Is we buy houses legit or a scam? How to vet any cash buyer.
Most companies behind those signs and postcards are real. Some aren’t, and a few are real but bad for you. Here’s how to tell the difference before you sign anything.
Many we buy houses companies are legitimate businesses and some aren’t, so the phrase settles nothing: legitimacy is decided company by company. No Colorado license or registration certifies a cash buyer as trustworthy, so the checks are yours: verify the entity, ask who will close and how the purchase is funded, confirm who holds the earnest money, and refuse any fee before closing.
Why the question comes up at all
The signs on the corner, the yellow postcards, the texts from a number you don’t recognize: they all say some version of we buy houses. That phrase belongs to no one. A national franchise uses it, thousands of small local buyers use it, and so do people who never intend to buy your house at all. So when someone asks whether we buy houses is legit, the honest answer is that the phrase tells you nothing. The company behind it tells you everything.
Sellers who search for we buy houses scams or we buy houses reviews are usually in the middle of something hard: a house that needs work they can’t fund, a deadline from a lender, an inheritance two states away. That pressure is exactly what a bad actor counts on. The good news is that the warning signs are consistent, and spotting them doesn’t take a lawyer. Signing is different: Colorado gives you specific protections when you sell to an investor while behind on the mortgage, so talk to a HUD-approved housing counselor or a Colorado attorney before you sign anything.
We’re Amy and Jenny, two local owners in Fort Collins who buy houses for cash across Northern Colorado and the Denver metro. This page is the checklist we’d want a neighbor to run on us. Use it on anyone who hands you an offer, including us.
Six things a legitimate cash buyer should be willing to do
- Tell you how the purchase is funded in plain words before you sign: their own cash, a loan, or an investor who will close on the contract.
- Put earnest money with a title company never in their own account, and in an amount that would actually hurt to walk away from.
- Charge you nothing no application fee, no processing fee, no inspection fee. A real buyer pays its own costs and, in our case, your closing costs too. On any sale your mortgage payoff, any liens, prorated taxes and any HOA balance still come out of the price at closing.
- Explain the number plainly: what the house is worth fixed up, what repairs cost, what selling costs, what they keep. If the math is a secret, the offer is a guess.
- Tell you who is buying the legal entity that signs the contract, and whether they plan to assign it to an investor who will close.
- Let you take your time a written offer that expires in an hour is a sales tactic, not a purchase. Ask any buyer, including us, to put the offer’s expiration in writing. Ours stands while you compare it against listing.
Is we buy houses a legitimate business?
Often, yes, though no one publishes a count. Many of the companies that advertise we buy houses are real businesses that purchase property, repair it, and resell or rent it. That includes a well known national franchise, regional investment groups, and a very large number of small local buyers, which is what we are. The confusion comes from treating we buy houses as one company. It’s a category, and the category holds four quite different kinds of operator, each with different incentives.
The first is the direct buyer, who purchases with its own funds and closes in its own name. The second is the franchise, where a local operator pays for the brand and follows its playbook. The third is the wholesaler, who signs a contract with you and then brings in an investor to close on it, usually by assigning the contract for a fee the investor pays. The fourth is the lead seller, who never buys anything: they collect your address and phone number and sell them to whoever pays. The first three are ordinary business structures, which tells you how a company is built and nothing about how it will treat you, so run the same checks on all of them; the third becomes a problem only when it’s hidden from you. The fourth is why your phone rings for weeks after you fill out one form.
A legitimate business is also not automatically a good deal. A company can be perfectly real, pay on time, and still offer far less than your house would net on the open market. So the question to ask isn’t only whether this company is real, but whether this company is right for this house. We cover the four types, and how to choose between them, in more depth on our companies that buy houses for cash page.
Read more: Companies That Buy Houses for Cash: Four Types, How to Choose →
What are the risks of a cash offer on a house?
The first risk is price, and it isn’t a scam, it’s a trade. A cash buyer purchasing as-is takes on the repairs, the holding costs, the resale risk and the commission you avoid, and prices all of that into the offer. On a house in good condition in a strong Northern Colorado market, listing with an agent will often net more, and a straight buyer will say so. The real risk is accepting a cash offer without ever seeing what listing would have netted. Get both numbers.
The second risk isn’t knowing who will close. Some contracts give the buyer the right to assign the agreement to another party, usually an investor who closes at the same price and on the same date. That’s a common arrangement, and it works when you know about it and the contract protects your date. The risk is finding out late, or signing a contract that says nothing about what happens if the closing date is missed. Ask directly who will close and when. The Colorado Real Estate Commission’s residential contract answers the assignment question by default in section 2.2, which says the contract isn’t assignable by the buyer unless the parties write an exception into Additional Provisions, so read that clause in whatever paperwork you’re handed, and understand what you’re agreeing to before you agree to it.
