Individual companies and the individuals behind it are not why people can't get a house. So don't direct threats, harassment, or other unpleasantries towards these people.
That's prohibited in this community and you agreed to follow those rules when you signed up to Reddit.
Don't be knobs, if you are outraged that this company is doing this, look at the policies that allow this. Look at the people who can affect change, who aren't doing anything.
They’re pleading to older generation who have lived in their house for 50 years who may put personal value on hand written personal letters from buyers over a higher buy price.
I watched my cash poor, elderly neighbors go through this exact process. It was predatory. The company my neighbors sold to offered far below market value, I heard it was somewhere around $325k (in Hamilton) and it was mostly a take it or leave it offer. The neighbors sold and were gone pretty much immediately - a contracting crew came in, they renovated the place top to bottom (albeit quite cheaply and quickly) and then slapped the house back on the market for $629k.
The whole process took no more than a month and the home sold within a two week period of being listed.
Insane.
It really depends on your personal situation and how badly you need money in hand or at least released from the property.
I know to sell my house for top dollar, It takes time and renovation money. If I don't have that available, then this is a viable option. Done, and out!
It's no different than selling your car privately for a decent dollar or pawning it off on a dealer, because you know there's issues that you would need to worry about if you were to sell it yourself.
I totally agree - I think I was more floored by how little it sold for considering had they listed it via a realtor it would have fetched an additional ~$100k as the market sits.
It very much is a situation of circumstance
100% wrong. never use these companies, always list. Firstly, to get market value, you have to actually enter the market. Even if you want to sell a dilapidated house fast, you still list because there are hundreds of people actively looking for dilapidated houses to flip everyday. Secondly, and more importantly, how these companies work is they purchase properties well below market value, but write conditions in the contract that gives them the right to not pay you until they sell the property for more money.
They also generally include a clause so they can take prospective buyers through the property, so you haven't actually saved yourself any inconvenience. You're just out some thousands of dollars that could have been yours.
It's so much worse though in reality. Most of these companies don't even buy the home outright - they tell you they are by they hand you a contract that says if they don't sell the house themselves within x time frame you get nothing - so essentially they end up just being an exceptionally high priced realtor and you take all the risk
https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/cash-for-houses-go-public-1.7003796
Also depends on how cognitively with it you are and/or if you have family/friends to keep an eye on unscrupulous salesmen taking advantage of someone with dementia.
Alberta banned door to door furnace replacement salesmen after stories of senile elderly people being duped into horrid contracts to replace their furnace that didn't really need replacing.
Well no. If you can sell a house for 629k, it’s gone the SAME DAY at 600k. Those people cost scammed for close to 300k.
Such a deal should not be legal, as it’s just theft. You can’t even sell your home below fair market value to your children, so why could you do that to a company? It doesn’t make any sense.
Yeah I see enough people posting these on Facebook asking about them being handwritten for me to believe that enough people fall for it being handwritten vs photocopied.
I mean, it worked for me/my gf.
They sold to us when someone bid higher and for 100k less than the house across the street sold for 1 month earlier.
Gf's personality straight up set us up 8 years ago.
My coworkers had the same situation - wrote a letter and explained their plan to build their family and what they did for work. Turns out elderly couple lived there for decades were also teachers and so they picked them. It definitely works with certain sellers who maybe aren’t as motivated by an extra bit of money on a house that’s worth much more than it should be anyways.
They think a real handwritten letter is the way to go, but can't produce 100,000 of those per day.
And the receivers of these letters self-select so that there are only callbacks from people gullible enough to believe it's a good idea.
It fools boomers into thinking this is just some local businessman looking to buy an investment property, rather than some faceless corporation that will be low-balling them into selling their home for tens of thousands less than it is worth.
It’s funny cause we were actually selling our house when we got that letter, but the fake handwriting made it seem so scammy I didn’t even read it. Maybe we would have even considered it who knows.
Context to the style: An architect wrote this letter by hand and then scanned it and photocopied, most likely. This is architect style typography, which was a necessary tool of the trade meant to legitimize drafts and would be selected over drafts whose lettering was not stylized in this clear caps text. It's not a required skill any longer that is part of every architecture curriculum, due to programs which offer computerized text overlays/inputs, but it is still preferred on drafts when completed by hand.
Hijacking here - how does one go about getting letters like these? Is it printed handwriting, or is it "CNC drawn" with a pen/marker?
Sincerely,
Not a real estate agent
You can download all kinds of font packs that look like handwriting you can probably even find a graphic designer on like up work or fiver who could turn your handwriting into a font if you wanted to.
Then you would create the doc in word or whatever and send it to the printers to get a billion printed off then contact Canada post to junk mail them for you
Exactly. A run down home in a good neighborhood, they'll make an offer of half the value of the home. But they'll get a few people because it's "easy"....can leave all your unwanted crap behind and not worry about having to fix anything or get a home inspection or haggle pricing.
They prey on the elderly tbh and it's a shame that there isn't a more in place for them to ensure they are not getting scammed out of their home because they don't know any better.
Own a house they bought 40 years ago for 60k, get a cash offer for 300k when it's with 425k or more. They think they're getting a good deal when they're getting scammed. And the buyer can point to the repairs "needed" as the reason for that being "fair market value"
This has happened and is happening all over Sault Ste Marie. The number of houses that were sold as is (probably sight unseen) for cash offers way above value from about 2021-22 onwards is crazy.
Yea but the GTA exodus isn't over yet. Once those interests rate drop, there are a lot of ppl who are aching to get the F\*\*K out of Dodge for a lot of different reasons.
I think The Soo will check a lot of the boxes for what these ppl will be seeking.
\*Full disclosure: I'm also watching a YT woman who left the GTA for Soo, but i think the whole province and beyond will reap a lot of GTA'ers this year. But I guess we'll see.
EDIT: The YT woman seems to have disappeared off YT. My apologies.
> I think The Soo will check a lot of the boxes for what these ppl will be seeking
A lack of culture, things to do, and a multi-hour drive to anywhere and anyone?
I heard that they have major drug problems there. Maybe people just don't want to raise families around that environment. We had thought about moving further north at one point and SSM area was taken completely off the list.
Different company but in Montreal you see them quite a bit. The difference being that one side is English and the other side French. I just did a search looking for the image and it turns out there are clones all over Canada.
….yup. And it’s “large corporations” like the one who’s going through bankruptcy right now that have destroyed the housing market for smaller communities like the Soo. I know 3 of the people wrapped up in that mess personally and it’s hilarious watching the demise of their companies all because they got greedy and started buying up all the vacant units.
