If you’ve been driven on the highways or busy main roads in Saint Louis, checked your mailbox, watched local TV channels, or checked your texts and calls from unknown numbers, chances are you’ve seen advertising for companies that buy houses.
Often times they say things like “We Buy Saint Louis Houses!” or “Cash For Your House”. Or sometimes you get a call out of the blue asking “are you interested in selling your house?” or a text message along the same lines. Maybe you’ve received a letter or postcard in the mail as well?
Are These “We Buy Houses in Saint Louis Companies” Credible?
How do I find out if the local house buying companies out there are honest and credible?
Well… often they look the same and say the same things… but in this post I’ll walk you through some things to look for in a local house buying company in order to check how legit they are.
Buying and selling houses is a valid and respectable line of work. It helps home owners and sellers with options, and it also helps improve neighborhoods one house at a time. But like any other business – a a few bad apples make the rest of us look bad.
There are people who are really great, caring, empathetic, ethical house buyers who improve their neighborhoods one property at a time. There are real estate professionals, oftentimes they are licensed and can walk you through multiple options to find out what is best for you.
And then there’s shady, dishonest people who put money ahead of everything and only care about the transaction. As long as they are making enough money, they don’t care what happens to the seller.
Yes, they are out there, and it is super super common.
I’ll help you avoid these “shady house buyers” so you can work with honest, ethical, and reputable local companies who can buy your house for a fair all cash offer and close on your schedule or present you options so you can decide what is the best for you.
But before we look at the bad apples, let’s take a look at what the legit house buyers and flippers are doing.
What Legit Saint Louis House Buyers Are Doing
- We help people improve their lives by accessing the money they need right away by offering speed and convenience People often want an easier quicker way to tap the cash in their house to cover surprise expenses, or to relocate to be close to a relative. We can make that happen in just a few days, offering a quick convenience solution along with peace of mind.
- Helping sellers get rid of a difficult property without the hassle of having to wait for anything at all. If you want to sell quickly for whatever reason, we can make that happen in days.
- Creating local jobs. We hire plumbers, contractors, electricians, brokers, title reps, loan officers, administrators and many other local people along the way. The average real estate transaction involves 86 people from start to finish. Our investments help create real jobs for people around Saint Louis MO. These people are your parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighbors, teammated, coworkers, etc.
- Buying American made products. We spend tons of money on materials and supplies that are made right here in the USA – that creates jobs in our timber mills, factories, supply shops, distribution centers and more. The US economy depends on steady improvement, and that requires investment from folks like us.
- Increasing the value of Saint Louis neighborhoods. When we improve a house, we’re helping to increase the value of the entire community. We often repair dated and neglected houses, turning them into beautiful homes for families. That activity strengthens the economy and market in Saint Louis.
- Increasing the tax base. When a new buyer takes over one of our properties, they’ll pay a higher tax rate based on the new and improved value. Those taxes go to pay for our schools, fire, police, libraries, streets and other valuable pieces of infrastructure. Again, improving our neighborhoods.
Pretty good, right?
Lots of people think of house-flipping as a get-rich-quick scheme. That notion is created by silly “reality” shows that to attract eyeballs, have to manufacture drama. In real life, much of this work is one huge spreadsheet and a thousand phone calls. It is typically pretty mundane.
Most of our work is estimating costs, coordinating with lots of people, designing the house inside and out, and executing this. It is pretty mundane, unless you find being a manager exciting.
So let’s get back to how you can use this information to find out if someone is a credible investor, and not just pulling a house buying scam.
How To Ensure You’re Working With A Reputable Local House Buyer
When you talk with a local house buyer or real estate professional to potentially buy your house… ask them some of the questions to ensure they are legic.
Ask open-ended questions like:
- How do you help people that you buy from?
- What do you do for people?
- Can you tell me more about your services?
- What aspect of your business makes you the proudest?
- How would you describe your investment philosophy?
- How can I know that you’ll close on my house when you say you will?
Gauge how they answer the questions, do they sound sincere? Can they give references?
Second, look for tell tale signs of tactics that those few shady operators tend to use.
- “Kitchen table closings” – If a property buyer tries to get you to sign the deed (ownership) of your house over to them at your house, rather than a professional place like a closing attorney or title company… be leery. Most reputable house buying services will perform the actual closing of the sale at title company or attorneys office. This ensures everything is done right and on the up and up.
- Pressuring you into a fast closing – If a house buyer tries to pressure you into selling your house and says that you have to make the decision today, be wary. Most reputable house buying services will make you and offer and that offer will be on the table for at least 2-7 days (minimum) for you to make a decision. The reason reputable house buying services like ours at Arbor House Buyers do place deadlines on our offers is because the market changes and values can change week to week depending on other sales in the area, also… we buy multiple houses a month and when we make you an offer we’re assuring you that the cash to purchase your house is ready and we’ll reserve that cash for several days so if you do want to sell your house, we can close on your schedule. If you feel the offer isn’t a fit for you, then we’ll assign those funds to help another seller with their home sale.
Most scammers are looking for a quick score, and not an in-depth interview.
Chances are good that they’ll find excuses to get off the phone and move on to someone who doesn’t ask too many questions.
True investors who run honest and ethical Saint Louis house buying services, however, are building long-term businesses based on relationships and community development.
So when you’re looking at one of the “we buy houses in Saint Louis companies“… never be afraid to ask questions!