Are “We Buy Houses” Companies Legit? How to Vet a Cash Buyer

Seller Protection Guide

You’ve seen the signs, the postcards, the “we buy houses” ads — and you’re right to ask: is this legit? The honest answer: the business model is completely legitimate, and thousands of Texas homeowners use cash buyers every year for fast, as-is sales. But like any industry, quality varies — and a few bad operators give sellers good reason to be careful.

This guide shows you exactly how to tell a professional cash buyer from a questionable one: the red flags to walk away from, the green flags to look for, and the questions any serious buyer should answer without flinching. We’ll hold ourselves to the same test — here’s how we buy houses fast for cash, published for anyone to scrutinize.

What Is a “We Buy Houses” Company?

The sign on the corner and the postcard in your mailbox can come from four completely different kinds of business. They are not equally legitimate, and the difference has nothing to do with how the ad looks — it is about who actually shows up at closing with the money.

One question separates them, and you can ask it in the first minute of the first call: “Are you buying this house yourself, or assigning the contract to someone else?” In Texas, the answer has to be given to you in writing either way — see the next section.

How the Cash Buying Model Actually Works

There’s no mystery to it. Cash home buyers purchase properties directly — no agents, no lender — usually because the home needs work or the seller needs speed. The buyer takes on the repairs and risk, then renovates the home to resell or rent. In exchange, the seller gets what a traditional sale can’t offer:

• Speed: closing in as little as 7–14 days instead of months
• Certainty: no financing that can fall through at the last minute
• Zero prep: the home sells as-is — no repairs, cleaning, or showings
• Zero fees: a reputable buyer charges no commissions and pays the closing costs

The trade-off is straightforward and honest: a cash offer reflects the home’s current condition and the repair costs the buyer is taking on. For many sellers — especially those facing repairs, a foreclosure clock, an inherited property, or a divorce — that trade is well worth it. The problems start only when a buyer isn’t transparent about how their number works. Which brings us to the checklist.

↑ Back to top

The Vetting Checklist: How to Check Any Cash Buyer

Tap each tab — and run every buyer you talk to (including us) through all three:

↑ Back to top

Questionable Operator vs. Professional Buyer

Side by side, the difference is easy to spot once you know what to look for:

One more tip: a fair cash offer should also make sense next to your alternative. Know what a traditional listing would really net you — commissions, repairs, and months of holding costs included — using our breakdown of the real cost of selling a house in Texas. A professional buyer will happily walk through that comparison with you; a questionable one will change the subject.

3 Ways a Legitimate Cash Sale Protects You

1. Everything in writing, nothing on the spot You get a written offer to review on your own time — with family, with an attorney, with anyone you trust. No countdown clocks, no “sign today” tactics.
2. A licensed title company in the middle The title company verifies ownership, clears liens, holds funds, and handles every document. Neither side can cut corners — that’s the point.
3. The offer is the payment With no commissions, no fees, and buyer-paid closing costs written into the agreement, the amount you accept is the amount wired to you at closing. No math surprises on signing day.

That’s exactly how our process works, start to finish — see the full walkthrough on our step-by-step home buying process page.

Are Cash Home Buyers Legit in Texas? What State Law Actually Requires

Texas does not licence house buyers. Anyone can buy a house for their own account, the same way anyone can buy a car. But the moment a person starts marketing a house they have not bought yet, Texas law has something specific to say about it — and it is written to protect you.

The written disclosure a wholesaler owes you

Texas Property Code §5.086 is one sentence long and worth reading once: before entering into a contract, a person selling an option or assigning an interest in a contract to purchase real property must disclose to any potential buyer that they are selling only an option or an interest in a contract, and that they do not have legal title to the property. It has been law since 1 September 2017.

Texas Occupations Code §1101.0045 is the enforcement half. You may buy and resell an option or a contract without a real estate licence — but only if you disclose the nature of the equitable interest in writing. Fail to disclose it, and the statute says you were engaging in real estate brokerage, which requires a licence you do not have.

So: assigning a contract is not illegal in Texas and is not, by itself, a scam. Hiding it is. If nobody has told you in writing which side of that line they are on, ask before you sign.