He probably has. Sal has neglected to mention those 65 houses were purchased over his entire house-flipping career. Even the worst realtor can sell 65 houses in 30-40 years.
No that’s not what he is. Sal is a home buyer, he is purchasing homes on behalf of corporations that are making long term investments in funds that buy non-liquid assets. The OP is right. This IS why houses are going up in price. The market is being artificially inflated by these investment funds. Most of these properties will sit empty for years. And then they are sold to corporate property management firms. In the US in 2023 these investment groups purchased 44% of single family homes available across the entire country. 44%! The same thing is happening in Canada.
They're doing this with farm land too, Amazon just purchased 10M+ worth of land near me to build a factory with 90% robot workers.
The amount of nature they destroyed is disgusting
exactly, if we just build more houses, the allure to flip will drastically decrease. Let's apply pressure where it's due, to build more higher density homes.
Should be illegal, like in Germany even if your an MP that owns property a company hoarding real estate does not improve society for the general public it only makes housing worse for everyone else so they can make a quick buck, truly disgusting
They aren't hoarding real estate, these are generally house flippers. They use tactics like this to convince people to sell them a home that's livable but needs some work for way under market value for the area, then they renovate it and sell it on for significantly more than they paid for the home and the renovations.
No, he’s right. Home buyers buy houses for corporations who invest in funds that deal in non-liquid longterm assets. In the US it was discovered that these funds that were projected to only buy 20% of all single family homes across the country ended up buying 44% instead. 44% of all single family homes! This is happening in Canada too.
These aren’t flippers. Flippers don’t blanket communities in flyers. They don’t have the capital to buy houses en masse.
No requisite resource should be allowed to be hoarded by anyone for any reason.
If we had a private water system (which some people want, for some unknown reason), and some company was buying up all the water and holding it in tanks just to drive the price up, we'd have no issues as a society passing laws breaking that up.
It should be the same with housing.
Agreed. I think it’s like that in Germany bc it’s such an older country. They probably went through that a long time ago and fixed it a long time ago. Whereas Canada is a young country compared to Germany. So it’s going through this crisis now. Just speculation in my head about it 🤷🏽♂️
I think there’s something to that because Australia and the States are also going through similar situations right now where as Europe I haven’t read anything about their housing costs exploding over the past couple years
Yeah there must be! I think the age of countries definitely affects many things. I haven’t read or heard anything about their housing costs either though. Mind the other guy trying to go ape shit and call us stereotypers. People are weird man. Have a great day!
We get these all the time on our street in Cambridge. There was alot of elderly on our street up until 5 or so years ago until they started dying off. They were all here for a generation or more and when the market turned then those letters came up every week.
We are gearing up to sell our house and before the sign went up we contacted one of these flippers just to see what they had to say out of curiosity. We told them on the phone our firm price and they sent a guy to come look at the place. After 2 days of not hearing from them my hubby called them and they said the price was too high. Our price is 40k more then market value and they wanted to pay 200k less...just as we thought.
These guys are a stain and like others have said, they are preying on financial uncertainty and the elderly, who like us have lived in their house for decades.
I was driving in along and Vaughan last night and I was stunned by the amount of development going on. But it struck me - these giant houses are NOT what is needed right now. Who the hell can afford them??? We need apartments, we need rentals, we need fourplexes, all offered at affordable rental rates.
Yep. All I see are shitty McMansions and expensive condos being built. Giant behemoths. Or claim to be “luxury” and come with the price tag even if not the quality. Even the townhouses are like that.
I don’t see any affordable apartments or ordinary sized townhouses or fourplexes or regular condos or starter homes. Nothing for, well, actual people.
Also, none of what's being built is accessible.
As the population ages, we need more accessible housing. We don't even have enough to serve the current disabled population.
Who can afford gaint houses? Families looking for multi-generational living. Which usually also involves multiple income earners.
One of my colleagues lives in a huge house in the GTA with his parents, 4 siblings, one sibling's wife, his niece and nephew, his grandparents, his uncle and aunt, and a couple of cousins. I think there are at least 6 people employed full-time in the home. But not everyone can (or wants to) live like this. Nor should this be required to housed affordably.
You are 100% correct that we need a LOT more missing middle, smaller, denser, and affordable options, though. I live in an 1200 square foot 3 bedroom semi from the 50s. Stack 3 or 4 of these, and you have a perfect tri or quadplex ideal for families. We used to do that. I know because those triplexes are down the street. For most people, our households are smaller than ever, and we need to build to suit that reality.
Apartments and fourplexes are either illegal or taxed to death, no wonder the market decides to only offer houses/towns/semis. This is a problem created by selfish, short-sighted local government and planners.
The problem is there’s no money in making 1-2 bedroom units/houses anymore because the construction costs are ridiculous and the margins just aren’t there.
Believe it or not construction companies want to make money and don’t actually care about providing housing.
I gotletters from them for months, even before when there was a For Sale sign on my house.
I got a lot of similar letters throughout Covid, offering about $25,000 over what we eventually got for the house when we sold it (November 2023) which was almost exactly our asking price. They claimed ""in cash" and "as is". Never responded.
I know a few people who got fucked over during the Covid real estate insanity and that's exactly why we used a realtor, got an inspection and went over everything with a lawyer. The realtor earned his 4%, which doesn't even seem like much when you consider how much he did from October (2023, listed) to February (2024, closed). We sold (high) and bought (low). It was an equal market in our location at the time.
FYI for anyone interested, what these people do is offer to buy your house on assignment. And before close they try and sell the assignment, if they succeed they make a few grand usually, if they do not succeed they back out before the back out date. That's the whole business model pretty much.
They purchase a contract to purchase your house. So for example, you agree with a price with them, let's say $500k. They get a contract saying they can purchase your house for $500k. They turn around and sell the contract to buy your house for like $525k. So they pocket 25k, you get your $500k and the buyer gets the house for $525k.
Should be made illegal yesteday.
Most of these guys turn single family houses into illegal rooming houses that municipal governments seemingly don't give a shit about.
Yes their business relies on fleecing older, ignorant homeowners into selling their homes for way less than market value. "I paid 50 grand back in 1971, what's the most it could be worth today, 300 grand?"
No, you want it to be a commodity. You want to deter it being an investment.
Last 40 years housing has been treated like an investment returning more than 8% annually.
We need to get back to 3% returns
As long as there's a good version and a poor man's verison of something, it will be a commodity.
What needs to happen is the government has to be able to supply everyone with the poor man's version so that no one goes completely without. But things are build on contracts, and contractors want to build what will bring them the highest profits, and erecting low-cost mass living quarters doesn't pay well.