The third risk is the re-trade. A buyer offers a strong number to win the contract, then comes back after inspection with a long list of problems and a much lower price, betting that you’re too far down the road to start over. The defense is an offer that already accounts for the condition of the house. If a buyer has walked the property, or seen photos and asked real questions about the roof, the furnace and the foundation, a large cut after inspection deserves a specific written reason. Ask what would cause the offer to change before you sign, and get the answer in writing.
The last risk is a contract written entirely in the buyer’s favor: a long inspection period with a free walk-away, a tiny earnest deposit, a clause letting the buyer extend closing at will. None of these is unusual, and a clause isn’t automatically unlawful, but all of them shift the risk onto you. A title company closes the sale and can explain its own documents and the closing process; under the Commission’s contract it holds the earnest money on behalf of both buyer and seller, which is exactly why it isn’t your advocate and isn’t the place for legal advice. For what a clause commits you to, ask a Colorado real estate attorney, and a reputable buyer won’t mind you asking. If you want to see how a cash number should be built in the first place, we show our math on the offer page.
Read more: How Much Do Cash Buyers Pay for Houses? Our Offer Math, Shown →
How do you vet a cash buyer in Colorado?
Run this checklist on any buyer, including us, before you sign a purchase agreement. Most of it takes an afternoon, and none of it offends a real buyer.
We have answered every one of these questions many times. We’d rather you ask than wonder, and we’d rather lose a house to an agent who nets you more than buy one from someone who didn’t check. If a buyer has already taken money from you, or you believe you were misled, the Colorado Attorney General’s office takes consumer complaints, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau takes complaints that involve a mortgage servicer.
Read more: Cash Home Buyers Reviews: What Colorado Sellers Say About Us →
- Look up the legal entity in the Colorado Secretary of State business database. The name on the contract should match a company in good standing, with a registered agent and an address you can find on a map, and if the buyer is a person rather than a company, verify the person instead. Registration shows that a filing exists, not that the buyer is honest or funded, and Colorado requires no license to buy a house for your own account, so don’t expect a license number.
- Ask how the purchase is funded and who will bring the money to closing: the buyer’s own cash, a loan, or an investor who closes on the contract. A hard money loan isn’t cash. It can still be fine, but you should know which one you’re dealing with.
- Ask where the earnest money goes and how much it is. On the Commission’s contract it’s payable to a named earnest money holder that keeps it in a trust account for both sides, most often a Colorado title company, and a licensed brokerage trust account is allowed too. What matters is a neutral holder named in writing, never the buyer’s own account, and an amount that’s meaningful.
- Ask whether they intend to assign the contract, and read the assignment clause yourself. Get the answer in writing, in the contract itself where possible.
- Ask for the math behind the offer. A buyer who can’t explain how it reached the number is either guessing or hiding the margin.
- Read the reviews the right way. Search the entity name on Google and the Better Business Bureau, look for reviews that describe a process (how communication went, whether closing happened on the promised date) rather than just a star, and look at how the company responds to the critical ones.
- Meet them, or at least talk to a person who will be at closing. Two owners who answer their own phone is a very different thing from a call center that assigns you a rep.
- Never pay anything before closing. No fee to get an offer, no fee to hold the price, no fee for an inspection or appraisal. If money would move from you to them before the title company disburses, stop.
- Never sign a deed or a power of attorney before closing. A deed transfers ownership of the house, it belongs at the closing table where the money moves at the same time, and handing it over early doesn’t take your name off the loan. Walk away from anyone who tells you to stop paying your lender, or to send your mortgage payments to them instead.
- Know how you get out before you get in. Once you sign, you’re under contract, and the ways out are the ones written into the contract or given to you by law, so read the termination and deadline sections before you sign.
How does Expert Cash Buyers check out?
We’d rather you verify than trust, so here’s what you can check. Expert Cash Buyers is owned by Amy and Jenny. We’re the people who answer the phone at (970) 406-3595, and one of us is who you deal with from the first call through closing. Our office is at 300 S Howes St Suite B in Fort Collins, Colorado, 80521, and you’re welcome to meet us there. Our reviews live on our Google Business Profile, where we can reply but can’t rewrite a word of what somebody wrote, and where Google, not us, decides whether a review stays up. We repeat them on our reviews page exactly as written.
Every offer we make is written, arrives within 24 hours of talking with you about the house, and comes with the math explained: we walk you through the after-repair value we used, the repair estimate, the selling and holding costs, and our margin. There’s no fee to get it and no obligation to take it. If you say yes, you choose the closing date, as little as 14 days out or as far out as you need, at a reputable local title company. We cover the seller’s closing costs, there are no commissions, and you can leave whatever you don’t want to move.
