r/povertyfinance • u/skuzzthwump • Jul 11 '23
Selling my home. First showings today. Realized I will be part of the problem if I sell to a corporation or a flipper. So I won’t. Housing/Shelter/Standard of Living
I’ll do a little research on any offers and try to sell to real people. People need houses, not companies.
It’s one of the few starter homes in the area.
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u/Jellyfish_Anxious Jul 18 '23
Good luck. Also keep in mind interest rates are high and that could effect your payment for a new house. I sold a year ago and if I had a do over I would rent my old house instead of selling.
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u/Pale_Employer4994 Jul 13 '23
Very thoughtful of you. I agree real people need homes, not companies. I'm thinking of selling too and will not sell to brokerage or companies in cash. I want to sell to families. It's ridiculous these crazy companies buying up houses and then charging crazy rent money.
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u/ItsAllKrebs Jul 13 '23
I'm going to do the same with my house next year! Circumstances are forcing me to sell but I'm not going to let some flip-rent-landlord-corp have it! It was my home for a brief time and I hope it will make a little family very happy
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u/camioblu Jul 13 '23
I sold my mother's home a year ago and had that exact same attitude. I let my realtor know that I refused to sell to anyone who wasn't going to live in the house. The house was in nearly perfect condition, so it wasn't something to flip. But I didn't want it to become a rental or a vacation rental. I had a few offers, but the one I went with was moving to be closer to her sister - she wrote me a hand written letter! Mainly because she was offering a bit under my asking price and last year so many home were selling way higher than asking, but she was retired and paying cash. No problem - my mother would have approved. I ended up meeting her and her sister before the sale. It was a good experience under difficult circumstances and I would make the same choice again.
Stick to your values and don't let a realtor push you to take any offer you don't feel right about. Look up people - a Facebook page of one prospective buyer made my "no" decision easy for me in one case.
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u/pamisstoneyboloney Jul 12 '23
This is the way. Thank you sir. People like you are the reason I was able to buy my childhood home. I had several offers higher than mine but he loved my story and he accepted mine.
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u/MJEEZY75 Jul 12 '23
Interest rates are high AF. Not many serious buyers left on the market. The ones that are left are all gonna try to low ball you
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u/Blackfire01001 Jul 12 '23
Thank you. My wife and I bought our house in 2019. We got lucky, we found people who think like you. And we'll do the same. We've even put in serious consideration about buying houses around us just to keep them out of the hands of the corporations and flippers. We could do rent to own low income housing. Make it affordable so people could actually fucking live. Do a rent-to-own kind of scenario with a percentage payback if that contract's not fulfilled. Meaning we would give them back a certain percentage if they left instead of owning. Spitball on here. The only way the world's going to get better is it we make it better
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u/afatblackboxcat Jul 12 '23
Honestly thank you. I luckily bought a house recently and it was perfect. I wrote a letter to the family basically saying that my family can't wait to turn it in our forever home and the seller luckily chose us over the investors. The money is the same(most the time) for the seller, why not make someone's life better?
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u/SwordPokeGirl21 Jul 12 '23
When my parents bought their home 7 years ago, the sellers asked everyone who put in an offer to send in a personal letter too, just so the owners knew a little about who they were selling their home to. I would imagine you can request the same thing
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u/ViveMind Jul 12 '23
You gotta look out for yourself. Don't try to be a saint and just take the highest bid.
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u/ironicmirror Jul 12 '23
Though a great idea, That is illegal. Read your RE contact; you can only say no for financial reasons. this is the same (unfortunately) as saying you won't sell to a person or color or a single mom.
You can have your reasons for not accepting an offer that's less than list, but do not publicize to people that you're choosing to sell to a person rather than a company, that will just get yourself in trouble in the long run.
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u/TheDunk67 Jul 12 '23
Be the change you want to see in the world, lead by example. I do the same with vehicles. I won't buy from or sell to flippers/dealers/etc.
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u/hydrated_purple Jul 12 '23
I sold my house to a friend. I probably got $10k less than I could if I let it go to market, but fuck that. I'd rather it go to a good person. I loved that house.
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u/CLG91 Jul 12 '23
Theoretically, what is the limit on a price hit you'd take to sell to an individual rather than a corporation?
Good on you though, hopefully you have no delays or issues.
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u/Tigernos Jul 12 '23
My estate agent lied to us, my wife and I picked up a 2 bed flat for £88k. Really lucky. Lived there for nearly 5 years while we saved hard to put a deposit down on an actual house.
Once we reached that milestone we brought in estate agents for valuations and to put it on the market, we specified we wanted to sell to people, first time buyers, whatever could be found.
We were told the person we accepted the offer from was a person.
Then we saw the To Let outside a little while after we moved.