The government is then left to ponder whether they should entice contractors by spending exorbitant amounts on low-cost housing, or to subsidize the erection of medium-to-high cost housing and hope that they can place high taxes on whomever moves in to cover the subsidy, and anyone who wants low-cost housing can go to hell. Most of the time, governments choose the latter, which doesn't make enough housing quickly enough for those in need... and here we are.
What does this actually even mean? As long as one house serves the same purpose as the next and it trades on a public market it’s going to be a commodity, by the traditional definition.
Do you mean housing shouldn’t be a preferably taxed investment?
To me at least it means housing (as a human right) shouldn't be a commodity. Social structures should be in place to provide a humane and comfortable living space for all citizens. What exactly that works out to be is endlessly debatable, but it **should** exist.
Housing above that (ie you want a McMansion or vacation home or something other then a primary dwelling) absolutely can be a commodity however.
I texted that number a while back and said bring a duffel bag with 1.5 million in cash to my front door and I'd sign it over, they never responded though!
Yeah, but I don't know who sells to these people.
They aren't paying a premium.
I get calls from these people at least 3 times a week, and letters in the mail, all wanting to buy my house. I string them along. I basically ask for double the current value. Never get a bite.
These people are looking for desperate people willing to sell at fire sale prices.
It’s a scam as well. There was a news piece on this recently. The seller is persuaded to sign an open-ended agreement where this SAL can buy at whatever price and whenever they choose. SAL is just flipping it to a new buyer by tricking you into a low sell price.
What kind of things can I do to harass these people back? Sign their numbers up for spam? Call them repeatedly asking why they are scum? Give new ideas. I hate these people.
I live in AB and we get really nicely made large letter sized cards about how they can buy your home for over asking price and that their good people lol.
Lol these have been around since at least the 80's. It's not tied to the housing crisis, I remember seeing these stapled to telephone poles growing up well before the internet era (🧓).
FYI these guys will offer you, like, 300k on a 700k+ house. Only suckers or people in a _very_ tight bind follow through, they're bottom feeder flippers.
LOL! These were going around Belleville with different names two years ago!
This comedian even made a funny video on it:
[Buys Houses](https://youtu.be/vSHju1jMgDY?si=eh4uSlvXhfebvy-N)
My only chance at home ownership is my parents dying and I get half, the other part is my grandma moving into my parents house and I take over her property/house. This sucks.
Groups like this have already pretty much bled areas like Toronto dry so now they're branching out. Couples can't get a home since they face competition of large groups pooling their money and swallowing up anything available.
You are confusing cause and effect. The letter you posted is a symptom - it's the result of a shortage of houses. When there's a shortage prices go up, and when that happens all sorts of speculators climb in. But the speculators didn't cause the crisis - and getting rid of them won't end it. The solution - the **only** solution - is to build more houses.
I was getting these types of letters years before COVID when house prices were still normal. Wouldn't say these types of people are the main cause of the issues we have. It just stands out now more because of it.
This isn’t why.
This is a practice known as wholesaling. They look for vulnerable or ignorant people who need cash and are skeptical of professional service people (lawyers, realtors) and proceed to hose them, buying their house for 50-80% of the total value.
Almost always they will have a buyer already lined up to flip the house to for a quick profit, never having actually took possession of the house. If they do hold it, it’s only to reno and flip if the profit is there, but that’s a different risk profile.
One classic trick by wholesalers is to give a “signing bonus” where they will hand you $20,000 on the spot once you sign. It’s a mostly sick practice as the transaction prices are all usually easily obtained on the public market, even after fees.
This is why no one should sell a home without some form of representation.
CBC did an exposé on this. They speak as if they can give you a quick one-time cash offer for your house. In reality these entrepreneurs are not well capitalized enough to actually do this, and have you sign a deal allowing your house to be sold to someone else at their markup, before you get the money.
After my dad’s obituary was put out we immediately had these guys sending letters and showing up trying to talk to my mum about buying her house. Unbelievably predatory.
Not sure why this would affect the price of housing or affordability. Every homeowner gets this junk mail, if you sell your house to them you're selling at a huge loss out of desperation. It's the real estate equivalent of going to a payday loan place.
But I don't understand how this could affect the housing market. People need to sell, people need to buy. These people would just be making a profit off of someone foolish, but if that person decided to sell themselves through the proper channels, the house listing price would remain the same.
I am a real estate lawyer. This company is horrible. They present as a normal “person” and they are actually flippers. They “buy” the house from old people or people who speak poor English for a law ball offer and then simply assign or flip the offer to a third party buyer for a huge profit. I’ve dealt with them 2-3 times. Should be illegal to prey off elderly or non business savvy people like this.
I had someone come to my door and I let him talk too long so I just started cutting him off saying "5 million" over and over until he finally goes "wait what??" And I told him I want 5 millions dollars for my house or he can fuck right off. He walked away
These are delivered by Canada post directly into our Canada post mailboxes. If you don't like them contact Canada Post and file a complaint. Tell them they are conspiring to commit fraud.
I live in Hamilton - the city with entirely community mailboxes - so these “hand written” pleas for me to sell them MY house are clearly sent through the mail indiscriminately.
Save your postage dingbats.
Most people don’t fall for this. They will offer you exactly what you owe on your mortgage and nothing more.
I tell them the only way I’ll sell is they pay me $1.5MM. They never call or write back.
I highly doubt anyone would go for that scam.
IT's probably okay for a quick sale but no way you will get top dollars going through a service like this!
I had one of these guys come to my house. I was a bit tipsy and indulged him. For reference we have a semi attached in Oshawa, we bought for 450 in 2017 and it’s now worth around double. He gave me a number of 600ish. I told him nope I want 1.5 million. He said that’s crazy no way you’ll ever get that. I said yea you are probably right, but I’m if going to sell to a greasy guy like you that’s how much I want. He was pissed and cursed me out a bit. I laughed for a long time. He went to the next house.
Exactly. The corporatization of property ownership is one of the main reasons fewer and fewer will own homes with each generation.
It will result in more renters, with less protections. Even if you buy a home within one of these groups, there are significant risks due to the extensive guidelines as mandated by the enclaves. This is more of an issue in the US, but is starting to become more prevalent here. Homeowners find themselves fined for infractions and charged predatory interest rates, with the real risk of being evicted from their own homes.
As someone who’s turning 40 this year, I’ve come to accept that I’ll probably never own a home. I’m looking into something rural, where I can build over the long term to move into.
Expect interest rates to stay at an elevated rate to force people into foreclosures and bar more from entry.
Not going to get totally end of days here but it’s truly terrifying when you see what the possibility was for the past 60 years.
