A quick sale may be in your best interest, but it is important to do your due diligence when it comes to cash house buyers. Take the time to find the right fit for your needs and goals.

Vetting Cash House Buyers

Here are five tips to help you weed through various cash house buyers and select the best option:

1. Examine Their Website and Social Media Profiles

Your first encounter with cash house buyers is likely to be online as you are conducting your Google-supported research. Take advantage of the power of information. Scour their websites: Are they easy to use? Clear? Do they offer useful information? Can you find the answers you need? Is it fast and up to date? Appearances matter, and this is their chance to make a good first impression.

Also take a look at their social media profiles. Are they engaging? Clear? Concise? Responsive? Or, concerningly, are they nowhere? Look for a strong online presence.

2. Seek Out Reviews and Ratings

Don’t stop your web sleuthing there. Check for ratings and reviews. Your peers are an invaluable source of information and are not afraid to give you the full picture. Be cautious though: Look for any that are obviously spammy (too good to be true often is!) or overly negative (they could be trolls). Look for the balanced reviews that offer reasoning behind the rating.

3. Look for Third Party Verification

We have all heard the advice: Don’t believe everything you see on the internet. It’s important to heed that wisdom. Check third party sites, like Trustpilot. These services help you leverage the information and insight of consumers just like you, and they give the business an overall trust score.

4. Test Their Responsiveness

Is it easy to contact the cash house buyer? Do they respond promptly to enquiries? Is their contact information clearly displayed? Do they have a physical address and multiple ways by which you can reach them?

This is a simple test: If you call, do they answer? If you send an email, do they reply promptly (at least within one day)? If you ask a question, do they have the answer?

5. Ask for Confirmation of Financial Status

This is critical. If a cash buyer ticks all the other boxes, you must ensure that they really have the  financial capability to complete a purchase. Ask for confirmation. No… Demand confirmation. Do not accept ‘no’ for an answer. They should be able – and happy – to provide you with verification of funds from legitimate financial institutions. If they cannot or will not, this is a big red flag. Run, don’t walk, in the opposite direction.

When you find cash house buyers who you trust, the rest is simple. Fill out a quick form on their website or reach out to them via phone. Within 24 hours, they should return with an offer in principle, which is essentially an offer capturing their best guess as to your property’s value. If you accept, they will instruct valuations experts and their survey team will compile a formal offer (at no cost or obligation to you). If you accept, they put the wheels into motion and work to complete the many legal and technical details associated with a sale. All you have to worry about is packing and arranging removals.

Cash house buyers can make the process of selling your house much easier, faster and streamlined. This is particularly true of owners who need to sell on an accelerated timeline for any number of reasons (e.g. they are in arrears on their mortgage, they inherited a property that they cannot afford, they are facing serious expenses related to necessary repairs, they  need to move for work or school and the like.) These buyers will make a fair, transparent offer so you can begin moving on.

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So, you have tied the knot, and now you are surrounded by the bliss of being newly married. What is next?

Well, for starters most couples would start scouring for a family home once the honeymoon is over or once the last vestiges of fresh marital bliss fade away. But how do you ensure that you and your spouse are ready to take it to the next level and buy a home? Today, home-buying remains as one of the most significant challenges for unmarried couples who have just opted to shack up, but even tying the knot would not make this process any easier.

Remember, a lot of factors come into play, and before you decide on a home, you need to consider every integral aspect involved in home buying lest you have homebuyer’s remorse after that. So, before you start going head over heels for that pretty little bungalow or fantasizing about growing your family in Cloverleaf, here are some of the things you ought to consider:

1. What is your credit score?

Prior to your married life, you and your spouse probably led separate lives and of course, different bank accounts. Most of what you earn probably went to where your next travel destination was, date nights or movie tickets. However, now that you are married, it might be a good idea to broach a subject that is far less romantic but hinged on your finances: your credit scores.

Ideally, you should have had this conversation already as it determines your ability to qualify for a loan or at least have an attractive interest rate. Knowing your credit score is crucial and is a pivotal step before you meet with a lender.

2. Where would you like to live in five years?

Your plans for the future will drastically affect the type of home that is right for you. Incidentally, so would your loan. If you and your spouse intend to stay put for at least the foreseeable future, it will make sense to have a 30-year mortgage with a fixed interest rate. However, if you have plans on moving within a few years, consider your options. With all these considered, make sure that you factor these into your search for a home.

3. Will one of you stay at home to raise the kids?

After the both of you get hitched, you might stall the discussion of having kids. After all, you just got married, why the rush? However, kids play a crucial factor in determining what type of home you should be looking for. In fact, you can consider it as the cornerstone for establishing how much you can actually afford. If you plan to have kids in the nearby future, not only would this play an integral factor in the size of your home, but it would also affect where your finances will go.

Apart from that, you and your spouse should decide whether one of you would be staying home to raise your kids or not as this would mean leaving work. Remember that would likely slash your income in half, so look into this to anticipate how much of a mortgage you should get.

4. What will happen to the home should the marriage fail?

While it is not exactly an exciting prospect to think about (especially as you are newly married), you would still need to consider all of the possible outcomes for your marriage. This is not to say that you would separate (although, that can be a possibility) but you need to think of how you would divide your assets if you either get hit with death or even divorce.

There is a myriad of types of ownership to choose from when you purchase property with your spouse, and although this is not exactly a good dinner table topic, it needs to be discussed. After all, you will never know what could happen—it is still best to be prepared.

The post Home Living: The Newlyweds’ Guide to Buying a Home appeared first on Homeib.