Every day people contact us wanting to sell their home but for many of these homeowners we (or any investor for that matter) are not the right solution. Please, other investors don't beat me up because I'm saying this...
At least for us, we don't try to be the "magic pill" that heals every situation. Instead, we approach everyone that contacts us as an exceptional doctor would - find out the situation or the "problem" and then offer the absolute best solution - whether it includes us or not.
For some situations, I truly believe that we are the best solution in the world and there's not a better one out there. For many others though, I think there's a better result for the situation. Here are a few examples of when I try to encourage people to NOT work with us:
- Mortgage Malaise: Often a homeowner will contact us when they are a payment or two behind. They may have a low payment and great payment history but because of a job change, divorce, etc. they can't quite keep up any more. When this happens the homeowner has a number of choices. One of those, which is often not know by the seller, is that most lenders will work with them to "adjust" their mortgage payments to be more affordable. I remember one instance where a woman and her husband contacted us about selling their home because the payment ($640 a month) was just too much. If we purchased the home, they would walk away with about $10,000, BUT they would need to rent and in our market, you'll have a hard time renting a shed for $640 a month... from a business perspective I wanted to purchase their home. Ethically, I couldn't though. I knew their best bet was to try to re-work their mortgage and stay right where they were. And that's exactly what they did. We didn't make a dime from that situation but we helped a sweet older couple to stay in their lovely home!
- Realtor Reservations: Many times we will get phone calls from people who have beautiful homes in highly desirable neighborhoods. They have no motivation to sell fast; they just don't want to do the minor repairs needed to sell and don't want to deal with Realtors if they can help it. Of course, we offer a super easy solution here - fair, friendly, flexible, all that great stuff, and sometimes we are a good option. But always we encourage the seller to consider all options and we help them understand the impact to the amount of money the will walk away with. Sometimes, 10-15k more for simply selling a more traditional route.
- Long Lost Love: You probably can't believe this but more than once, we've had people contact us who are "desperate" to sell their home to free some long lost love from a prison camp in Africa or Asia. Now, if that was true, that's terrible - totally go and free them. But, I kind of doubt it... pretty sure some scammer (who is quite good at his job) has convinced this sweet old lady that he's going to perish if he doesn't get (how much is your house worth again?) FAST! In these situations, we try to help them understand what's going on and encourage them not to sell to anyone. We then leave. Some other investor might come in and swoop up a "sweet deal" but not us. Don't want that hanging on my conscience.
Of course, there are more situations where we may not be the best solution, but when a seller is looking for a fast, fair and flexible offer and they want to be treated with respect and breathe easy with the sale of their home (as-is, cash, etc) we can be a wonderful solution.
A real estate investor can offer the peace of mind that many homeowners desire. We may not be for everyone, however,at the end of the day, working with an investor like Fast Home Sales might be the best way for you to reach your goals.
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