Question: I placed my home on a for-sale-by-owner Web site and was contacted by someone who said he wanted to buy it. He provided an acceptable offer via e-mail. The buyer said he would take care of the paperwork and then sent a form asking for legal details about the house and my personal information.
I did not hear back from him. What risk have I taken by providing this individual with this information?
Answer: Your guard should have been up when the buyer made an offer to purchase your home without having seen it. While that does happen from time to time, it's still rare, and it raises a lot of red flags.
When selling a house, particularly when you are not experienced in dealing with legal contracts, you should hire a professional to help you handle situations like this. Attorneys can provide such help. Realtors are also experienced in legal contracts and can also help with marketing and negotiating strategies, thus handling the transaction from start to finish.
Having a professional on board can help you weed out potential scam artists who won't want to tangle with those representing you. If you had said, "Joe, thanks for your offer. I'm glad we agree. My broker will call you to discuss the contract and arrange for a good faith deposit," I'm guessing that you would have figured out before a contract was sent that this guy wasn't legit.
In general, you should never give anybody any of your personal information when selling your home in this manner. That type of information should only be given to those with whom you have a professional fiduciary relationship.
It's terrific if you can sell by owner and save yourself the commission. But you should have a solid team on hand who can help you get through the process of selling your single biggest asset. A good real estate broker should be at the top of your list.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment