Including the uncomfortable ones. If an answer here reads like a dodge, call and press us on it.
These are the fifteen questions that come up most on calls. Several of them have answers that are not entirely in our favour — the due-on-sale clause and the fact that the loan stays in your name are the two big ones — and we would rather you read them here than find out later. Background on the underlying situation is on the negative-equity explainer and the closing-cost walkthrough.
That is the specific situation this site is built for. When the payoff exceeds what the house will fetch, a straight cash purchase usually cannot work, because the money has to come from somewhere. What often does work is us buying the house and taking over the existing mortgage payment. You leave without writing a check; we carry the payment going forward.
No, and we will not tell you otherwise. On a subject-to purchase the loan stays in your name and you remain legally liable on the note. Your lender has not released you and has not approved the sale. We take title and we make the payments. That is the honest description of the arrangement, and you should have your own attorney confirm you are comfortable with it before signing anything.
Most mortgages contain a clause letting the lender demand full repayment if the property is sold without their consent. It is a right the lender may exercise, not an automatic event, and in practice lenders are primarily concerned with being paid on time. We are not going to promise you it will never come up, because we cannot control that. We can tell you it is written into your loan and that you should understand it.
No. A short sale means asking your lender to accept less than the balance and forgive the difference, which requires their approval, takes months, and lands on your credit. A payment takeover does not require lender approval and keeps the loan current. There are situations where a short sale genuinely is the better choice, and the trade-offs are set out on our comparison page.
As long as the payments keep being made on time, the loan continues to report as current, which is the outcome most owners are hoping for. The risk is the mirror image: because the note stays in your name, missed payments would report against you. That is why the payment obligation is documented and why we treat it as the central term of the deal rather than a detail.
No. No commission, no listing fees, no repair costs, and we do not charge our closing costs back to you. If anyone in this business asks an underwater homeowner for an upfront fee, that is your signal to walk away.
We will talk, but we will not do anything that interferes with an exclusive listing agreement. Your two clean options are to let the agreement run to its end date and call us then, or to ask your agent to bring our written offer to the table. We will not suggest you cancel or work around your agent, and any buyer who does is exposing you to a commission dispute.
Typically a week to two weeks once we have the payoff figure and title comes back clear. What slows it down is almost always something recorded against the property that nobody knew about, which is why we ask about liens early.
Being behind does not disqualify you, and it is a common reason people call. What matters is how far behind and whether foreclosure has been filed, because that sets the timeline we are working against. Tell us the real numbers on the first call; the situation is easier to solve early than late.
It has to be dealt with, because it is recorded against the property and comes off the top at closing. A second lien is one of the most common reasons an owner who thought they had equity turns out not to. Mention it up front and we will factor it into the offer rather than discovering it at title.
Yes. We buy as-is and we are not sending a lender's appraiser through it. You do not need to paint, repair the roof, replace the cooler or clear the house out beyond taking what you want to keep.
Yes, and condos are sometimes where this structure helps most. When a building fails to qualify for ordinary financing because of owner-occupancy ratios, reserves or pending litigation, retail buyers cannot get a loan on your unit through no fault of yours. We are not dependent on that approval.
Yes. An occupied rental is a genuine obstacle for a buyer who wants to move in and is not one for us. We will need to see the lease.
No. We are direct buyers. We do not list houses, we do not represent sellers, and we are not agents. We also are not attorneys or accountants, so anything touching the legal or tax consequences of your situation needs to go to your own professional.
It is the right question to ask, because the exposure would be yours. The payment obligation is written into the purchase documents, and you are entitled to have your attorney review how it is secured and what recourse you have before you agree to anything. Anyone unwilling to put that in writing should not be buying your house.
If your question is not here, it is probably specific enough that it deserves a real conversation rather than a paragraph. Get in touch, or read how the process runs first so you know what you would be agreeing to. Owners comparing structures should also work through the short-sale comparison and the mechanics of a payment takeover, and the neighbourhood pages cover what tends to go wrong in specific parts of the valley.
If your home is currently listed with a realtor under an exclusive listing agreement, we recommend:
We respect listing agreements and never interfere with active deals. Once your listing ends, we're ready to help.
We would rather lose a deal than have you sign something you did not understand.
Tell us the address and roughly what is owed. No commission, no fees, and nothing asked of you upfront.
We are direct buyers, not agents. We never sell your information.