We have formulated a list of frequently asked questions so you can read through them. If your question is not listed please feel free to call us at (757) 276-1415 or click on the "Get my offer at or close to full market value offer now. Click here" banner at the top of the home page, and we will answer any and all questions you may have.

How Does Selling My Property With Terms Work and Why Is It Becoming a Seller’s 1st Choice When Selling Their Home? 

I find myself answering this question on a daily basis, so this is a summary of why selling your home with terms might be your best option - and what fuels our passion for our business. The market is constantly changing and in order to get Top Dollar for your home, sometimes you’ve got to change with it and be open to options. Approximately 80% of potential buyers today cannot qualify for financing. That’s a national number. Many of those are buyers with good credit looking for a way to buy now while they save for a larger down payment instead of  renting while they save. A large portion of our buyers need seasoning as self-employed individuals. Others may be recovering from “life events” (e.g., divorce, job loss, hospitalization, or starting over in a new business or industry) that have caused legitimate dings in their credit, and who are currently taking steps to improve their credit scores through credit repair and enhancement programs we offer. The bottom line is that if you’re selling with a Realtor or on your own, you are only reaching 20% of the market and you're giving away 5-15% of your profit. Our much larger pool of potential buyers produces higher prices and more money for you in the end, and we maintain a qualified database of these buyers who are looking to get into their Dream Home.We can buy homes all cash with a quick close, but that is typically reserved for distressed properties at a deep discount. Our preference is to purchase move-in ready homes with a lease/purchase or owner financing - both providing a short term cash out for you at Full Market Value. When we meet, we can decide the best purchase option for both parties.We are NOT realtors offering you a service and you will not pay us any fees. Many assume these types of purchases are only for low-end homes or distressed sales. In fact, we actually handle houses in all price ranges.The lease/purchase means we are 100% responsible for all maintenance, repairs, principal and interest payments, taxes, etc. after the first 30 days. If your insurance and taxes are currently escrowed, our monthly lease payment to you will cover them. Your profit is locked in, predetermined ahead of time, and will not change.

Who is this NOT a fit for?

This isn’t a fit for anyone who has equity they need NOW to buy another home and are willing to take less money to free up every dime from the sale. We can still make it work, but that would require a cash-out refinance of your current loan and then securing a lease purchase with us to cover the new underlying loan. It’s been a great solution for our sellers where the refinance generated sufficient cash out for the down payment on a new home, with the balance of the equity being paid to them when the house goes to closing. This scenario offers the best possible outcome - it frees up the cash needed for a down payment while providing you the highest possible return from the sale of your current home!

What do we  do while you're waiting to get my cash out at closing?Simply, we take care of everything, from mortgage payments to maintenance and repairs to dealing with any occupancy issues, so there’s nothing for you to do other than move forward to the next chapter of your life while we care for your property and guarantee 100% of your equity at closing.

What if I have little-to-no equity, am behind in payments, and/or can’t afford to make needed improvements to sell my house?

In most cases we can provide a satisfactory solution and still have you come out ahead vs trying to sell the home yourself or running the risk of damaging your credit. We’re often able to step in and take the property off your hands and put it behind you for good. A free 15-minute consultation can put your mind at ease.

 We’re able to help our clients sell their homes so quickly because we can tap into a buyer market that realtors rarely touch -- the lease purchase/rent-to-own market, which is roughly 4X larger than a realtor’s typical market.

In our market, there are plenty of people that have saved enough for a down payment or can easily afford the monthly payments on mortgage, but don’t qualify for home financing from the bank for one reason or another. In fact, 82% of potential home buyers can’t qualify for a loan today nationally. Thus, this large group of potential homeowners is turning to lease purchase/rent-to-own options to give themselves more time to qualify for a loan

This means that your realtor is only marketing to about 20% of the potential market. We pull from the remaining 80% and attract a lot more interest, meaning faster results for you.

 Although we don’t really consider this a “catch,” some sellers are unclear why they have to wait to receive the proceeds from the sale of their home. Simply put, the wait equals the length of time it takes for a tenant-buyer to qualify for a mortgage loan (which is usually within 24-36 months).

