Anybody explored - We buy houses

Has any body contacted one of these "We buy houses" deals?

I know you are wondering how this might be connected to debt help, but I will explain.

When we started the build of our current home, we were roughly $30,000 in debt. We (a family of 5) lived in my mothers basement apartment for 9 years and thought we would never be able to have a home of our own...that was until a friend of ours made us aware of a little secret.

You see, when you take out a home loan, the bank doesn't really care what you do with the alotted money as long as they get the product you promised (the home).

If you are able to do general construction work...or know a family member who can...you can save a ton of money on the construction costs of building.

Luckily for me, I am a residential design and have been in the residential construction world for all my life.

As tasks are completed in the construction, the bank will allow you so much money for the tasks (based on percentages of completion). As I was building, and doing as much of the work as I could, the bank was allowing me more than what i needed for the tasks completed. As I had the extra money, I paid off bills.

With careful planning through out the build, you can take advantage of the equity you have bestowed as you build and pay off bills.

It is almost like using a home equity loan without having to take out an extra loan.

The things I did to save money were:
Grading - I rented a bobcat and performed all of the grading for my home
Electrical - I pulled all of the wiring for my home and paid an electrician just to wire in the electrical box
HVAC - I assisted with the HVAC (best friend owns a company) which helped to save me some money
Drywall - I hung all the drywall in my house and then found a hungry drywall finisher who finished the drywall for a steal
Painting - I painted everything in the home
Flooring - I did all of the tile work, hardwood and carpet in my home
Landscape - I did all of the landscape - including the sod work.

All in all, I had roughly $160k in my home (including $20k worth of bills paid off and the purchase of the land). My house appraised for $254000 6 months later.

I took out a HELOC and paid everything else off.

Unfortunately, we are spend thrifts and had not learned our lessons from the first 10 years, coupled with sicknesses in the family, and we ended up back in a huge amount of debt.

Which leads me to my original question of the "We buy homes" deal.

I built my home knowing that I would be looking to sell it within 2 - 3 years. I am now ready to sell, but the market has dried up tremendously.

I am contemplating calling one of these "We buy houses" listings to see what they have to say. I have no idea how they work, but if they would atleast allow me pay off for my 1st and HELOC, then I am game to selling to them.

Has anyone ever contacted one of these agencies or know how they work?

Sorry for such a long post

I would bet good money that they are out to rip people off. My hunch is that they advertise, trying to lure people that are desperate for cash, and will then purchase the house at a substantial discount.

That is what I had always thought of them. I see their signs up all the time or the ones that "guarantee" to see your house within 10 days or something like that. Be careful! Remember the saying that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Morningstar is correct. I think that if they bought your house, they would pay the BARE minimum, way less than what your house would be worth. It may sound like a good idea at the time out of desperation for quick cash but I don't think it is a good move for the long term.

I was considering the offer from "we buy houses" but after reading their own explanation that they are like "cash Converters" I started to smell a rat. Cash Converters buy used goods real cheap and sell it at big mark-ups.
"Too good to be true" sounds right.
Most of the "success stories" come from people who purchased a property, but they provide almost no testimonials from sellers. I think most of the sellers get ripped off.

We were transferred and need to sell our home fast. I was SO afraid basically for the same reasons you guys are discussing. But, if I may, I would like to say that NOT all the folks that say they buy houses are bad.How can I say this, your probably asking? Well, because I made a bunch of calls to the ads online and in our local paper and NO ONE called me back! A day later the folks at ALLRealtySolution dot com called me back and made an offer on our home that we can accept in 24 hours just like they promised they would!

Hope this helps you.

PS. I too on occasion think that is it is to good to be true, it "usually" is but, I took a chance anyway and am sincerely glad I did...

Yours sincerely,
LB... formally from PA!