Questions people actually ask

It is a sale where you are paid over time instead of all at once. Two shapes cover almost everything.

If you own the house free and clear, you become the lender. We pay a down payment at closing, then monthly payments with interest, secured by a mortgage on your house, with the balance due on a date you choose.

If you have a mortgage, we can take over the payments on it — the industry calls that a subject-to purchase — and pay you for your equity in cash, in a note, or in both.

Because we are not asking for a discount in exchange for cash, the price can be at or close to full value.

It is arithmetic, not an insult. A cash buyer starts from what the house will be worth after repairs, then subtracts the repairs, the cost of money, the cost of reselling it, and a profit that makes the risk worth taking. The rule of thumb most of them use is about 70% of value, minus repairs.

That is the number a cash buyer needs for the trade to work. It is not what your house is worth.

We can pay more because we are not paying you all at once. Time, not a discount, pays for the difference.

The comparison on this site uses that typical cash-investor math. It is not any particular buyer's offer.

Most mortgages contain one. It says the lender may demand the loan be paid in full when the property changes hands. It is a right the lender has, not something that happens automatically, and it is not a penalty or a crime.

Lenders rarely call a loan that is being paid on time and insured. But they can, so you should assume it is possible before you sign anything.

If it happened, the plan is written into the paperwork before closing: refinance or pay off the loan, sell the house, or hand the property back to you under the performance clause. We put that in writing because it is the question you should be asking.

That is a legal question about your own loan documents, so have your attorney read them with you.

Yes, until the loan is paid off or refinanced. The loan stays in your name. That is the honest answer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.

What changes is who pays it, and what protects you if they stop. Payments go through a licensed third-party loan servicer, so there is an independent record of every payment, and you keep the right to check with the servicer or with your lender at any time.

The loan also keeps reporting on your credit, with the payment history the servicer creates.

This is the real risk of a terms sale, so it deserves a straight answer.

If we carry a note, it is secured by the house: your note is secured by a mortgage or deed of trust on the property, recorded at closing. If the payments stop, you have the remedies any lender has.

If we take over your existing loan, a deed back to you is held in escrow with a performance clause: if the payments stop, the property returns to you.

Payments go through a licensed third-party loan servicer, so there is an independent record of every payment and you receive statements. You would learn about a missed payment from the record rather than from a phone call.

Independent attorney review is encouraged before anything is signed, and we will wait for it.

The buyer does, from closing. Title transfers at a title company, the same as in any other sale, and it is recorded.

On a seller-financed sale you hold a mortgage or deed of trust against the property — you are the lender, not the owner. On a subject-to sale, title transfers and the existing loan stays in your name, which is why the servicer, the escrowed deed and the insurance terms matter so much.

The buyer of record is a named entity and appears in your paperwork. It is never an unnamed assignee.

Selling on terms can spread the gain across the years you are paid, instead of realising it in a single year. In the United States that is called an installment sale.

For some sellers that is the largest single benefit of the structure. For others it changes very little.

We are not tax advisors and this is not tax advice. Confirm it with your CPA before you decide anything. We will put the numbers in writing so your CPA has something to work from.

If your loan is paid off at closing, it closes on your credit report like any other sale.

If we take over the payments, the loan stays open in your name and keeps reporting. On-time payments from the servicer report as on-time payments. Missed payments would report as missed payments, which is exactly why the servicer, the escrowed deed and your right to verify exist.

If you are behind now, bringing the loan current stops that part of the damage. It does not erase what has already been reported.

Nothing on this site binds you. The sample document is not an offer to purchase, and asking for it does not commit you to anything.

Nothing binds you until you sign a written purchase agreement, and we encourage you to have an independent attorney read it first. We will wait for that.

Where state law requires a written cancellation window, it is in the contract, in writing.

No. On screen you see ranges, and the document we email you is watermarked as a sample. Both are built from public property records and an automated value estimate, which can be wrong.

A real offer comes after we have talked, seen the house, and verified title and any loan payoff. It arrives in writing, with time for your attorney to read it.

A named buying entity, together with our buying partners. Whoever the buyer of record is, they are named in your paperwork before you sign, and they take on the promises made on this site.

We buy for our own account. We are not brokers, we are not advisors, and we are not listing your house.

No. Agents send us listings, and we would rather work with yours than around them.

Your agent stays the agent of record, the commission is paid at closing through their brokerage under your listing agreement, and we present the structure on a call with both of you.

If your agent wants the details first, send them to the agents page on this site.

It depends on how far along things are and on your state. What we can tell you is that the fewer days you leave it, the more options stay open — with us and with everyone else you might talk to.

We buy houses. We are not a foreclosure-rescue service, we do not deal with your lender on your behalf, and we cannot promise any particular outcome with your loan.

Before you decide anything, read the other options on our behind-on-payments page, including a free HUD-approved housing counselor.

No. We buy as-is, and the condition is priced into the terms rather than used as a bargaining chip at the last minute.

No showings, no staging, no open houses. We look at the house once, with you, and we take it as it comes.

The sample document reaches your inbox in about a minute. A person calls you back within one business day, usually sooner.

Closing is typically 3–6 weeks from an accepted written offer. Faster when there is a clock running, slower if title turns up something that has to be cleared first.

Some Cleveland-area municipalities require a point-of-sale inspection before title transfers, which adds time. We will tell you if yours is one of them.