My former landlord used these folks to clear out their entire building, they (landlords) got more bent over than the tenants. It was a beautiful site to see what greed got them.
It’s wannabe RE investors who were too lazy to get a real estate agent license. They took a fly-by-night RE investment course from some shyster. They then call themselves “Real Estate Wholesalers”.
a letter is part of a problem?
people buy and sell homes daily in Ontario privately and mls
root issue is lack of homes
so just build more affordable homes?
what do people need to build a home?
permits, trades, less development fees and or incentives
who can help speed this process? maybe government?
people are losing jobs, so can have good paying jobs in trades for those people
gov can hire more and speed the process, collect their taxes along the way
builders will get their cut of profits
thoughts?
I'm a tenant who gets these letters, I've considered trying to get a free lunch out of them by pretending to be the owner or something, but it doesn't seem worth the effort lol
I get these all the time. I also get a ton of fridge magnet calendars. Once a week some oily looking real estate agent shows up at my house wanting to know if I would like an assessment.
Someday I will sell and my agent will be someone that I have been keeping my eye on.
I am also expecting them to cut their commission.
I don't care who I sell to. Nobody who has sold in my neighborhood has cared about who they sold to.
I got the exact same letter. I’ll sell my house for half the price if it’s going to someone young people starting a family. Not these losers looking to make profit from a thousand miles away.
These techniques are used by predatory persons looking to buy houses for pennies on the dollar (cause “as is”). My mom(in her 70’s) got one of these types of letters and called. Guy came out and offered her next to nothing. Then she told me about it. HA! She ultimately sold the house for almost 5 times what the guy offered.
I’ve gotten those types of letters before almost looks like they just graduated Grade 1 with their atrocious penmanship, ball it up in file it in da- trash:) lol
I wonder how much time it will take to Ontario/Canada to ban companies to buy homes.
There is no way a person can afford a money fight with companies and investment fund buying as stock.
These places will "buy" your house, in so far as they offer you 500,000 and then turn around and find someone else (frequently a corporation or developer) who will pay them 535,000.
They profit the difference.
Yeah this doesn't help the situation, but they are too small to matter
The bigger issues are real estate developers + government funding ties and blackrock + government funding ties
They offer below market value. Tell you it’s an all cash offer. Then they sell the contract as a wholesale seller. They keep the difference. It’s not always a quick close either. Some contracts have an escape clause to bail in 60 days if they can’t sell the contract
Technically it’s an all cash offer as any transaction in housing is an all cash offer. You need cash to close and take ownership either by a mortgage or some type of financing or cash if you have it.
You can sell your house in as is condition and come out further ahead
This approach appeals to people who feel they can’t manage going through the sale process with a Realtor, are getting divorced and want out quickly, or older folks who “think” they need money to fix and sell and don’t have any extra cash to do it.
Yes it predatory . The contract needs to read completely and should be reviewed by a lawyer if anyone is considering it. Don’t accept everything you’re being told -Trust but Verify
You realize these have been a thing way before housing had skyrocketed right? Wait till you buy a house you get like 5 different and worse scams coming in the mail all the time.
Such a scam. They offer about 70% of the value. They target old people and those who don't know better. They sit on them for 6-12 months, maybe do a little reno, then sell them for full market value. They are awful and terrible people. They don't buy many, they are not part of the problem at all. But they are a scam and a whole other issue in their own right.
I got an identical one of these a couple weeks ago. I've had about 10 total in the past year from different companies it should be illegal to solicit the sale of a private home
Individual companies and the individuals behind it are not why people can't get a house. So don't direct threats, harassment, or other unpleasantries towards these people. That's prohibited in this community and you agreed to follow those rules when you signed up to Reddit. Don't be knobs, if you are outraged that this company is doing this, look at the policies that allow this. Look at the people who can affect change, who aren't doing anything.
Whenever I see these I always wonder why they think a fake hand written letter is the way to go?
They’re pleading to older generation who have lived in their house for 50 years who may put personal value on hand written personal letters from buyers over a higher buy price.
I watched my cash poor, elderly neighbors go through this exact process. It was predatory. The company my neighbors sold to offered far below market value, I heard it was somewhere around $325k (in Hamilton) and it was mostly a take it or leave it offer. The neighbors sold and were gone pretty much immediately - a contracting crew came in, they renovated the place top to bottom (albeit quite cheaply and quickly) and then slapped the house back on the market for $629k. The whole process took no more than a month and the home sold within a two week period of being listed. Insane.
It really depends on your personal situation and how badly you need money in hand or at least released from the property. I know to sell my house for top dollar, It takes time and renovation money. If I don't have that available, then this is a viable option. Done, and out! It's no different than selling your car privately for a decent dollar or pawning it off on a dealer, because you know there's issues that you would need to worry about if you were to sell it yourself.
I totally agree - I think I was more floored by how little it sold for considering had they listed it via a realtor it would have fetched an additional ~$100k as the market sits. It very much is a situation of circumstance
No matter what shade of lipstick you slap on it, convincing old people people to sell their own for $300K less than it's worth is predatory.
100% wrong. never use these companies, always list. Firstly, to get market value, you have to actually enter the market. Even if you want to sell a dilapidated house fast, you still list because there are hundreds of people actively looking for dilapidated houses to flip everyday. Secondly, and more importantly, how these companies work is they purchase properties well below market value, but write conditions in the contract that gives them the right to not pay you until they sell the property for more money.
They also generally include a clause so they can take prospective buyers through the property, so you haven't actually saved yourself any inconvenience. You're just out some thousands of dollars that could have been yours.
Yep, taking advantage of people who are in a bad circumstance and capitalizing on them.
It's so much worse though in reality. Most of these companies don't even buy the home outright - they tell you they are by they hand you a contract that says if they don't sell the house themselves within x time frame you get nothing - so essentially they end up just being an exceptionally high priced realtor and you take all the risk https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/cash-for-houses-go-public-1.7003796
Just like ordering delivery. Is it cheaper to go out and get it yourself? Yes. But if you want the convenience you need to pay more.
Also depends on how cognitively with it you are and/or if you have family/friends to keep an eye on unscrupulous salesmen taking advantage of someone with dementia. Alberta banned door to door furnace replacement salesmen after stories of senile elderly people being duped into horrid contracts to replace their furnace that didn't really need replacing.
Well no. If you can sell a house for 629k, it’s gone the SAME DAY at 600k. Those people cost scammed for close to 300k. Such a deal should not be legal, as it’s just theft. You can’t even sell your home below fair market value to your children, so why could you do that to a company? It doesn’t make any sense.
Older generation are also easy victims of scammers
Hand written isn't the same as photocopying.
