can you buy a house with a credit card?

Question

I have my first deal under contract. will close in the next week or two as soon as the title company is done with their work. I have a pre existing commercial line of credit set up that makes me the equivalent of a cash buyer for my real estate adventures with a 5% fixed interest rate.

I hear of people buying houses with credit cards, but how exactly? is there a credit card machine that can be used at closing?? i wouldnt think so.... but ive been wrong before.  and pretty much all the credit cards offer the interest free part ONLY for purchases (credit card swipes), not cash advances which could be used to get that cashiers check.

I see credit cards with interest free offers for 18 months plus other boneses like miles or cash back. if i could figure it out, I could save about $3,400 in interest by avoiding the use of my commercial line for that period of time.

its a $30,500 house and im going to put 15k in renovations into it, so i can do the interest free thing for the 15k reno, but if i could only figure out how to also get that 30k house on the credit card interest free also......

John H. · Answer

I know around here you cannot buy a house with a credit card, but you are on the right track with the 18months no interest cards.

Look for credit cards that offer 18 months of zero interest or similar, then take the cards and do a "balance transfer" not cash advance.  Most credit card will offer a balance transfer directly into your bank account.  Some cards are 0% fee's, some are about 3% of the total amount transferred.

The only downside is your credit score can drop short term if you apply for too may cards and max the out.

Account Closed · Answer

@K. Marie Poe  wow you have allot of posts and votes! yeah i looked into cash advances and checks. looks like the best option is to buy the house with my CLOC then see if i can use a card like the citi slate card to do a balance transfer. its the only card so far i can find with 0% and that has no fees associated with balance transfers.

hopefully they will let me transfer a balance from a loan to a credit card. might make it complicated since the loan is in my llc name.... but my name is on all the paperwork aswell so hopefully it doesnt make a difference

Account Closed · Answer

@John H. good idea about the balance transfer! ive never done one. I will have to call around and see if the credit cards im looking at with the 18 month 0% will do that, or atleast be willing to transfer the balance from my commercial line. I see allot of them offer the 0% on balance transfers as well.

@Jacob Vincent  also a good idea with the online murchants. after looking it seems pretty much all of them charge close to 3%, and since my LOC rate is 5%, not much savings.

Chris K. · Answer

I've used the 0% balance transfer checks to buy one before and I'm looking for my next one now and will be doing the same thing.

Account Closed · Answer

I'm pretty sure you won't be able to do a balance transfer from LOC to a credit card.  Rather you'd have to use convenience checks or cash advances from your credit card account to pay down the LOC.

Account Closed · Answer

I don't believe there is a real estate closing agent providing escrow services that will accept a credit card.  Escrow agents are fiduciaries and I'm pretty sure they have to use secure funds that can't be reversed.

However, a transaction between a buyer and seller could involve a credit card using services such as paypal or square. My county used to accept credit cards at tax sale (prior to going to an online vendor).  I purchased my first property 15 years ago at a tax deed sale, a 7-acre vacant lot.  I used the balances on 3 different credit cards.  I gave them the credit cards and told them how much to charge on each.

If the fees make sense you can access your cash advances or checks for your credit cards.

Wilson Churchill · Answer

I've used credit cards to finance my last two purchases. Just order balance transfer checks. You may have to pay a transfer fee of 3% or more, but some have no fee.

Tina Keisler · Answer

Ask your credit card company for convenience checks!

Jacob Vincent · Answer

If the seller uses Square or another 'alternative' credit card transaction processor, then they could take credit card.

The only risk to them would be if you were to then file a chargeback by calling the credit card company to register a fraudulent transaction.  But with all of the other legal paperwork required to make the purchase, the likelihood of you doing that would be slim to none.

Maybe if you offered to pay the transaction costs (can be as high as 2% of the deal, plus a flat per-swipe fee) then a seller might be likely to start taking credit cards.

It would probably be easier if you had one credit card with a $50K limit to hold both the house and renovations.  (or maybe not, I'm not sure)

can you buy a house with a credit card?

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