If you’re a seller who needs to get your cash out TODAY, we’re probably not a solution for you (although there are workarounds we can discuss). If you CAN wait, there are some definite benefits to doing it this way. Since we work with a large pool of rent-to-own buyers, we can fill your house quickly. And once that happens, WE take on full responsibility for your home, and you can stop paying for your mortgage, repairs, maintenance, taxes, or anything else while we take over.

And because we commit to a full-market value price at the beginning of the lease period, you don’t have to worry about market fluctuations or the value of your house decreasing while you wait for a buyer.

Finally, since you won’t be paying any commissions like you would with a realtor or watch your equity disappear through repeated (and annoying) price reductions….yes, you may have to wait a little while for your money….but you’ll be making far more from the sale when you do go to closing.

 All potential tenant-buyers are pre-qualified by a third party credit repair and enhancement firm and a mortgage lender we use to vet our candidates.

As a condition of acceptance into our program, we require all tenant-buyers to devote time and money to a credit repair plan during their lease period.

We won’t agree to work with a tenant-buyer and put them in a lease purchase home unless we are 100% sure they’re willing and able to follow the program….with the expectation that they’ll be able to qualify for the loan by the end of the lease period.

Finally, because the buyer is required to put down a significant non-refundable deposit that’s applied to the purchase price only if they close, that “skin in the game” separates the true buyers from the usual renters.

 Although we’ve located the perfect tenant-buyer in less than 3 days, we typically find a qualified lease purchase buyer in 30-60 days.

The rental period will vary slightly based on how much work the tenant-buyer needs to do to qualify for financing. But in general, the lease period is 24-36 months, with an average closing time of 18 months.

Banks and mortgage companies vary on this one and you should shop around. We’ve seen them count your lease payment anywhere from 75%-100%. For example, if your mortgage payment is $1000 and you are collecting only $1000 on your lease, if they are only counting 75%, you will be credited for $750 monthly income as far as your debt to income qualifying ratio and that means you have $250 net debt. If they count 100% of your lease income it’s a break even and will not at all affect you qualifying for a loan. There is a simple solution for this as well, which we can discuss.

Absolutely, we recommend it.​ Just be certain they are familiar with a lease purchase contract.

Normally our purchase agreements are 24-48 months (based on home price and equity) HOWEVER, the way we structure the buyer’s deal they will often cash us both out much sooner.

If you own the property free and clear, we actually have several options and normally are prepared to make payments totaling full market value.

We can also find, vet and verify a buyer who will be mortgage ready SOON. We provide all of the documents for you to do it yourself. In that case, our payment is simply a portion of the down payment.

Here is a deeper dive into (our) lease purchasing. Some information is generic but a good portion of it relates directly to having us as your partner. Important notice: This is not legal advice. This is a representation of how our plans work. We will happily answer any and all questions to the best of our ability based on current knowledge but we are not attorneys or CPA’s offering professional advice.

Yes we have multiple plans. Here are the top three:

• With our guaranteed tenant/buyer – We agree to a price, signs forms, and then we choose the best suited tenant buyer for the property. You simply wait for us to find, vet and verify a tenant buyer. Move out/in is scheduled and you move on and don’t worry about the house again. We will find the best fitting buyer then vet, verify, and send them to credit enhance/repair. Once that step is complete we will schedule your actual move out and their move in. They will meet an attorney, sign all the documents and move in.
• Assign Back option– We do all the same legwork to find, vet, prepare and place tenant buyers including getting them connected with and enrolled in credit repair/enhancement. We provide all necessary agreements, get them signed (and then assigned to you). This a great option if you don’t mind being a landlord for a while. However, you don’t get our guaranteed tenant buyer; our commitment we will buy it at the end of the term or before, no matter what. We strongly recommend you stay in contact with your tenant buyer monthly to remind them of the due date and the importance of paying on time (when they aren’t.) Their on-time payments and your records could ultimately decide if they get the mortgage or not. Be diligent about due dates. We further recommend at least quarterly communication asking about/reminding them of the necessity of staying in and following their credit repair/enhancement plan. It is imperative they pay either through wire transfer, ACH or bank check to ensure a verifiable trail of funds for the mortgage company in the future. You will also need to keep monthly payment records with scheduled down payment funds separated. We also believe you should plan to visit the house semi-annually. Finally, we strongly recommend you purchase a home warranty so neither they nor you get hit with a large expense during the lease period.
• You own the property free and clear: In this scenario we typically pay full value for the property because we like to buy free and clear properties on an owner finance contract. Everything is closed with an attorney. While we have done agreements up to 20 years (which allowed our sellers to realize the income/gain over many years like an annuity payout) typically we’re looking for 48-60 month terms. We can discuss your property specifically if this interests you.