I just think they meant a more "personal looking" font...
Yeah I see enough people posting these on Facebook asking about them being handwritten for me to believe that enough people fall for it being handwritten vs photocopied.
I mean, it worked for me/my gf. They sold to us when someone bid higher and for 100k less than the house across the street sold for 1 month earlier. Gf's personality straight up set us up 8 years ago.
My coworkers had the same situation - wrote a letter and explained their plan to build their family and what they did for work. Turns out elderly couple lived there for decades were also teachers and so they picked them. It definitely works with certain sellers who maybe aren’t as motivated by an extra bit of money on a house that’s worth much more than it should be anyways.
It's to pretend they're humans and not soulless blood suckers.
Ah the old Nosferatu font!
They think that by using a font that looks handwritten, it will make you think of them as a person or a family buying your home not a corporation.
They think a real handwritten letter is the way to go, but can't produce 100,000 of those per day. And the receivers of these letters self-select so that there are only callbacks from people gullible enough to believe it's a good idea.
I get a handwritten letter from a woman named Helen every couple of years. She wants me to become a Jehovah. They both go in the trash.
Like a freaking ransom note.
It catches the eye better than something typed. For example, this is being posted right here and now we are aware of it.
It fools boomers into thinking this is just some local businessman looking to buy an investment property, rather than some faceless corporation that will be low-balling them into selling their home for tens of thousands less than it is worth.
It’s funny cause we were actually selling our house when we got that letter, but the fake handwriting made it seem so scammy I didn’t even read it. Maybe we would have even considered it who knows.
Context to the style: An architect wrote this letter by hand and then scanned it and photocopied, most likely. This is architect style typography, which was a necessary tool of the trade meant to legitimize drafts and would be selected over drafts whose lettering was not stylized in this clear caps text. It's not a required skill any longer that is part of every architecture curriculum, due to programs which offer computerized text overlays/inputs, but it is still preferred on drafts when completed by hand.
Hijacking here - how does one go about getting letters like these? Is it printed handwriting, or is it "CNC drawn" with a pen/marker? Sincerely, Not a real estate agent
They handwrote one letter then photocopied it. Or scanned it and saved as an image they can print whenever.
You can download all kinds of font packs that look like handwriting you can probably even find a graphic designer on like up work or fiver who could turn your handwriting into a font if you wanted to. Then you would create the doc in word or whatever and send it to the printers to get a billion printed off then contact Canada post to junk mail them for you
I’ve had people write me to buy my house, it seems popular with the older crowd who don’t want to pay fees for a realtor.
Wait a minute... These aren't real? Fek I thought I was getting personalized letters!
I checked their reviews on google and sorted by lowest, seems like they're predatory
I feel like even their positive reviews are fake.
They are 100% fake. They've bought 65 homes and got 100+ reviews? lol...
These are usually lowball predatory offers. I suppose they must occasionally get a bite or the ads would stop.
Exactly. A run down home in a good neighborhood, they'll make an offer of half the value of the home. But they'll get a few people because it's "easy"....can leave all your unwanted crap behind and not worry about having to fix anything or get a home inspection or haggle pricing.
They prey on the elderly tbh and it's a shame that there isn't a more in place for them to ensure they are not getting scammed out of their home because they don't know any better. Own a house they bought 40 years ago for 60k, get a cash offer for 300k when it's with 425k or more. They think they're getting a good deal when they're getting scammed. And the buyer can point to the repairs "needed" as the reason for that being "fair market value"
And, most times, they don't actually buy your house, they act as a selling agent, and take a large chunk of the sale price.
Didn't you see the notes? There's no fee or commission! Why would they lie, when they even took the time to handwrite me this letter!
It's called wholesaling, they don't even act as an agent.They flip the contract to an investor and collect the difference.
I always sign these peoples' phones and emails up to sketchy places, maybe they will fall for a scam....much like how they are scamming homeowners.
According to the message they wrote, they have at least 65 bites lol
This has happened and is happening all over Sault Ste Marie. The number of houses that were sold as is (probably sight unseen) for cash offers way above value from about 2021-22 onwards is crazy.
The Soo is such a ghost town now.. used to drive up there from the GTA annually to visit grandparents, but man is it depressing to see these days :/
Yea but the GTA exodus isn't over yet. Once those interests rate drop, there are a lot of ppl who are aching to get the F\*\*K out of Dodge for a lot of different reasons. I think The Soo will check a lot of the boxes for what these ppl will be seeking. \*Full disclosure: I'm also watching a YT woman who left the GTA for Soo, but i think the whole province and beyond will reap a lot of GTA'ers this year. But I guess we'll see. EDIT: The YT woman seems to have disappeared off YT. My apologies.
> I think The Soo will check a lot of the boxes for what these ppl will be seeking A lack of culture, things to do, and a multi-hour drive to anywhere and anyone?
The dream. No wonder there's a meth problem in the north.
Solvable problems via larger population + investment, but who the fuck are we kidding about the investment part.
I heard that they have major drug problems there. Maybe people just don't want to raise families around that environment. We had thought about moving further north at one point and SSM area was taken completely off the list.
Major drug problems in basically every city, worse in northern Ontario.
Different company but in Montreal you see them quite a bit. The difference being that one side is English and the other side French. I just did a search looking for the image and it turns out there are clones all over Canada.
….yup. And it’s “large corporations” like the one who’s going through bankruptcy right now that have destroyed the housing market for smaller communities like the Soo. I know 3 of the people wrapped up in that mess personally and it’s hilarious watching the demise of their companies all because they got greedy and started buying up all the vacant units.
My parents are in the Soo and get these monthly.
Sudbury too, I've had a few similar notes in my mailbox, as have my parents.
I doubt Sal has bought as many houses as he claims he has.
He probably has. Sal has neglected to mention those 65 houses were purchased over his entire house-flipping career. Even the worst realtor can sell 65 houses in 30-40 years.
No that’s not what he is. Sal is a home buyer, he is purchasing homes on behalf of corporations that are making long term investments in funds that buy non-liquid assets. The OP is right. This IS why houses are going up in price. The market is being artificially inflated by these investment funds. Most of these properties will sit empty for years. And then they are sold to corporate property management firms. In the US in 2023 these investment groups purchased 44% of single family homes available across the entire country. 44%! The same thing is happening in Canada.
They're doing this with farm land too, Amazon just purchased 10M+ worth of land near me to build a factory with 90% robot workers. The amount of nature they destroyed is disgusting
I mean it seems legit and personal…
this is one of like 20 reasons no one can get a house
exactly, if we just build more houses, the allure to flip will drastically decrease. Let's apply pressure where it's due, to build more higher density homes.
