Sometimes, the unexpected happens. When you receive an unsolicited offer to buy your house, it may feel really strange at first, since you haven’t thought of leaving your home behind, before. But after making sure that the offer is legitimate, you may find yourself energized by the idea of moving on to new pasture. Here is how to best handle an offer on your house, that came totally unexpectedly.
Go through House Valuation of Your Property
The first question you should ask yourself, before doing anything about it, is: How much is my house worth? If you don’t know that, you have no ability to go into negotiations of any kind. The great thing is that you can actually do a house valuation online, so that it can be completed very quickly. You don’t need to go to a real-estate agent anymore, in order to get an idea of the value of your property. Therefore, you can now move on to the next phase, with that number in hand, which is to confirm that the offer is legitimate.
How to tell if the Unsolicited Offer is done in Good Faith
Receiving an unsolicited offer does not mean that it is a scam. In fact, it is rarely the case, since there are many ways to uncover a fake offer. There are many reasons why someone may want to buy your house, as we will explain below. But to make sure this procedure is real, you can proceed in these two ways.
The first one is to look up the company that is offering to buy your house or the person, if that is the case. You can go online to see what you find about them, or you can also visit the company, so that you know exactly who they are. It is certainly the best way to discover if the offer is a scam or not.
The other way is to ask them how they wish to pay you and how they imagined proceeding with the transaction. If they want to sign the papers before they pay you anything, then you know this is a dangerous situation that you need to walk away from. If they keep coming back to you, you may also decide to call upon the police, to let them know about the situation.
Who proceeds to Unsolicited Offers on Houses?
Most of the time, people or companies that want to buy your house, out of the blue, are investors. There are reasons why they want to acquire it, which probably means that they believe they will make more money with it in the future than the price they will pay for it. In fact, this is something you have to be worried about. Many of these investors go through the process of unsolicited offers, because they are looking for home owners who need money rapidly, and who are willing to sell their house short. Again, that is why you need to start with a house valuation, if you don’t want to be tricked into selling at a lower price than the real estate value, in your neighbourhood.
Sometimes, a person who is moving for work reason might need to find a property in your area. Of course, they will start with the ones that are available on the market, before they send you an unsolicited offer. In this case, this may very well benefit you. If someone needs to find a house in your part of the city, he may well offer you more than its value. In such a case, you should definitely talk to a lawyer and someone specializing in real estate, to have their opinion about the offer.
