them more than we will pay. That costs us deals and it is the correct advice in a meaningful share of the calls we take.
What you do not pay
These are the costs of putting a house on the market through an agent. None of them apply when you sell to us.
- Agent commission
- $33,000 at 5% of the Hempstead median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $13,200 on a $660,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Whatever it takes to make it listable, paid in advance none
- Cleanout and removal
- Charged by the truckload, and done before the first showing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities through the 102 to 117 days a listing takes to sell and close none
Where your information goes
Sometimes it goes to one company. Frequently it is sold on to several, and occasionally it is sold repeatedly over months, which is why homeowners who filled in one form years ago are still getting texts.
The test is simple enough. Look for a privacy policy and read the paragraph about sharing with third parties. A site that promises an instant offer, asks for a phone number before showing you anything, and has no clear policy is collecting rather than buying. Hempstead homeowners get a lot of these.
Assignment, explained properly
The contract you sign contains a clause saying whether it can be transferred. If it can, the buyer can find somebody else to step into their place and take a fee for arranging it.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this and a lot of houses trade that way. The risk you carry is completion risk: your sale now depends on a third party being found, and if none is, you have lost the time. A buyer closing with their own funds carries no such dependency. Whichever you are dealing with, you are entitled to know which it is before you sign, and your attorney will tell you what the clause actually says.
What to do if you think you moved too fast
Take it to an attorney today rather than trying to work it out yourself, and take the whole document including anything you signed at the door.
What matters is what the contract says: whether there is a period in which you can withdraw, what the deposit arrangements are, whether it is assignable, and what happens if either side does not complete. Those are specific questions with specific answers, and an hour with an attorney is worth considerably more than any reassurance from the other party.
Do not rely on a verbal assurance that you can get out of it. If it is not in the document, it does not exist.
Common questions
Are all the companies texting me about my house scams?
Most are not scams in a criminal sense. They are lead brokers and contract flippers operating legally, and the problem is usually that nobody explains which one you are dealing with. Ask directly and the picture clears up fast.
Should a cash buyer ever ask me for money?
No. Never, for any reason. There is no legitimate fee, deposit or application payment that a buyer collects from a seller.
They offered more than everyone else. Is that good?
Treat a conspicuously high offer with more care, not less. A number well above the others is sometimes real and is often a way to secure the contract and take other buyers out of the picture, after which it is reduced. Ask whether the figure is binding and whether it can change after an inspection, and get the answer in writing.
Do I really need my own attorney?
In New York, yes, and use your own rather than one suggested by the buyer. It is the single most effective protection available to you, and it is standard practice on both sides of every residential sale in the state.