Seller wants to sell without agent

[Jay Clegg]

I have a prospect who has finally contacted me and wants to sell to me with the terms through title only and no agent involvement. She will cover all inspections. The property comes fully furnished as well.

I have requests in from a couple of my local real estate contacts to get me comps. From what I’m able to see, there is the potential of 100K equity in the deal.

I’m unfamiliar with this type of transaction as well as this will be my first deal (RE newbie). I understand I will want and need title insurance for this transaction.

Can I get some insight on how I need to close this deal out?

I’m also looking for a title search company/ attorney that is licensed to do escrow.

Signed,

Motivated

[Charlie MacPherson]

@Jay Clegg A few things set off my radar.

1. She contacted you.  Maybe you sent a mailing?  Or did she contact you out of the blue?  If it's out of the blue, I'm really suspicious.  If it's a response to a marketing piece, I'm less so.

2. There's a possible $100K in equity.  Is she really leaving $100K on the table for you?  Why would she do that?  Why would anybody do that?  My guess is that there's a hidden time bomb somewhere in this deal.  Legal, boundary, neighbor, structural, lien...something that's going to go BOOM after you close.

$100K in equity is pretty tasty bait.  Be very careful before you take it.  I feel like she's the road runner and you're Wile E. Coyote.

3. She will cover the inspections.  That's highly unusual.  Inspections are a buyer expense, not the seller's.  Does she have special "friendly" (to her) inspectors ready to fudge the results?

4. The general admonition of "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" seems to apply here.

Best of luck, but proceed with a lot of caution.