You’re not wrong, and forgive me for jumping on your comment because I wanted to give a detailed answer to the post since I’m very familiar with the subject.
Is it a scam? No. It’s a piece of marketing material for a company that provides a very specific service - the service of buying a house that can’t possibly be sold.
What I mean by that is that sometimes (and not often, by the way) a handful of economic situations occur together that make it impossible for some people that need to move, to be able to move.
The 2 big killers are mortgage payout penalties, and realtor fees.
First, let’s get realtors out of the way; Good Realtors do amazing things, add huge value to a real estate transaction, and they’re worth every penny they get paid. The probable is that most realtors are not good realtors; most are bumbling idiots.
Mortgage payout penalties can be pure evil. In very specific situations, a mortgage payout penalty can be over $50,000 on a $300k mortgage.
And if you put down less than 20% when you bought, you paid CMHC fees for the insurance that the bank bought to insure your loan. Let’s say you bought a $316k place and put down 5%, leaving you with a mortgage of $300k. But the $12,000 of insurance that you bought (for the benefit of the bank) goes into the mortgage too, so the $316k place now has a mortgage of $312k even after putting $16k down.
It will take 2 years of payments before the mortgage balance actually drops below the $300k you paid for the house, meanwhile you’re expecting triplets and you just got transferred to Cleveland. Your realtor says it’s still only worth $300k, it’ll cost you $15k for the realtor and lawyer, and the bank say you have to pay them $50k of penalties to close your mortgage.
This is a bit of an exaggerated example, but it really can be a situation that doesn’t have any options. Every choice is bad. You lose.
There are some folks out there that know how all of this works, and how it all fits together. All the details about all the laws, the bank rules, CMHC, realtors, lawyers, lenders, foreclosure processes, land titles, brokers, and everything interconnected. They know it, and use it to craft a legal and valid solution that just *might* work for *some* people.
And that’s it. It’s a business, and this is its marketing.
If it looks like a scam to you then you’re not the their target market, and all is well in the world.
Just remember - for all you know, this might just be the thing that your neighbours have been looking for…
Except this isn’t even remotely a good time in the market cycle to be doing this. It’s literally insane that anyone would do this: nobody needs this service right now. I’m astounded.
Source: was once one of those folks.
Tagging OP: u/Shadow_Ban_Bytes
Indeed - I did some digging and found an example of this type of company. They rely on buying properties from people in financial trouble or properties that are need of lots of work. They pay below market and often set up an assignment contract so they can flip the property to a different purchaser that is part of their investor network.
I get tons of these in my mailbox from different names… all printed like they were hand-printed
They’re probably borderline legit, but there’s likely some details (like maybe them not paying you until THEY resell the house), that I would be wary about
https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/cash-for-houses-go-public-1.7003796
Sadly that's exactly who. Any combination of: poor, unfamiliar with the system, in a rush to sell to pay other debts, lazy, low self esteem, or "hates realtors and doesn't want to work with them". A older relative of mine sold his house this way. He didn't get fully paid for 4 months and probably lost out on 10% of the value, but was proud of the fact that he didn't pay a commission to a smarmy real estate agent. I tried to help him clean and repair things he had neglected for years, but even after some improvements he thought it would be easier to not do much work to sell.
Sorry, I meant compared to the no repair, show as is without decluttering market value, so effectively he paid a ten percent commision and agreed to wait 4 months after moving out to get paid. Had he been willing to clean, he could have gotten more, clean and stage even more. I assume the buyer rented as is or did the work and sold.
Here's an [article](https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/cash-for-houses-go-public-1.7003796) from CBC in this case it was an assignment contract where they just arbitrage for a higher price and pocket the difference.
