How to Tell a Real Cash Home Buyer From a Bad One

The six questions to ask

1. Are you the buyer, or will you assign this contract? Both answers are legitimate. A vague answer is not.
2. Can you show proof of funds? A real buyer can produce a bank statement or a lender letter without drama.
3. How did you arrive at this number? Ask for the comparable sales and the repair estimate. A buyer who cannot or will not show you is asking you to trust a figure with nothing behind it.
4. What fees come out of my proceeds? The answer should be none, other than your payoff, liens and prorated taxes. Get it in writing.
5. Which title company, and who chooses it? A named, reputable Florida title company is a good sign. In Florida the party paying for title insurance customarily selects the closing agent, and that is negotiable.
6. What is your inspection or due diligence period, and can you cancel? This is where many bad deals hide.

Contract terms worth reading twice

• Assignment clause. If the contract allows assignment, the person you met may not be who shows up at closing. You can negotiate this out.
• Long inspection period with free cancellation. A 30-day due diligence window with unilateral cancellation is effectively a free option on your house. You are off the market and they are risking nothing.
• Tiny or absent deposit. A hundred dollar escrow deposit on a 300,000 dollar house tells you how committed they are.
• Memorandum of contract recorded against your property. This clouds your title and can make it impractical to sell to anyone else even after the contract ends.
• Extension rights. Check whether the buyer can unilaterally push the closing date, and how many times.

Warning signs

• Pressure to sign today, or an offer that expires in hours
• Refusal to put the number and the terms in writing
• Any request for money from you, for any reason, at any stage
• Asking you to sign a deed rather than a purchase contract
• Wanting to close somewhere other than a licensed title company or attorney’s office
• Reducing the price late for something they already knew about
• No verifiable business address, no company name on documents
• In a foreclosure situation: promising to stop the sale, or offering a leaseback where you deed the house over and rent it from them

What normal looks like

A legitimate Florida cash purchase is unremarkable. You get a written offer that names the buying entity. There is a real escrow deposit at a licensed title company. There is a short inspection window, often a single walkthrough. The title company runs a search, clears exceptions, prepares a settlement statement you can read line by line, and you sign and get paid.

Nobody asks you for money. Nobody asks you to sign a deed outside closing. Nobody needs an answer in the next twenty minutes.

Verify independently

Look the company up in the Florida Division of Corporations Sunbiz record. Check whether the entity actually exists and who is behind it. Search the county clerk’s records for properties they have bought. A buyer who genuinely closes in Florida leaves a public paper trail.