Are "We Buy Houses" Companies Legit? 10 Things to Check Before You Sign

If you own a house in Cleveland you have almost certainly been contacted by someone who wants to buy it. A yellow letter, a postcard, a call from a number you do not know. Most owners ignore it. But if you are actually thinking about selling — because the house needs work you cannot fund, or you inherited it, or you are behind — the letter stops being junk and starts being a question.

So here is the honest version, written by a company that buys houses this way. Most companies doing this are real businesses. Some are not. And a few are not buyers at all. You should not have to guess which one is standing in your kitchen, and in Ohio you largely do not have to.

One thing to get out of the way first, because it muddies every conversation about this: a low offer is not a scam. A below-retail price in exchange for an as-is purchase with no repairs, no commission and a closing date you pick is a trade. You are free to say no. A scam is something else — a price that changes once you are committed, a fee that appears from nowhere, or a buyer who was never able to close. Keep those two ideas separate and the rest of this gets much easier.

The ten checks

1. 1

   Ask whether they are buying it, or selling your contract

   This is the single most useful question, and most sellers never ask it. Some companies buy houses. Others put your house under contract and then find someone else to actually buy it — the contract gets assigned. Neither is improper, but they are different deals with different risks. Ask plainly: are you closing in your own name, or assigning this?

2. 2

   Look for "and/or assigns" next to the buyer name

   That phrase, or an assignment clause further in, is how the answer to check one shows up in writing. If they told you they are the buyer but the contract lets them hand it to someone else, you want to reconcile that before you sign, not after.

3. 3

   Run the name through Ohio’s licence lookup

   Ohio provides that no person shall act as a real estate broker or salesperson, or advertise or assume to act as such, without first being licensed. Buying a house for yourself does not require a licence — but marketing someone else’s property generally is brokerage. You can search names at elicense.ohio.gov. A buyer who is not licensed is not automatically a problem; a person marketing your house who is not licensed is a question worth asking.

4. 4

   Ask for proof of funds, and read what it actually says

   A real cash buyer can show you they have the money. Look at whose name is on it, whether the amount covers your price, and how recent it is. A screenshot with no institution name on it is not proof of anything.

5. 5

   Look them up in the county records

   This is the check almost nobody runs and it is the most revealing. The Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office publishes a property search at myplace.cuyahogacounty.gov. A company that has genuinely been buying houses here leaves a trail of parcels and transfers. One that has not, does not.

6. 6

   Find out who holds the earnest money

   It should sit with a title company or an escrow agent, not in the buyer’s own account. Ask which title company, then call that title company yourself using a number you looked up rather than one you were given.

7. 7

   Read the inspection and termination clauses

   Look for how long the buyer has to walk away and for what reasons. A very long inspection window with a broad right to cancel means you are off the market while they decide — and it is the mechanism behind a price that drops late in the process.

8. 8

   Check whether any money is being asked of you

   In an ordinary sale, money moves toward the seller. Legitimate costs come out of the proceeds at closing. An application fee, a processing fee, or a deposit requested from you before closing is the point to stop and take advice.

9. 9

   Ask what happens if they cannot close

   A confident buyer will answer this specifically, and the contract will say something about it. A vague answer is itself information.

10. 10

    Have somebody read it who is not selling you anything

    A real estate attorney reading a purchase agreement is not an expensive exercise relative to the size of the transaction. If a buyer discourages you from doing this, that is the loudest signal in this entire list.

Three things Ohio law gives you that national articles miss

Most of the advice you will find on this question is written for the whole country by companies whose own business is referring sellers to real estate agents. It is not wrong, exactly, but it stops at "check reviews and get proof of funds". Ohio hands you more specific tools than that.

The licence register is public

The rule is in the Revised Code: nobody may act as a real estate broker or salesperson, or advertise or assume to act as such, without first being licensed. That is a checkable fact about a person, not a matter of opinion, and Ohio publishes the register.

The disclosure form has exemptions that probably apply to you

Ohio requires a Residential Property Disclosure Form for transfers of residential property with one to four dwelling units. But the statute exempts several transfers that are common among the people reading this site — a transfer pursuant to court order, including one ordered by a probate court during the administration of an estate, a deed in lieu of foreclosure, and a transfer by foreclosure sale. If you inherited the house, you may not be filling that form out at all.

The cancellation right is the buyer’s, not yours

This one catches people. Where the disclosure form is delivered late or not at all, Ohio gives a right to rescind — to the transferee, meaning the buyer. It is capped at the earlier of thirty days after you accepted their offer, or the closing. Sellers frequently believe this clause is their safety net. It is written the other way round.

What a real red flag looks like next to a normal one

Sorting the alarming from the merely unfamiliar

A single item from the right-hand column is a reason to slow down and ask a question, not proof of bad intent. Two or three together is a reason to walk.

How to decide, once you have checked

Vetting the buyer answers "can I trust this?". It does not answer "should I sell this way?". Those are separate questions, and the second one has six answers, not two.

And the six routes are always the same ones: keep it, repair it, rent it, list it with an agent, sell it yourself, or sell it as-is to a direct buyer. A cash sale is one of six, not the default. If the house is in decent shape and nobody is under time pressure, listing it will usually produce a bigger gross number — we will say that plainly, because it is true.

• Compare the net, not the price. Take each route down to what actually reaches your bank account after commission of 5.5%–6%, repairs, concessions, closing costs and the months of taxes, insurance and utilities you carry while it sits.
• Count the certainty. A financed buyer can be declined after an appraisal or an inspection. That risk is real and it has a value, even though no one puts a number on it.
• Count your own time. Showings, cleanouts and contractor visits are a cost, and for an out-of-state owner or someone managing an estate they can be the largest one.
• Do not let anyone hurry this. A genuine offer that is good today is still a reasonable offer next week. Anyone telling you otherwise has told you something useful about themselves.

Where we fit, and where we do not

We buy houses in Cleveland and Greater Cleveland directly, as-is, without commission, and we can close quickly when title allows or on a later date if that suits you better. We think that is a genuinely good fit when the obstacle is condition, or an estate that cannot fund repairs, or distance, or a deadline. We do not think it is the right answer for a well-maintained house whose owner has six months and no particular pressure — in that situation, list it.

The reason this post gives you tools rather than reassurance is that reassurance from an interested party is worth nothing. Run the checks. Run them on us. A company that is what it says it is has no reason to mind.