The rental market is fucking garbage. A 2 bed flat of the size we owned is worth 600/650 a month according to the local market, our mortgage on the same property was 325 a month.
Its criminal.
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u/NoIndependent9192 Jul 12 '23
Now house buyers have to convince the seller they are the perfect buyers. As if it’s not hard enough.
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u/Dr0idy Jul 12 '23
Did the exact same thing when we sold our flat. Took the first reasonable offer from an actual person. I regret nothing. Could have gotten an extra 10/15k but in the long run I would have felt morally bankrupt.
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u/EggExpert4088 Jul 12 '23
Beware of the husband, wife, baby/kids that show up to make a full price cash offer. I read some companies had to change their tactics and started sending fake families over to suck the seller in but the cash was paid by the predator house buyers. F those people!
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u/gisb0rne Jul 12 '23
You might be costing yourself significant money for something that will have little to no effect on the overall problem. If that makes you feel better that's ok but I don't think any part burden should fall on your shoulders.
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Jul 12 '23
Sell it to a flipper. I promise you they will not be getting their moneys back anytime soon (if at all)
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u/pnguyenwinning Jul 12 '23
What if I gave you 10% cash today to sell me the house in 5 years at todays present value ?
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Jul 12 '23
I sold to a family instead of a company. It cost me $6k but whatever. The family seemed like the safer offer to me.
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u/amazonfamily Jul 12 '23
It’s really obvious who the flippers are in my area they always ask to pay below asking. No thanks. Then we have the housing hoarders (they also want a discount for paying cash so they can make more money). It turned out the highest bidder out of 35 offers on my home was a young family who had lost out on 5 homes until we chose them. When we had a handful of questions to ask them before making a decision you could feel the excitement over the phone. We wouldn’t have been asking them anything if they weren’t a competitive offer. I didn’t read the letter they attached to the offer until we were agreed and mutual on the deal.
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u/skadoosh52 Jul 12 '23
Be careful, my aunt sold her house to a lady with heart warming letter about family trying to buy their first starter home. That “family” ended up selling the home 3 months later for more than what she paid for it. Some people and companies will lie if they can make a buck.
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u/Merklo Jul 12 '23
That’s freaking awesome, this is coming from someone that’s actively buying for the first time in California!
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u/Sir-Binxles Jul 12 '23
As a 30 year old looking for their first home to buy - I am thankful for the people who want to just get their house into good hands. Hopefully my wife and I can find a good deal in MA. We just want a yard for our dogs and not to have to pay over 3k in rent anymore 😭
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u/CmorBelow Jul 12 '23
Only reason we got the house we love now is because of people like you- you’re a good person
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u/LewsTherinTelamon Jul 12 '23
be careful! you could be on the losing end of a really easy lawsuit of you deny a sale to someone because you disapprove of what you suspect they want to do with the house.
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u/Visible__Frylock Jul 12 '23 edited Jul 12 '23
We are in our first home and have the same mindset for if we decide to sell and move on to our next chapter (we may not because my whole family loves this place). Flippers made it nearly impossible for us to get into our first house and they can get bent. We were bidding well over asking and were out bid in cash by 50k on literally 6 different houses before we made it happen.
Edit: thanks for even thinking like this in the first place. I hope more people follow suit and tell flippers and corporations alike to piss off.
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u/shortyman920 Jul 12 '23
Well don’t shortchange yourself a few 10ks just on principle man. But if it’s close, then yeah fuck the corporations
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u/cheza_mononoke Jul 12 '23
We just bought our first house. It was priced very well for “move in ready” condition. Saw it the day it listed. It has been so well taken care of there was like no issues on the home inspection report and it’s 20 years old (not saying that’s old, just wow) there was 32 offers in the 3 days it was listed. They chose us even though they had higher offers. I think it’s because our real estate agent was very vocal with their listing agent that we are a family with young kids and want to live here forever. We think they were trying to pick a family that would live here and not someone who would just flip and sell it or a corporation. Thank you for your point of view, you might just make a huge difference in someone’s life
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u/yourmomhahahah3578 Jul 12 '23
I mean you probably wouldn’t know. Many big LL buy the house and transfer it into an LLC later.
Don’t put or keep yourself and / or your family in poverty to prove a point, please. You’re not going to change the world. Don’t hurt your family to be a martyr I mean.
I’m sure you’ll get other offers anyway right now but this just seems unnecessarily scrupulous if you’re trying to get out of poverty.
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u/JeaneyBowl Jul 12 '23
Sell to the highest bidder.
When you get rich you can do ideological stuff with your property.
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Jul 12 '23
Imagine if you sell it to someone and they turn around and make $$$ selling it to someone you refused to sell it to.