Three more things Texas law puts on your side

Are “We Buy Houses” Companies Scams? Six Red Flags That Actually Matter

Most are not scams. A handful are, and a larger group is simply sloppy in ways that cost you money. These are the six behaviours worth walking away over — in rough order of how much damage they do.

1. They ask you for money. An application fee, an appraisal fee, a “processing” or “document” fee, earnest money from the seller. A buyer pays you. There is no legitimate reason for money to move in the other direction before closing.
2. They file something against your property without telling you. A memorandum of contract or affidavit of equitable interest recorded in the county deed records clouds your title, and you will not be able to sell to anyone else until it is released. This is the single most expensive thing a bad operator can do to you.
3. The offer drops after the walkthrough, with no itemised reason. Offers can legitimately change if something material turns up — an active leak, a failed septic, an unpermitted addition. What is not legitimate is a number that simply falls once you have stopped talking to anyone else. Ask, in writing and before you sign: under what circumstances can this offer change?
4. They will not name the title company. Or they want to close somewhere that is not a title company at all. A real buyer names theirs immediately and does not mind you ringing to check.
5. They push you to sign today. Urgency is the oldest tool there is. A written offer that is genuine on Tuesday is still genuine on Friday.
6. They cannot show you one Texas property they have actually closed on. Deeds are public. A buyer with a real track record can point you at it in under a minute — see the five-minute check below.

If you are behind on payments, treat unsolicited “foreclosure rescue” offers with extra suspicion — particularly anyone who asks you to sign a deed, sign over your house “temporarily”, or make your mortgage payments to them instead of your servicer. Selling before the auction is a legitimate option; handing over the deed to a stranger is not the way to do it. Our guide to stopping a foreclosure in Texas covers the real options.

Does “We Buy Houses” Actually Work? What the Numbers Say

It works, in the narrow sense that matters: the house sells, on a date you choose, and nothing falls apart between the handshake and the wire. Whether it is the right choice depends entirely on your house and your timeline. Here is the market context, with the numbers rather than the sales pitch.

Those three figures explain most of why sellers use cash buyers at all. A financed sale has three separate points where it can die — the loan, the appraisal, and the buyer’s ability to get a homeowners policy on an older roof — and right now roughly one San Antonio contract in five does die. A cash sale removes all three. It also removes the part that never shows up in the headline sale price: in this market the typical Central Texas seller is writing the buyer a cheque at closing and has already cut the asking price.

The honest counterweight: a cash offer is below retail, and it should be. If your house is clean, financeable and insurable, and you can live with three to four months of showings and a one-in-five chance of starting over, listing it with a good agent will almost always net you more. Cash buying earns its keep when the house needs work, when the timeline is fixed, or when certainty is worth more to you than the last few percent. We set out both sides of that arithmetic in our comparison of cash buyers, iBuyers and agents.

How to Check Whether a Specific Cash Buyer Is Legit (Five Minutes)

“Is this company legit?” is a better question than “are these companies legit?”, and it is one you can answer yourself before you return anyone’s call. Nothing here requires a lawyer or a subscription.

1. Look up the entity. Run the company name through the Texas Comptroller’s Taxable Entity Search. A real buyer is a registered Texas entity in good standing, and the name on the search result matches the name on the contract exactly. A contract in a person’s name, or in a name that does not exist, tells you a lot.
2. Search the county deed records for their name. Comal, Guadalupe, Hays and Bexar counties all publish official public records searches online, free. Buyers leave a recorded trail of deeds. Wholesalers do not, because they never take title. This is the check almost nobody does and it is the most revealing one.
3. Ask for the title company — then ring it yourself. Not the buyer’s number for the title company. The one you find. Ask whether they have closed files for that buyer.
4. Read reviews for detail, not for stars. A useful review names a street, a situation and a timeline. A page of five-word five-star reviews posted in the same week is not evidence of anything.
5. Ask the four questions and listen for hesitation. How did you calculate this offer? Who pays the closing costs? Under what circumstances can this offer change after you walk the house? Are you buying it yourself or assigning the contract? A professional answers all four without flinching — and Texas law requires a written answer to the fourth.

Run those five checks on us too. We are a Texas buyer working the I-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin, we close at a licensed title company, and our name is on recorded deeds in the counties we say we buy in.

Quick FAQs

For more home selling tips, browse the rest of our blog — or reach us anytime at info@moneyfast4houses.com.