Tips to avoid being scammed while selling a house
Buying and selling homes is a very lucrative business in the country. If you are considering selling your house and are in a hurry there are several means through which you can do that. There are dealers and individual buyers who would buy it from you. These people or organizations may either be buying it for themselves or act as middlemen who will buy it from you and then sell it to another party with a profit margin. Hence, you need to be careful about whom your house will be sold to and how is the entire process dealt with. Buying or selling a property is a big financial commitment around which there are several scams involved in this industry. Therefore, it is important that you don’t fall into any kind of trap and deal with reputable buyers or mediators only. Below are some tips to avoid being conned while selling a house:

What is the most common trick used by scam artists in the housing industry?

• Making unrealistic high-price offers to get the initial interest of the seller is a very common trick practiced by the property-buying organization, company, or person/s, who are claiming to want to buy the property quickly.
• These people may suddenly reduce the quoted price at the last minute of the deal or when the house is nearing completion. This can leave you vulnerable and helpless. It forces you to give them the house out of fear of facing a repossession.
• Always do a thorough check and compare several market prices and arrive at an average market value for your property. Quote and expect a decent profit and don’t fall into traps where fancy rates are offered by buyers.

Are there any real buyers who buy homes in cash?

• Be aware that there are only a handful of genuine property buyers in the market operating with cash. Hence, it is important to understand such traps before it is too late in the sales process and the sale has been made.
• Several advertisements in the media or the Internet could be fake or those with no proper or legit source of finance to purchase your house as quickly as they say. The same applies to those advertisements who offer to provide professional services for you to get what you demand and deserve.
• There is another category of people who claim as “genuine cash buyers”. These people simply pretend like inquiry sellers and then pass on your inquiry to somebody else who will deal with it thereby cheating you off from getting the full benefits that you would otherwise get from a genuine cash buyer.
• Non-genuine cash buyers may take a longer time to make the purchase, as they will have to arrange the required finance, mortgage, or any other third party to back up the property deal. Chances of them buying your house through “sell your house fast” deals are less likely.

What kind of protection can the homeowners expect when selling a house through a quick house sale company?

• As this segment of the market is not regulated, any form of protection cannot be expected by the home seller from these companies.
• Hence, it is important for a seller to do a thorough check of the intended quick house sale company’s portfolio and reputation before striking any deal.

What are the simple checkpoints that can help you do your diligence and choose your buyer?

• Ask the buyer if they can show you proof of available funds required to purchase your home and confirm if they are real cash buyers.
• Check who their previous customers are and what was their image about the company and experience of the business transaction.
• What kind of reviews and testimonials does the company maintain on social platforms? If there are too many positive feedback, reviews, and testimonials, check how genuine the happy ones are.
• Check if you can make an appointment to personally visit them at the office address. This kind of face-to-face discussion can make you feel more confident and also give you a fair idea of how genuine they are.
• Verify if they are members of any genuine authority/organizations like the Property Ombudsman, Property Buyers group, etc.
• Evaluate their experience and ability to carry out the property-buying business as quickly as they claim.
• Find out who are the shareholders or business owners of the organization with whom you are dealing with. Through some sort of personal and online research of identifying the company information like credit reports, business ownership, directors, etc. you can protect yourself from con artists.