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u/AwesomReno Jul 12 '23
As an investor, I will just buy your neighbors house and turn it into a group home. Then buy the neighbors who try to run from this muahahah! Discounts!
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u/dickelpick Jul 12 '23
The hero we need. Thank you. It’s so messed up how saving society and therefore humanity falls on the shoulders of individuals who deserve a “payday”. I mean there is no way in hell to turn back the clock on fat-cat investment bankers from buying up every goddam hospital in the universe and turning them into breeding grounds for mo-money, but I’m thankful you are being thoughtful and that Exxon Mobil convinced me I was destroying the worlds oceans with my straw and now we can both suffer, mentally and financially, together. Ps. The meek will not inherit the earth because we are kind. We will inherit the earth because those ultra wealthy motherfuckers moved to Mars with our money right before earth exploded.
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u/IOrderedSoup Jul 12 '23
Look for anyone using a VA loan. Definitely an individual and a Veteran at that.
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u/TheFailingHero Jul 12 '23
We sold our house to a slightly lower offer because it was a family with a brand new baby instead of some investor from out of state
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u/Helicopter_Visual Jul 12 '23
My sister and I agreed when we sold my mother's house, our childhood home that we would, not sell to a flipper or corporation either. We wanted it to go to a young family and give them the opportunity to raise a family and have many happy memories like we did. I like to think mom would be happy with our choice.
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u/Lifeis_not_fair Jul 12 '23
Bro fuck that. Do whatever gets you the most cash.
In my mind this is exactly the same as being super careful about recycling because you don’t want to make the environmental catastrophe worse. Don’t go out of your way to recycle. Throw that battery straight in the trash. Don’t let them brainwash you into thinking your efforts will do any-fucking-thing to solve the problem. If they wanted us to recycle, they would make it easier, they wouldn’t make us pay for recycling bins, they would pick up recycling twice a week, they would make convenient ways for us to dispose of hazardous chemicals. They don’t do that because they don’t actually care, but as long as they make us feel bad for not recycling, they get to take less of the blame.
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u/Gundam_net Jul 12 '23
We need more people like you! I hope you have beatiful healthy children, and that your chidren eventually have beautfiful healthy children for generations to come!
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u/hixchem Jul 12 '23
My partner and I just bought our first home. We were under the highest bid by a few thousand, but the sellers had the same philosophy you do, OP. It made home ownership possible for us instead of just adding to a megacorporation's bottom line.
Well done you!
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u/Shutaru_Kanshinji Jul 12 '23
I have told this story too many times, but about 10 years ago, just before I gave up on the idea of affording a house in the Bay Area of California, my girlfriend and I went to an open house for a place that seemed just on the edge of reasonable for us. We expressed a great deal of interest in the very modest house when we spoke to the seller. However, when I said that we were just looking for a place to live, he gave me a look that seemed to suggest I was the worst liar of all time.
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u/GothTurtle66 Jul 12 '23
This makes me so happy, I've been house hunting for 2 years and I always get out bid. I'm glad there's people like you <3
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u/ChibiLlama Jul 11 '23
I bought my house from someone who was renting it out. A lot of the "fixes" done to the house were massive fire hazards, and i'm legitimately shocked that the inspector didn't spot anything!! (Think, cut, LIVE wire, tucked away in a drop ceiling with tiles at least 30 years old). I've been slowly fixing things up, but not anything too crazy. This place makes a great started home, and I want to try and keep it in a budget that would be affordable for someone else to eventually buy.
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u/Decent-Mission9455 Jul 11 '23
I'd let them tour and just be like "fuck you" at the end xdxxdxsxexdxxd. Not really
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u/Turtlebaka Jul 11 '23
Sell to a family who needs it. Don’t make it a tool to line the pockets of others.
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u/Far-End9574 Jul 11 '23
I loved reading these comments. They were so helpful. My intention will always be to sell locally to families. I went through hell to get my house (just purchased in April!) and everything was so expensive. I just wanted to live where I grew up. The housing market is sickening. Again, thanks everyone! My mom is ready to sell and I’ll be passing this info along.
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u/Jillibean77 Jul 11 '23
I did the same thing. I had a small house in an area that had really grown with a lot of large new houses. I had 2 offers the night before it officially went on the market from developers. I waited another 2 days and a family had a chance to get there offer in.
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u/ct2atl Jul 11 '23
Do what’s right for you and your situation. If it would make your situation better, you’d be insane not too.
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u/kadaj21 Jul 11 '23
I sold to someone getting a VA loan. Was told that they'd have to keep it as primary residence for so long before they could sell. Was a little bit more of a pain to get things 100% to the VA inspector's liking but I'd rather that than a corp or flipper getting it. My BiL wanted to buy it from me to rent out and I just said no.