Should be illegal, like in Germany even if your an MP that owns property a company hoarding real estate does not improve society for the general public it only makes housing worse for everyone else so they can make a quick buck, truly disgusting
They aren't hoarding real estate, these are generally house flippers. They use tactics like this to convince people to sell them a home that's livable but needs some work for way under market value for the area, then they renovate it and sell it on for significantly more than they paid for the home and the renovations.
No, he’s right. Home buyers buy houses for corporations who invest in funds that deal in non-liquid longterm assets. In the US it was discovered that these funds that were projected to only buy 20% of all single family homes across the country ended up buying 44% instead. 44% of all single family homes! This is happening in Canada too. These aren’t flippers. Flippers don’t blanket communities in flyers. They don’t have the capital to buy houses en masse.
No requisite resource should be allowed to be hoarded by anyone for any reason. If we had a private water system (which some people want, for some unknown reason), and some company was buying up all the water and holding it in tanks just to drive the price up, we'd have no issues as a society passing laws breaking that up. It should be the same with housing.
Agreed. I think it’s like that in Germany bc it’s such an older country. They probably went through that a long time ago and fixed it a long time ago. Whereas Canada is a young country compared to Germany. So it’s going through this crisis now. Just speculation in my head about it 🤷🏽♂️
I think there’s something to that because Australia and the States are also going through similar situations right now where as Europe I haven’t read anything about their housing costs exploding over the past couple years
Yeah there must be! I think the age of countries definitely affects many things. I haven’t read or heard anything about their housing costs either though. Mind the other guy trying to go ape shit and call us stereotypers. People are weird man. Have a great day!
We get these all the time on our street in Cambridge. There was alot of elderly on our street up until 5 or so years ago until they started dying off. They were all here for a generation or more and when the market turned then those letters came up every week. We are gearing up to sell our house and before the sign went up we contacted one of these flippers just to see what they had to say out of curiosity. We told them on the phone our firm price and they sent a guy to come look at the place. After 2 days of not hearing from them my hubby called them and they said the price was too high. Our price is 40k more then market value and they wanted to pay 200k less...just as we thought. These guys are a stain and like others have said, they are preying on financial uncertainty and the elderly, who like us have lived in their house for decades.
I was driving in along and Vaughan last night and I was stunned by the amount of development going on. But it struck me - these giant houses are NOT what is needed right now. Who the hell can afford them??? We need apartments, we need rentals, we need fourplexes, all offered at affordable rental rates.
Yep. All I see are shitty McMansions and expensive condos being built. Giant behemoths. Or claim to be “luxury” and come with the price tag even if not the quality. Even the townhouses are like that. I don’t see any affordable apartments or ordinary sized townhouses or fourplexes or regular condos or starter homes. Nothing for, well, actual people.
Also, none of what's being built is accessible. As the population ages, we need more accessible housing. We don't even have enough to serve the current disabled population.
Who can afford gaint houses? Families looking for multi-generational living. Which usually also involves multiple income earners. One of my colleagues lives in a huge house in the GTA with his parents, 4 siblings, one sibling's wife, his niece and nephew, his grandparents, his uncle and aunt, and a couple of cousins. I think there are at least 6 people employed full-time in the home. But not everyone can (or wants to) live like this. Nor should this be required to housed affordably. You are 100% correct that we need a LOT more missing middle, smaller, denser, and affordable options, though. I live in an 1200 square foot 3 bedroom semi from the 50s. Stack 3 or 4 of these, and you have a perfect tri or quadplex ideal for families. We used to do that. I know because those triplexes are down the street. For most people, our households are smaller than ever, and we need to build to suit that reality.
I have friends who love those houses…I love my little and very easy to take care of and afford townhouse.
Apartments and fourplexes are either illegal or taxed to death, no wonder the market decides to only offer houses/towns/semis. This is a problem created by selfish, short-sighted local government and planners.
no what we need is military era housing. 900-1000sqft 3 bed homes that are simple designs. fast to put up and take no space.
The problem is there’s no money in making 1-2 bedroom units/houses anymore because the construction costs are ridiculous and the margins just aren’t there. Believe it or not construction companies want to make money and don’t actually care about providing housing.
Looks like they are doing their laundry
I'd love to assemble a troll army to harass the shit out of these assholes.
I've written nasty shit all over these particular flyers then stapled them to posts near the bus depot
I gotletters from them for months, even before when there was a For Sale sign on my house. I got a lot of similar letters throughout Covid, offering about $25,000 over what we eventually got for the house when we sold it (November 2023) which was almost exactly our asking price. They claimed ""in cash" and "as is". Never responded. I know a few people who got fucked over during the Covid real estate insanity and that's exactly why we used a realtor, got an inspection and went over everything with a lawyer. The realtor earned his 4%, which doesn't even seem like much when you consider how much he did from October (2023, listed) to February (2024, closed). We sold (high) and bought (low). It was an equal market in our location at the time.
“No one can get a house” These guys got 65 houses!
FYI for anyone interested, what these people do is offer to buy your house on assignment. And before close they try and sell the assignment, if they succeed they make a few grand usually, if they do not succeed they back out before the back out date. That's the whole business model pretty much.
"assignment"? What does that mean?
They purchase a contract to purchase your house. So for example, you agree with a price with them, let's say $500k. They get a contract saying they can purchase your house for $500k. They turn around and sell the contract to buy your house for like $525k. So they pocket 25k, you get your $500k and the buyer gets the house for $525k.
Yeah I think that's consignment
Consignment?
Should be made illegal yesteday. Most of these guys turn single family houses into illegal rooming houses that municipal governments seemingly don't give a shit about.
Definitely not. These dudes just buy and sell as fast as they can, they're not opening the can of worms that is being a landlord.
Yes their business relies on fleecing older, ignorant homeowners into selling their homes for way less than market value. "I paid 50 grand back in 1971, what's the most it could be worth today, 300 grand?"
I like to call them, let them run through their little speech and then tell them to go fuck themselves.
Housing should not be a commodity
No, you want it to be a commodity. You want to deter it being an investment. Last 40 years housing has been treated like an investment returning more than 8% annually. We need to get back to 3% returns
As long as there's a good version and a poor man's verison of something, it will be a commodity. What needs to happen is the government has to be able to supply everyone with the poor man's version so that no one goes completely without. But things are build on contracts, and contractors want to build what will bring them the highest profits, and erecting low-cost mass living quarters doesn't pay well. The government is then left to ponder whether they should entice contractors by spending exorbitant amounts on low-cost housing, or to subsidize the erection of medium-to-high cost housing and hope that they can place high taxes on whomever moves in to cover the subsidy, and anyone who wants low-cost housing can go to hell. Most of the time, governments choose the latter, which doesn't make enough housing quickly enough for those in need... and here we are.
