This story continues my fascination with the “We Buy Houses” signs throughout the region.
My first attempt to reach out to one of these buyers did not go as expected – it was far more successful.
I decided to call on one of the handwritten signs, though it was one that seemed fancier than some of the others, if that’s possible. It seemed more like a one-off than the type of sign that gets plastered all over the region.
My first surprise was that the buyer has an answering and messaging system – a virtual assistant really – to help route callers to the proper place. I didn’t even need to talk to a real person in order to get the information I wanted, which was perfect! Most interesting is that there was a website with information about the process and a specific property. He has even established a company to make his operation seem more legitimate, though the business address is an apartment.
The essence of this buyer’s business is that he buys homes, updates and resells them … he’s a flipper. It appears to be a small scale operation with one, or maybe two, properties under construction at once. The only property featured on his website has already been sold, though I was able to connect him to a second closed deal and a third property that is actively being renovated.
The purchases and sales that I found had been done through a real estate agent on the public market. This goes against the image I had of questionable characters roaming the streets trying to take advantage of uninformed homeowners. The first two deals even used a mortgage, though the third appears to be a cash transaction. It’s also possible that there are other deals out there too, though I would have expected to see something about them on his website. One final detail is that he seems to be buying the homes in his own name rather than the company’s name. Deal number two was bought as him personally and then transferred over to the company a month later. Why go through the trouble to set up a company and then not use it?
Taking in all the facts, this seems like a small but successful business, likely a part-time operation. It will be interesting to see how this entrepreneur evolves his business in the coming years. And, now that I know his preferred realtor, I should be able to check in on him periodically.
This is just the first step in my investigation, I plan to call a few more in the coming weeks/months to see how their business models compare. Stay tuned!