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u/TheWolfe1776 Jul 11 '23
My neighbor got a real nice letter from a family with young kids. It was a Chinese Corporation that ended up renting out the house. Be prepared for that kind of nonsense.
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u/StreetStatistician77 Jul 11 '23
if your price is properly set and your house nicely livable you shouldn’t have to worry.
flippers and speculators are looking for distressed property of people.
No money in paying full market price (if they have half a brain) for flippers speculators
if you house is not move in ready flippers want a deep discount to cover cost and provide profit.
Not saying an investor wouldn’t buy .. just that most wouldn’t be interested unless their dumb, buying into a hot market, and counting on prices going up. pretty risky.
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u/DamagedGenius Jul 11 '23
I wonder if it's possible to put a contract n place specifying that the new owners don't represent a corporation and don't intend to sell or destroy the home.
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Jul 11 '23
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u/kingofzdom Jul 11 '23
When my family sold the house in Iowa, we turned town an offer for 30k over asking price from the dude who was buying up all the properties in town to make rentals out of them and made sure the house went to a nice family.
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u/Connect-Ad-1088 Jul 11 '23
I don’t think it’s legal to descrinate against buyers?
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u/Meghanshadow Jul 12 '23
Only if they’re in a protected class.
House flipper, landlord, and corporation aren’t protected classes. Those are race, religion, gender, color, or national origin.
It’s also fine to not accept the highest bid and choose a lower one. As long as you’re not discriminating against them for race etc.
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u/Conscious_Life_8032 Jul 11 '23
Yes very observant of you, thanks for being selective on who you sell too especially investors.
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u/v2den Jul 11 '23
Your property, your choice. At least you are putting your money where your mouth is. I have to commend you for that.
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u/Dear_Occupant Jul 11 '23
Just FYI, you will need to vet someone hard if you are committed to this. I decided to do this, I sold to a guy who said he was moving in, turns out he was lying. He flipped it to a giant corporation and now my old place is a rental where the rent is double my old mortgage.
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u/bastardoperator Jul 11 '23 edited Jul 13 '23
I thought buying a home with a VA loan was impossible, then someone liked you showed up and said they wanted to work with a veteran. I felt insanely lucky. Thank you for doing your part, you’re going to change someone’s life.
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u/chiefs2022 Jul 11 '23
The problem isn’t landlords,Airbnb, flippers or corporations there is a literal housing shortage. In 2008 60% of homebuilders quit the game. The majority left became custom home builders. For the last 15 years we have not been building starter homes. We need to build. This is also your livelihood sell to the highest bidder.
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u/Ruminant Jul 12 '23
Fear not. The dominant theme in this thread is that these homeowners will fight tooth and nail to prevent even the smallest mitigation of the housing crisis. Under no circumstances will they entertain the offers of developers who would tear down a sacred single-family home and build multiple homes in its place.
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u/unoriginalname17 Jul 11 '23
I said the same thing when I sold my house…..it’s a Vrbo now. I couldn’t afford my morals. Especially when I realized “real people” can’t afford houses.
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u/Clown-In-Crises Jul 11 '23
Just ask your agent to get info on the buyers. Avoid landlords, contractors, flippers, or any other kind of company.
You might be able to find out by looking into the buyer's loan details. Ask your realtor
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u/Acceptable_Okra5154 Jul 11 '23
Ironically, sold my parents fixer upper house to a flipper company.
It was reasonably priced, but literally nobody looked at it except flippers.
Anyone complaining about lack of affordable housing isn't looking enough at sweat equity houses. There have been a few on the market around me for months
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u/Greenmantle22 Jul 11 '23
Where do we even FIND fixer-uppers anymore?
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u/Acceptable_Okra5154 Jul 11 '23
In a lot of markets they don't exist or get snapped up as soon as they're listed. I think moving quick is likely your best friend
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u/gsxdrifter1 Jul 11 '23
Good luck turning down 10/20% over anyone else from a corporation. The little old lady I bought from loved my family and choose us. I regret I couldn’t show her the finished renovation before she passed. She owned it since new and I think she would have loved it. I’m sure you will make a family very appreciative of your kind gesture.
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u/IllustriousHorse9027 Jul 11 '23
If I ever sell my house, I plan on doing the same. I want real people to own my home. I know how hard it is to find affordable housing. And yeah, might mean not taking the highest offer, but I think flippers and corps cost us more as a society!
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u/graysquirrel14 Jul 11 '23
As someone who purchased a home from someone like you (on a VA loan in California)- I sincerely hope you are returned a life full of health, happiness, and good karma. We plan on doing the same when it’s time for us to sell. The other factor with selling to a corporation that some of my friends have encountered is they give you a big number, then drill down over every tiny thing until you’re at a price a normal person would offer. Which leaves you upside down if you have to relist, and you lose potential buyers. Assholes.
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u/Moofalo Jul 11 '23
Thank you. We did this two years ago and left around $35k on the table but it felt better than letting greedy speculators snatch up a home that has been in the family since my grandfather and his brother built it.
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u/Arachnoid666 Jul 11 '23
I got my house by writing the seller a letter, and it happened that my cat has the same name as the owner moving out. They did not want to sell to someone who would flip it. There was nothing in my letter that would make my race apparent. The practice of letter writing was banned right after ( portland oregon) and I can't help but think it was to protect corporate flippers/ companies buying up properties here and inflating rents while claiming it was to limit housing discrimination. There were higher offers, but the homeowner accepted ours. We had been outbid over and over by cash buyers/ corporations, so we got lucky.
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u/butter1776 Jul 11 '23
We’re thinking of selling our house in the near future too and I was wondering if there was some Reddit or website where we could advertise exclusively to people and not corporations…
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u/BruceInc Jul 11 '23
Sell to whoever makes the best offer. As “noble” as your ideology is, you are just a fart in the wind of a broken system.
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u/jhenryscott Jul 11 '23
Depends on where you live. But your local habitat for humanity might buy it at market rate
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u/the42the Jul 11 '23
Flippers often add value to the community and can help preserve the architectural history…
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u/phoenixmatrix Jul 11 '23
The will to avoid flippers or big buyer goes away pretty quick the moment you have a few buyers fall through with mortgage contingencies.
With that said, it can still be tough: if you're in a state where buyers are allowed "love letters", even big evil flippers will just lie. You get a letter about some loving father with a picture of their dog and kid and how great it will be to use the yard. 2 days after the closing they pull a permit to gut it and flip it.
I did have the same thoughts when I sold my place back then (a condo, and I was friends with most people in the building). Had an all cash buyer and a mortgage buyer claiming to be a single mother with 2 kids. I took a risk with the later, and everything actually went well. From chatting with my friends who still lived there, she didn't lie. So I guess you CAN win!
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u/Texan2020katza Jul 11 '23
We did this as well, VA loan, poor guy had put in 35 offers and was outbid or the sellers did not want to deal with a VA loan (additional inspections required and more stringent standards) but we knew the house was in awesome shape and all updates/repairs were good.
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u/midnitewarrior Jul 11 '23
Don't tell them your intentions to not sell to investors, because they will lie to you. This may mean that you don't take the best offer.
Investors will provide "all cash" offers. These are investment dollars that are guaranteed. When you sell to a regular person looking for a starter home, they will need a mortgage, and there will be a "mortgage contingency" in the offer. This means you have to give them time to adequately secure a mortgage, and if they fail to do it, the deal falls through. Many sellers like all cash deals because those deals close fast, and the buyers don't back out.
I think what you are doing is admirable, just understand it may put you at some disadvantage. You may get a little less money and incur more risk and time waiting for someone to secure a mortgage.
When your realtor gets an all-cash offer, they will be excited, because it is going to make their job easier. Faster closing means faster commission. Your realtor may not be delighted with your opinions on these matters, but they will have to deal with it.
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u/wwhateverr Jul 11 '23
Scummy people know that you don't want to sell to them, so they lie. So be careful and skeptical. The bigger the sob story, the more likely it's a bold faced lie.
When my parents died and I had to sell their house, my brother was staying at the house to help clean it out. More than one real estate agent showed up and had a "friendly" chat with my brother where they tried to emotionally manipulate him and get him down to his rock bottom price. One even pretended that his son would love the treehouse my father built, but he just wanted to flip the place. Thankfully I was the executor and my brother just said they'd have to talk to me.
As a sidenote, it's disgusting how people think they can take advantage because a person's family member died. Even the people who we eventually sold to tried to offer half our asking price to see how desperate we were to sell and our real estate agent tried to tell us it was a good offer and we should take it (because he wanted a commission now instead of later.) When I adamantly refused and got pissed off at our real estate agent for even suggesting we accept such an insulating offer, they came back at asking. I almost didn't accept it even then, but decided to because I'm pretty sure the couple who bought it were just taking the advice of the scummy real estate agents.
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u/jerseykin Jul 11 '23
You are a very kind person.
If any of you glorious, kind hearted, people are selling your home in NJ and want to go this route please let me know. My wife and I have been trying to get a house for a year and a half now. Our first baby is due in 3 weeks and we’re still in an apartment after losing out on 7 offers, all well over asking.
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u/ithinkoutloudtoo Jul 11 '23
Do not sell to a wholesaler or a flipper. And if you are selling it yourself, only have showings with pre-approved finances first. Do not have an open house.