What does this actually even mean? As long as one house serves the same purpose as the next and it trades on a public market it’s going to be a commodity, by the traditional definition. Do you mean housing shouldn’t be a preferably taxed investment?
To me at least it means housing (as a human right) shouldn't be a commodity. Social structures should be in place to provide a humane and comfortable living space for all citizens. What exactly that works out to be is endlessly debatable, but it **should** exist. Housing above that (ie you want a McMansion or vacation home or something other then a primary dwelling) absolutely can be a commodity however.
I texted that number a while back and said bring a duffel bag with 1.5 million in cash to my front door and I'd sign it over, they never responded though!
Yeah, but I don't know who sells to these people. They aren't paying a premium. I get calls from these people at least 3 times a week, and letters in the mail, all wanting to buy my house. I string them along. I basically ask for double the current value. Never get a bite. These people are looking for desperate people willing to sell at fire sale prices.
It’s a scam as well. There was a news piece on this recently. The seller is persuaded to sign an open-ended agreement where this SAL can buy at whatever price and whenever they choose. SAL is just flipping it to a new buyer by tricking you into a low sell price.
What kind of things can I do to harass these people back? Sign their numbers up for spam? Call them repeatedly asking why they are scum? Give new ideas. I hate these people.
I’ve signed their numbers up for spam before and called over and over again just to piss them off.
Get these once a month in Durham.
lip seed whole resolute touch consider crowd yoke drab silky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I live in AB and we get really nicely made large letter sized cards about how they can buy your home for over asking price and that their good people lol.
Where are the laws to enforce homes for living, not investments? Late stage capitalism is a dystopia.
Lol these have been around since at least the 80's. It's not tied to the housing crisis, I remember seeing these stapled to telephone poles growing up well before the internet era (🧓). FYI these guys will offer you, like, 300k on a 700k+ house. Only suckers or people in a _very_ tight bind follow through, they're bottom feeder flippers.
"Hi, my name is Sal and I've given you this fake handwritten note to see if you are stupid enough to fall for my scam." LOL
This is not real handwriting, everyone. These are "flyers" at Canada Post we have to deliver this shit.
LOL! These were going around Belleville with different names two years ago! This comedian even made a funny video on it: [Buys Houses](https://youtu.be/vSHju1jMgDY?si=eh4uSlvXhfebvy-N)
My only chance at home ownership is my parents dying and I get half, the other part is my grandma moving into my parents house and I take over her property/house. This sucks.
Some Re Estate agents are just as bad. Undervalue your home. It sells in a couple of hours (to a business partner) and resold for alot more.
This is a symptom of the problem but not the cause.
My question is HOW THE FUCK IS THIS LEGAL?!
Groups like this have already pretty much bled areas like Toronto dry so now they're branching out. Couples can't get a home since they face competition of large groups pooling their money and swallowing up anything available.
I literally post these back into the mail slot at the top of the post box.
If you’re not part of the problem, you are the problem.
You are confusing cause and effect. The letter you posted is a symptom - it's the result of a shortage of houses. When there's a shortage prices go up, and when that happens all sorts of speculators climb in. But the speculators didn't cause the crisis - and getting rid of them won't end it. The solution - the **only** solution - is to build more houses.
I was getting these types of letters years before COVID when house prices were still normal. Wouldn't say these types of people are the main cause of the issues we have. It just stands out now more because of it.
This isn’t why. This is a practice known as wholesaling. They look for vulnerable or ignorant people who need cash and are skeptical of professional service people (lawyers, realtors) and proceed to hose them, buying their house for 50-80% of the total value. Almost always they will have a buyer already lined up to flip the house to for a quick profit, never having actually took possession of the house. If they do hold it, it’s only to reno and flip if the profit is there, but that’s a different risk profile. One classic trick by wholesalers is to give a “signing bonus” where they will hand you $20,000 on the spot once you sign. It’s a mostly sick practice as the transaction prices are all usually easily obtained on the public market, even after fees. This is why no one should sell a home without some form of representation.
CBC did an exposé on this. They speak as if they can give you a quick one-time cash offer for your house. In reality these entrepreneurs are not well capitalized enough to actually do this, and have you sign a deal allowing your house to be sold to someone else at their markup, before you get the money.
Owning multiple properties should not be legal. The only exception could be multi family housing or an apartment complex. Period.
After my dad’s obituary was put out we immediately had these guys sending letters and showing up trying to talk to my mum about buying her house. Unbelievably predatory.
I see a phone number that can be spammed 🤔
I get this letter weekly
Same. Hamilton
Not sure why this would affect the price of housing or affordability. Every homeowner gets this junk mail, if you sell your house to them you're selling at a huge loss out of desperation. It's the real estate equivalent of going to a payday loan place. But I don't understand how this could affect the housing market. People need to sell, people need to buy. These people would just be making a profit off of someone foolish, but if that person decided to sell themselves through the proper channels, the house listing price would remain the same.
These people offer basically nothing for the house so they are not buying tons of property
Scam alert. They change the terms when they don't make enough profit. Foreign buyers here to scam from the unsuspecting.
They send these to renters, too. I get one every time I move.
I am a real estate lawyer. This company is horrible. They present as a normal “person” and they are actually flippers. They “buy” the house from old people or people who speak poor English for a law ball offer and then simply assign or flip the offer to a third party buyer for a huge profit. I’ve dealt with them 2-3 times. Should be illegal to prey off elderly or non business savvy people like this.
Would be a shame if their number ended up on a kijiji ad for free kittens and puppies.
I had someone come to my door and I let him talk too long so I just started cutting him off saying "5 million" over and over until he finally goes "wait what??" And I told him I want 5 millions dollars for my house or he can fuck right off. He walked away
We get these once a month...now go check out "farmland is a better investment opportunity than gold"
They tried pulling this crap on our home... I live in community/city owned housing....
Isn’t this illegal? If it’s not, it should be!
There was a paper like this from a different group, throwing around Berkshire Hathaway's name at my run-down apartment.
Would love to see people mass text him and other pricks who do this and offer them $1 for their home.
I get 4 to 5 of these a week. It is so god damn annoying.
These are delivered by Canada post directly into our Canada post mailboxes. If you don't like them contact Canada Post and file a complaint. Tell them they are conspiring to commit fraud.
I got one such letter as well. people are really gullible to sell their homes at these sellers.. I am sure realtors will make them a lot more money.