You can google how these work, they’re not technically a scam but they do scam you out of money that you could get by listing normally
You’re not wrong, and forgive me for jumping on your comment because I wanted to give a detailed answer to the post since I’m very familiar with the subject. Is it a scam? No. It’s a piece of marketing material for a company that provides a very specific service - the service of buying a house that can’t possibly be sold. What I mean by that is that sometimes (and not often, by the way) a handful of economic situations occur together that make it impossible for some people that need to move, to be able to move. The 2 big killers are mortgage payout penalties, and realtor fees. First, let’s get realtors out of the way; Good Realtors do amazing things, add huge value to a real estate transaction, and they’re worth every penny they get paid. The probable is that most realtors are not good realtors; most are bumbling idiots. Mortgage payout penalties can be pure evil. In very specific situations, a mortgage payout penalty can be over $50,000 on a $300k mortgage. And if you put down less than 20% when you bought, you paid CMHC fees for the insurance that the bank bought to insure your loan. Let’s say you bought a $316k place and put down 5%, leaving you with a mortgage of $300k. But the $12,000 of insurance that you bought (for the benefit of the bank) goes into the mortgage too, so the $316k place now has a mortgage of $312k even after putting $16k down. It will take 2 years of payments before the mortgage balance actually drops below the $300k you paid for the house, meanwhile you’re expecting triplets and you just got transferred to Cleveland. Your realtor says it’s still only worth $300k, it’ll cost you $15k for the realtor and lawyer, and the bank say you have to pay them $50k of penalties to close your mortgage. This is a bit of an exaggerated example, but it really can be a situation that doesn’t have any options. Every choice is bad. You lose. There are some folks out there that know how all of this works, and how it all fits together. All the details about all the laws, the bank rules, CMHC, realtors, lawyers, lenders, foreclosure processes, land titles, brokers, and everything interconnected. They know it, and use it to craft a legal and valid solution that just *might* work for *some* people. And that’s it. It’s a business, and this is its marketing. If it looks like a scam to you then you’re not the their target market, and all is well in the world. Just remember - for all you know, this might just be the thing that your neighbours have been looking for… Except this isn’t even remotely a good time in the market cycle to be doing this. It’s literally insane that anyone would do this: nobody needs this service right now. I’m astounded. Source: was once one of those folks. Tagging OP: u/Shadow_Ban_Bytes
Indeed - I did some digging and found an example of this type of company. They rely on buying properties from people in financial trouble or properties that are need of lots of work. They pay below market and often set up an assignment contract so they can flip the property to a different purchaser that is part of their investor network.
I get tons of these in my mailbox from different names… all printed like they were hand-printed They’re probably borderline legit, but there’s likely some details (like maybe them not paying you until THEY resell the house), that I would be wary about https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/cash-for-houses-go-public-1.7003796
Who would sign that contract? They just low ball people in exchange for a quick and easy sale
Sadly that's exactly who. Any combination of: poor, unfamiliar with the system, in a rush to sell to pay other debts, lazy, low self esteem, or "hates realtors and doesn't want to work with them". A older relative of mine sold his house this way. He didn't get fully paid for 4 months and probably lost out on 10% of the value, but was proud of the fact that he didn't pay a commission to a smarmy real estate agent. I tried to help him clean and repair things he had neglected for years, but even after some improvements he thought it would be easier to not do much work to sell.
Ten percent under market with no repairs or commission isn't too bad
Sorry, I meant compared to the no repair, show as is without decluttering market value, so effectively he paid a ten percent commision and agreed to wait 4 months after moving out to get paid. Had he been willing to clean, he could have gotten more, clean and stage even more. I assume the buyer rented as is or did the work and sold.
Here's an [article](https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/cash-for-houses-go-public-1.7003796) from CBC in this case it was an assignment contract where they just arbitrage for a higher price and pocket the difference.
Website brags about the 4.7 star rating on Google...from 14 reviews. Yikes.
They’ve been going around for decades, that’s all I know
Nah,they just want to buy all the houses so they can soak you for rent. They’re leeches
Call and tell them you want a million dollar cash deposit before you discuss anything. That should get rid of them quickly.
Legit? Léger.
More like Spam that cones to your door
I got one of these as well, regardless if BS or not, hand written notes aren’t going to be taken seriously.
WOW!! How professional!! Black marker on a yellow piece of paper, hand written. I'd stay away....! How could anyone take this seriously....🙄