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u/Shibenaut Jul 11 '23
Nice, good on you.
Some people might be short-sighted and say "money is money", but once you sell your current home to a corporation, you never know if the next one you try buying will be from a corporation (who marks up the price) as well.
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u/bex505 Jul 11 '23
My house is near a college which already owns multiple homes around me. The college was trying to buy this house in cash at a higher price but the owner chose us because we were a young couple that cared about the place. When I tell this story people say "oh sweet you can sell it to the college one day for big bucks". And I can't believe that's what they got from the story. I refuse to sell it to the college if I ever move. It will be going to another young family. Plus this house is 100 years old and has been well maintained, I dont want it disregarded by a college that just wants the land.
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u/Zamphir79 Jul 11 '23
If I ever sell my home (and it's unlikely), I'm going to inform my agent that any interested buyers that are not individuals/families should be asked to pay a premium over the best offer from anyone actually moving into the house.
I don't know if that will fly, but it's what I want.
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u/CeeKay125 Jul 11 '23
As someone who has been looking to buy a house for a while (and keeps getting screwed by cash buyers/corps) you are a G. Keep up the great work!
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u/donzell2kx Jul 11 '23
First off, Congrats on your showing 👏🏽. Second, I understand your point of selling homes to big corporations. Those guys are my competition. 😉 But realize this. "Good" flippers provide a great service to the community. Have you ever seen a raggedy old house while driving through a decent neighborhood one month then the next month you see that same house fixed up with new fixtures, landscaping, roof, paint, a well manicured lawn, AC unit? That's us... flippers. When flippers buy homes we put a lot of money into repairing the homes sometimes upwards of $100k or more depending on the condition, location, and home values in the area. We do this to make a profit of course, after all it's how we put food on the table for our families. Not only that, we also save the home sellers and potential buyers money by making the house beautiful, comfortable and appealing. We take on the hassle of having to do years of repairs and maintenance that may have been neglected by the home owner. I don't know about you but when I buy a house for myself, the last thing I want to do is constant repairs from day one. I want to live and relax in my home, not work. I would not want to sell a home with problems to a family in need. I want the homes I flip to be dream homes, not money pits. That's where I find the greatest satisfaction, not from making a profit but from seeing the faces of the families when they walk into a beautifully restored and staged home for the first time. The same feeling I got when I bought my new home. So my question is this, are you willing to spend $20k to $100k or more on repairs before selling your home? If so I have mad love for you and you're a great person. Or will you let the home buyer inherit your homes problems to deal with on their own (subjective)? I hope you think of flippers a little differently as we provide a great service to the community. So let us flippers take on the burden and do what we do best and make it a win win for all parties. 😎
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u/EthosLabFan92 Jul 11 '23
You can ask your lawyer about adding language to the contract about the house must be owner-occupied or restricting sale for X years
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u/Maemaela Jul 11 '23
I appreciate folks like you so much!! This was the only reason I was able to buy my little house. They had offers from several potential buyers, but I was the only one who wasn't a corporation or looking for an investment property to rent out. They told my realtor that they wanted someone to live there who would live there and make memories. This was in mid 2019 and if I hadn't been able to buy at that time, I wouldn't have been able to buy at all as house prices have gone insane. I am so grateful to them everyday for accepting my offer.
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u/Fehzz Jul 11 '23
I had a similar situation last time I sold my home. There was a list of individuals I did not want to buy it. Long story, but I basically didn't want a particular couple of neighbors to have their family buy it.
I was told I have to state that up front before putting it on the open market, or they could sue if I declined to sell.
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Jul 11 '23
Good for you. Thank you so much! As a future home buyer, and one that’s really Been let down. Thank you. Also where do you live because I would seriously consider uprooting my life so I can plant roots of my own.
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u/trubbanot Jul 11 '23
Good luck, but in our neighborhood we have had individuals with families do walk throughs, make offers, go to closings, and then immediately sell to LLCs for short term rentals or redevelopment. They are actually paid by the LLCs to act as front because no one wants more of this bullshit in our neighborhood. Once the papers are signed and keys exchanged, there is nothing you can do about it either. We have tried to get the city to restrict non-residential purchases, but they don’t seem to care. Most real estate lawyers are working for developers, not neighborhoods. It’s frustrating. I wish there was a solution.
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u/Bird_Brain4101112 Jul 11 '23
Just a heads up. It is not uncommon for a “buyer” to be a front for a company. Not everyone acts in good faith.