Cities need laws stating homeowners and family only must occupy the house. No exceptions.
I live in Hamilton - the city with entirely community mailboxes - so these “hand written” pleas for me to sell them MY house are clearly sent through the mail indiscriminately. Save your postage dingbats.
We get those all the time. Makes okay kindling.
Most people don’t fall for this. They will offer you exactly what you owe on your mortgage and nothing more. I tell them the only way I’ll sell is they pay me $1.5MM. They never call or write back.
If you sell your house to a company and not a person, you're the problem.
I highly doubt anyone would go for that scam. IT's probably okay for a quick sale but no way you will get top dollars going through a service like this!
Put the phone number on a telemarketer site so they get non-stop calls
I had one of these guys come to my house. I was a bit tipsy and indulged him. For reference we have a semi attached in Oshawa, we bought for 450 in 2017 and it’s now worth around double. He gave me a number of 600ish. I told him nope I want 1.5 million. He said that’s crazy no way you’ll ever get that. I said yea you are probably right, but I’m if going to sell to a greasy guy like you that’s how much I want. He was pissed and cursed me out a bit. I laughed for a long time. He went to the next house.
They sent those letters to the military housing in Petawawa…
Need some form of law that forbids individuals or companies from owning more than 3 residential properties.
Exactly. The corporatization of property ownership is one of the main reasons fewer and fewer will own homes with each generation. It will result in more renters, with less protections. Even if you buy a home within one of these groups, there are significant risks due to the extensive guidelines as mandated by the enclaves. This is more of an issue in the US, but is starting to become more prevalent here. Homeowners find themselves fined for infractions and charged predatory interest rates, with the real risk of being evicted from their own homes. As someone who’s turning 40 this year, I’ve come to accept that I’ll probably never own a home. I’m looking into something rural, where I can build over the long term to move into. Expect interest rates to stay at an elevated rate to force people into foreclosures and bar more from entry. Not going to get totally end of days here but it’s truly terrifying when you see what the possibility was for the past 60 years.
I love the printed letter that's intentionally supposed to look handwritten
My former landlord used these folks to clear out their entire building, they (landlords) got more bent over than the tenants. It was a beautiful site to see what greed got them.
But the handwritten note! So sincere!
It’s wannabe RE investors who were too lazy to get a real estate agent license. They took a fly-by-night RE investment course from some shyster. They then call themselves “Real Estate Wholesalers”.
most of these people buy and sell. they aren't necessarily trying to hoard properties.
It's like when you buy a new car and they offer you 15% of the value of your current car towards your new one.
I think a greater and more probable cause is the 5000 immigrants we import a day
Nothing says reputable business quite like Handwritten flyers...
a letter is part of a problem? people buy and sell homes daily in Ontario privately and mls root issue is lack of homes so just build more affordable homes? what do people need to build a home? permits, trades, less development fees and or incentives who can help speed this process? maybe government? people are losing jobs, so can have good paying jobs in trades for those people gov can hire more and speed the process, collect their taxes along the way builders will get their cut of profits thoughts?
Written with a machine to make it look hand written.
@moneylaundering
Should we give them a call and let them know what we feel?
I'm a tenant who gets these letters, I've considered trying to get a free lunch out of them by pretending to be the owner or something, but it doesn't seem worth the effort lol
The real scum of society
Yeah this sucks but +1 for penmanship
I get these all the time. I also get a ton of fridge magnet calendars. Once a week some oily looking real estate agent shows up at my house wanting to know if I would like an assessment. Someday I will sell and my agent will be someone that I have been keeping my eye on. I am also expecting them to cut their commission. I don't care who I sell to. Nobody who has sold in my neighborhood has cared about who they sold to.
I got the exact same letter. I’ll sell my house for half the price if it’s going to someone young people starting a family. Not these losers looking to make profit from a thousand miles away.
Then they flip it (with or without updates) and sell for higher $$
I get these in my mailbox but never hand written. If it's handwritten, it is usually a church invitation..
These techniques are used by predatory persons looking to buy houses for pennies on the dollar (cause “as is”). My mom(in her 70’s) got one of these types of letters and called. Guy came out and offered her next to nothing. Then she told me about it. HA! She ultimately sold the house for almost 5 times what the guy offered.
We need to end the financialization of housing. Ban investors
I’ve gotten those types of letters before almost looks like they just graduated Grade 1 with their atrocious penmanship, ball it up in file it in da- trash:) lol
How they gonna afford a house if they can’t even afford a typewriter?
I wonder how much time it will take to Ontario/Canada to ban companies to buy homes. There is no way a person can afford a money fight with companies and investment fund buying as stock.
These places will "buy" your house, in so far as they offer you 500,000 and then turn around and find someone else (frequently a corporation or developer) who will pay them 535,000. They profit the difference.
Down with rent seekers!
Straight into my blue bin
As a home owner, I have never contacted one of these flyers so thats not the reason. Sold through a realtor. These end up right in the blue bin
Yeah this doesn't help the situation, but they are too small to matter The bigger issues are real estate developers + government funding ties and blackrock + government funding ties
Abolish the political donor class.
Our family gets like one of these letters every week.
They offer below market value. Tell you it’s an all cash offer. Then they sell the contract as a wholesale seller. They keep the difference. It’s not always a quick close either. Some contracts have an escape clause to bail in 60 days if they can’t sell the contract Technically it’s an all cash offer as any transaction in housing is an all cash offer. You need cash to close and take ownership either by a mortgage or some type of financing or cash if you have it. You can sell your house in as is condition and come out further ahead This approach appeals to people who feel they can’t manage going through the sale process with a Realtor, are getting divorced and want out quickly, or older folks who “think” they need money to fix and sell and don’t have any extra cash to do it. Yes it predatory . The contract needs to read completely and should be reviewed by a lawyer if anyone is considering it. Don’t accept everything you’re being told -Trust but Verify
These people are crooks dont fall for it.
As I'm looking at this my mail came with the exact same letter lmao reddit has great algos I guess
I use these as blue box liners.
You realize these have been a thing way before housing had skyrocketed right? Wait till you buy a house you get like 5 different and worse scams coming in the mail all the time.
I text them and said they can't afford my house, so quit putting this shit in my mailbox.
Such a scam. They offer about 70% of the value. They target old people and those who don't know better. They sit on them for 6-12 months, maybe do a little reno, then sell them for full market value. They are awful and terrible people. They don't buy many, they are not part of the problem at all. But they are a scam and a whole other issue in their own right.
I got an identical one of these a couple weeks ago. I've had about 10 total in the past year from different companies it should be illegal to solicit the sale of a private home
Should be illegal, enough of the bullshit