Half or more of our sellers have at least first mortgages on the properties we buy. That is easily dealt with in a variety of ways. First, because of the nature of our business (real estate purchasing and placing of tenant buyers) our affiliated mortgage brokers completely understand our business model. In turn they work with mortgage companies who are friendly to both our buyers and sellers. To you as a seller that means they typically allow (at least part of) the payment our tenant buyer makes to apply toward your monthly house payment.

As an example ONLY: The payment on the house you’re moving out of is $1000 per month. Typically, our mortgage companies will consider at least 75% of the tenant buyer’s payment as an offset against your payment/debt. Assuming the tenant buyer is paying $1000/month then they will typically consider $750/month against your current mortgage debt. That leaves you a $250 payment against your debt to income ratio going to another property instead of $1000. Assuming the tenant buyer is paying $1250/month then they will typically consider $937.50/month against your current mortgage debt. If this doesn’t make sense we can discuss it in further detail and it is something we strongly urge sellers to investigate prior to making a decision to sell us your house. Do not mistake this example as a promise to acquire financing for you on another mortgage.

Another way buyers can do this is by using equity in the current property through a home equity loan and then use some of the equity as down payment on the next property. When the mortgage gets paid off on the house you sell us it will simply have a larger mortgage (first and/or second) and less equity. This a very common practice in our business segment. Another option is to consider moving but renting once you get in the area you are moving to. This gives you time to ensure you’re going to be happy and the tenant buyers time to get their things in order. We often buy houses from sellers who are relocating, downsizing or moving to be near children or grandchildren. Often times they decide to rent for a period of time to ensure they like the specific area they are moving to. We only mention renting because many of the sellers we talk to have lived in their homes for very brief periods of time then are moving because they didn’t love where they had chosen.

With our tenant buyer you can rest easy knowing that no matter what happens you will not have to worry about the house again. You are assured that even if the tenant buyer falls through we are still buying the house, from you, on or before the date in the agreement, no matter what.

This does happen occasionally, however, with our guaranteed tenant buyer plan it has no effect on you whatsoever. We are buying the house on or before the term in the agreement, no matter what. If at the end of the term it makes sense financially for ALL parties to extend then we can discuss that.

With our guaranteed tenant buyer plan after the first 30-60 days we are responsible for these items. In the Assign Back option they are responsible however if they don’t take care of these things you are ultimately responsible.

You will simply contact your insurance company and tell them you want to convert your policy from an owner-occupied policy to a non-owner occupied policy.

Our guaranteed tenant buyer plan agreements are written with us in the middle but in the event something happens the agreements revert back to the seller. That is a primary reason there are two separate agreements (With the seller in the first agreement and the buyer in the second agreement.)

We do this for a couple reasons. We have a fiduciary responsibility to our sellers to ensure the mortgage stays current and in good standing. We do this by having an online portal with the mortgage company both the seller and us can access and make payments to. Additionally, the payments made to us often serve as another (and often critical) credit line for our buyer in the mortgage acquisition stage of the process.

Could you buy it the normal way since I just can't do it this way with monthly payments and waiting?

Well, yes. I can offer you two options. If you have plenty of equity, or don't mind coming out of pocket to sell and have time, one would be I could have you talk to my wife. She has been a very successful realtor for 33 years and usually sells her listings within one week for full price. Two would work best if you just want the quickest cash sale, but in order for this to work, I would need a pretty steep discount. 

Still more questions? 

Bring them on. Ask us. We’ve seen about every situation and scenario and have answers to most any question. You can also trust that if we don’t have an answer we’ll tell you that as well.