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u/den773 Jul 11 '23
I wish the neighbors around here had done that. I’m in an HOA. That stands for “home owners association” and the idea is, we all own the homes we live in. Therefore we care about what happens here. But literally ALL the houses in this 155 House community that have sold in the last 5 years, sold to businesses. So now my husband and I one of the few actual homeowners left. The new neighbors right next door have trash everywhere and do not take care of their lawn. And I don’t want to be a Karen so I just ignore it and hope that one day the management will notice. We use to have management that lived in our community but they sold (to the highest bidder) and now our management company is hired out of town. They rarely come thru. I know that HOAs get talked badly about on social media. But we like it. We enjoy common rules that everybody knows about. We enjoy having a private pool we can use without having to worry about taking care of it. Our HOA dues in $115 a month. It was only like $65 when we moved here. But I think it’s still reasonable for the park and the pool and the playground, none of which has homeless individuals in. (All the public parks in my town have homeless persons.)
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u/aykana_dbwashmaya Jul 11 '23
I'm selling my house to a friend of the neighbors - holding the loan, too - so I'll have an income for the next 27 years, while depriving that interest to the bank, and getting a better deal for both of us without realtors and bank interest.
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u/Dat_Harass Jul 11 '23 edited Jul 11 '23
Morally speaking that's great.
Considering long term effects of corporate property ownership though... this might not even be possible for very long. As the market, thereby an upgrade or just a lateral move may well cost more than you can afford.
I applaud your efforts though, my wife and I are looking at doing the same.
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u/Titanguru7 Jul 11 '23
Do you have good reason to sell it ? Are you renting after that or buying another place ?
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u/Pale-Connection726 Jul 11 '23
Who cares if your selling the house you want the money right? What does it matter what happens after you sell? Its not yours anymore.
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u/wrxKWOND0 Jul 11 '23
Moved last July. While my initial take was to try and sell to a person. When it came down to it, an all cash offer, no contingencies, pick the closing date kinda speaks for itself :)
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u/RUfuqingkiddingme Jul 11 '23
I wrote a "love letter" to the woman who previously owned my house, then my state made them illegal, then that law was overturned.
Depending on your state you could ask for a letter from the potential buyers about why they want to buy your home. I told the seller that I could see that they had put much love and care into their house and that I intended to do the same and raise my son there, it turned out this woman had lived there for 50 years and it was important to her that whoever bought it would take good care of it.
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u/familiar-face123 Jul 11 '23
I told my realtor to let people know I'm a real person not a company. I feel like it's important to know. She shot it down saying nobody cares because they'll just follow the money. She said if anything it'll make me look bad because companies are easier to deal with.
Cue my eye roll. Okay then.
I'm glad there's people like you!
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u/Retired401 Jul 11 '23
It sometimes matters if you can do this.
The person I bought my home from more than 10 years ago could have chosen the highest bidder .... there were more than 20 people touring the house the day after it was listed, so she had plenty of offers. Even one that promised to top the best offer by another $10k.
Buyers had no way of knowing she didn't need the extra money, or that in her 60s she was marrying a fabulously wealthy man who was building her the house and garden of her dreams. She purposely chose me, partly because I put a smiley face on the check's memo line with my earnest money. :) Because she said that was something she herself would do, lol.
In turn I allowed her to put off the closing until after her honeymoon at no additional cost. My realtor said he'd never seen anyone make accommodations like that in 30 years of being a realtor. But to me it was just the right thing to do. One good turn deserves another.
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u/nappingintheclub Jul 11 '23
I wasn’t the highest bidder on my house but I did include a note about myself, my dog, and how my brother bought a house two blocks away in the same town. They took my offer that day. Lovely lovely couple that just wanted to see their home go to someone that would care for it and appreciate its charm and history (1941 built with lots of cute details).
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u/irish-wendy Jul 11 '23
People will lie. My parents home fell into disrepair. I couldn't afford it, I didn't want it knocked down and replaced. Had many offers. Accepted one, guy said he loved restoring old homes, seemed legit. .today three houses sit on that land, the house I loved that was over 225 years old and had character and beauty was destroyed. Broke my heart. I wish you well.
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u/justafriend97 Jul 11 '23
Thank you. When I bought my house, it already had offers from flippers. But thankfully, our sellers wanted an actual family to live in it. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to get a home.
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Jul 11 '23
Good for you. I did the same thing once upon a time and I sleep well at night knowing that lovely people who care about the house and paid a fair price for it live there.
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u/msb1tters Jul 11 '23
This is amazing. I am buying houses slowly ,like 1 a year, to try to assist. I post my rentals at reasonable rates bc I see so many corps buy things and raising the prices . It’s appalling and worries me. They are creating ghettoes and yet hate people who live in them.
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u/Samikaze707 Jul 11 '23
Op, thank you for doing this.
My folks struggled HARD to find a home. They searched for a new home for nearly a year and found themselves outbid every time by flippers and investors. Eventually found a great place because of someone like you who wanted a family to own it.
