We are selling our home in order to move up in house and get another, nicer, larger home.  Our home is nice, don't get me wrong, HUGE lot, hardwood, etc., but we want "more" now.  Anyhow, the average time on market in our area is +/- 2 months, and I am NOT a particularly patient man.  I have seen these signs about buying houses quickly, and I wonder if any of you know of these.  I have my feeling that these are for "distressed" (read: about to forclose) sellers, or for homes on Baltic and Mediterranian Avenues, and that the money offered is WAY sub-par, just a quick ticket out for the desperate, kinda the "Title Pawns" of the mortgage world.  Is this true?  I would not mind sucking up a *little* profit in order to sell quick, but I'm not interested in being gouged, either.  So, is it worth at least a phone call, or should I behave like a normal human being and let my realtor do the job she's getting 6% to do?  Thanks!

They're in the market of buying houses off sick widows who can't pay taxes and red headed orphans at low prices.

The local tv station did an investigative report on this practice and it looked real shakey.

YMMV.

Quoted: They're in the market of buying houses off sick widows who can't pay taxes and red headed orphans at low prices. The local tv station did an investigative report on this practice and it looked real shakey. YMMV.

That's exactly what I figured, I just wanted to "put it to the experts".  Thanks!  Sigh....a few weeks of strangers and assholes poking through my home....at least the gun collection is safely elsewhere until this is done.  Minus a couple of "Home Heaters", if ya know what I mean!

I know of a guy who spends his entire day calling every home for sale ad in the paper.  He offers 50% of the asking price, cash on the spot, close in a couple of days.

99.9% of people tell him to get bent, but the one, two or three people a year who say yes make the whole thing worthwhile.

If the house is listed at $150k, he pays $75k cash, then puts it right back on the market at "an incredible deal!" of say $120-130k and even offers to carry back a part, earning 8% or so.

Another guy I heard of preys on young couples and the financially strapped by offering a house for sale "only $5k or $7k down, I carry payments."  The buyers are most likely unable to keep up with the monthly payments, so he forecloses in 6-12 months, keeps their big downpayment, and sells the house to someone else under the same terms.  

He just milks these poor saps until they can't pay then takes the house back.  Yes, the people who buy these houses are getting in over their heads, so I think there's equal blame to be shared here.  The guy's still a sleaze.