And the honest part: if listing with an agent would clearly net you more, we’ll tell you. We buy houses that make sense as a cash sale. When yours doesn’t, you should hear it from us, not find out later. You can read more about who we are, and check any of this for yourself, on our about page.
Read more: About Expert Cash Buyers: Two Local Cash Home Buyers in Colorado →
A legitimate cash buyer or warning signs.
A legitimate cash buyer
- How it is funded Explained plainly before you sign
- Earnest money Held in trust for both sides by a neutral holder, usually a title company
- Fees to you None, before or at closing
- The offer number Written, with the math laid out
- Who closes The buyer on the contract, or an assignee you were told about in advance
- Timeline pressure An offer that stands while you compare it against listing
- Reviews Public, on a profile where the company can’t rewrite them, with real process detail
- The deed Signed at closing, where the money moves at the same time
Warning signs
- How it is funded Vague, or an answer that changes
- Earnest money Tiny, or paid to the buyer directly instead of a title company
- Fees to you Any application, holding, inspection or processing fee
- The offer number Verbal, or a figure with no explanation of how it was reached
- Who closes Unclear, or a right to assign that nobody mentioned
- Timeline pressure An offer that expires today, before you can talk to anyone
- Reviews None at all, only perfect ones with no detail, or a company you can’t find
- The deed Asked for early, with a power of attorney or your mortgage payments
Three clear steps, and nothing to surprise you.
Tell us about the house, and ask us anything
Two minutes by form or phone. You talk to Amy or Jenny, not a call center. Ask every question on the checklist above; we expect it.
Read the written offer, and ask about the math
Within 24 hours you get one written cash offer, and we walk you through how we reached the number. Compare it against listing. If listing would clearly net more, we’ll already have told you.
Close at a local title company on your date
You pick the date, as little as 14 days out. Earnest money sits with the title company and we cover your closing costs.
Questions homeowners ask us.
Is we buy houses a legitimate business?
Often, yes. We buy houses is a phrase, not a company, and many of the businesses that use it really do purchase houses for cash. The exceptions are wholesalers who hide that they plan to assign your contract, and lead sellers who never buy anything and simply resell your contact details. Judge the specific company: verify the legal entity, ask who will close and how the purchase is funded, and confirm that no money moves from you to them before closing.
Is We Buy houses a good company?
It depends entirely on which company you mean, because many unrelated businesses use that name or something close to it. A good cash buyer, whatever it’s called, tells you plainly who will close and how the purchase is funded, holds earnest money at a title company, explains its offer math, charges you no fees, and tells you plainly when listing would net you more. Measure any company, including ours, against that list rather than against its name.
Is I buy houses legit?
Like we buy houses, I buy houses is a generic phrase used by many individual investors, some excellent and some not. A one-person buyer can be entirely legitimate; plenty of good local buyers are one or two people. Apply the same tests: a registered Colorado entity or a verifiable individual, a plain answer on how the purchase is funded, earnest money with a title company, a written offer with the math shown, and no fees to you at any point.
What are the risks of a cash offer on a house?
The main risks are a price below what listing would net, an assignment nobody told you about, a lower re-traded price after inspection, and a contract that lets the buyer walk or delay freely while you can’t. None of these is unusual in the industry and all are avoidable: get the offer in writing with its math, ask who will close and when, and have a Colorado real estate attorney explain any term you don’t understand before you sign.
How do I check we buy houses reviews before I sign?
Read them on a platform where the company can’t rewrite them, usually its Google Business Profile, and look past the stars. Useful reviews describe the process: how quickly the offer came, whether the number held after inspection, whether closing happened on the promised date. Look at how the company answers critical reviews. Then compare what the reviews say with what the company is promising you; the two should match.
Does a legitimate cash buyer ever ask for money before closing?
No. A real cash buyer pays its own inspection, appraisal and holding costs and, in our case, the seller’s closing costs as well. If anyone asks you for an application fee, a fee to lock the offer, a fee for an inspection, or any payment before the title company disburses funds at closing, treat that as a hard stop. Earnest money flows from the buyer to the title company, never from you to the buyer.
What should I do if a cash buyer is pressuring me to sign today?
Don’t sign. A written offer from a serious buyer stands long enough for you to read the contract, compare the number against what an agent says the house would list for, and ask a Colorado real estate attorney to explain any clause you don’t understand. Urgency that comes from your situation is real; urgency manufactured by the buyer is a tactic. Our offer stays open while you compare, and we’ll tell you if listing would clearly net more.
Verify us, then get your number.
One written offer within 24 hours, the math shown, no fee and no obligation: call or text (970) 406-3595, or send us the address and we’ll take it from there.