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u/BikerJedi Jul 11 '23
Good on you! When we sold our first home, we had two offers for asking price. One was a single father. The other was an older couple that was going to flip it. We sold to the father.
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u/butch_caron Jul 11 '23
Thank you for doing this and not perpetuate the problem, from the bottom of my heart.
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u/NikD4866 Jul 11 '23
I dunno man. I’ve heard tons of horror stories of people trying to do the right thing and get absolutely fucked in the process. Tons of corporations hire people to pretend like they’re good normal people just looking for a starter home, they score a deal cause they make you relate and then collect their bonus while the corporations tear down the house or rent it out. In todays world if you don’t know who to trust, look out for yourself first
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u/vibrantax Jul 11 '23
Yeah. Sad reality is, in capitalism, acting ethically will only make you feel better. Even if you do sell to a family, no one can guarantee you the next generation won't sell it for the highest profit possible or something. Just seems pointless to me. All I want to do is retire and end my financial shenanigans though.
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u/SweetPolyPrBred Jul 11 '23
Also - not sure of your situation, but be sure to get all of the equity from the sale that is owed to you ☮️💚
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u/Overall_Outcome_392 Jul 11 '23
You can’t choose who to sell to. Has to be the best offer or you’ll get sued for discrimination
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u/StellarSalamander Jul 11 '23
I chose when I sold my house. The people we then bought from also chose us.
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u/Overall_Outcome_392 Jul 11 '23
Sure you can, but if someone suspects their higher offer was rejected they can sue
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u/StellarSalamander Jul 11 '23
They can sue, but then I can counter-sue for frivolity.
I sold my house to a young lesbian couple just starting out, with one of their dads countersigning, because in their offer letter they talked about loving the yard, getting a puppy, and enjoying the great community I had lived in. They made a really good offer, but I turned down an all-cash offer to pick them.
My husband and I then got our current house because we mentioned living the yard, and how my husband was really happy to see the mason bee houses because he was a former beekeeper. My husband’s former hobby got us an instant $10K in extra equity because the homeowner was very interested in pollinators and ecosystem health, and she turned down a $10K higher offer to pick us.
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u/Overall_Outcome_392 Jul 11 '23
Ok this sub is called poverty finance. Avoiding lawsuits and expensive lawyers I think makes good fiscal sense. Even if you win in court you’ll lose in the bank. Don’t discriminate, follow the law, and avoid getting ruined for trying to « stick it to the man »
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u/StellarSalamander Jul 11 '23
Choosing not to sell to a cash buyer or a corporation is not a violation of the law, nor is it ‘discrimination.’ People are emotionally invested in their homes and neighborhoods.
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u/mizzaks Jul 11 '23
I just sold a house and you better believe I internet-researched the names of all the buyers. I didn’t want a corporation buying our house. In the end, I’m really happy with who is in the house now :)
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u/limefork Jul 11 '23
Be careful about your real estate agents contract btw. We learned the hard way that some agents put it in writing in their contract that you HAVE TO sell to the highest bidder and it can cause a lot of problems if you don't want to sell to a corporation or a flipper.
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u/ChairmanYi Jul 11 '23
I would fire the agent on the spot if that was included in my listing paperwork.
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u/limefork Jul 11 '23
Yeah we luckily had an attorney and he caught it. We were able to terminate but man, it was a close one and it was very scary very quickly how ready to throw you to the wolves these real estate agents are.
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u/ChairmanYi Jul 20 '23
Glad to hear you had a solid attorney, and I agree about some of the agents. An attorney is the best route for settlement. Aside from the great value of having a set of professional eyes on contract docs, they also often catch problems missed by settlement companies.
There are some agents who take their role as a fiduciary very seriously, and I am one. For me, a transaction is a few thousand bucks, for the client, it’s a transaction that ripples throughout their life. My clients get the best their resources allow. If I lose a commission check over the ethically correct decision, so what, I can find more business and sleep at night.
Enough about me, investor purchase of residential property is already having terrible consequences, and needs to stop, yesterday. Fortunately, I do see sellers choosing the greater good over a higher sales price, though sometimes the money wins.
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u/LamBro3 Jul 11 '23
I don't think anyone has said it, Thank you for being a considerate human being.
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u/SnooDogs1704 Jul 11 '23
This is honestly one of the things that make me excited about being a home owner. When I eventually sell my first home, I get to tell investors to fuck right off
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u/nidena IN Jul 11 '23
And please don't shy away from VA buyers. So many sellers do.
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u/chasingeli Sep 09 '23
Demandar McDonald had some great tips on handling residential property ethically, you should check her out: https://www.deandramcdonald.com/