Lead brokers, contract flippers and buyers
Lead brokers sell your information. You fill in an address, no offer materializes, and within a day six companies are calling. Nothing was ever going to be bought.
Contract flippers sign a contract with you and then market that contract to actual buyers at a higher price. The gap is their fee. The practice is legal and disclosed properly it is fine, but it introduces a party you never met and a renegotiation risk if they cannot find anyone.
Actual buyers close with their own money. Fewer of the messages reaching Brentwood homeowners come from this third group than most people assume, which is the whole reason this question gets asked.
Four questions that settle it
Ask for proof of funds. Someone with the money sends a statement or a letter without a second thought. Hesitation is the most useful answer you can get.
Ask who will close. Will this company buy the house itself, or might it assign the contract to someone else? Either can be legitimate. Being vague about it is not.
Ask whether the price can drop after an inspection. A number that is high on day one and lower once you are committed is a well-worn tactic.
Ask whether you can use your own attorney. In New York you will have one regardless. A buyer who wants to choose yours, or says you do not need one, has told you plenty.
Signs to stop and slow down
In rough order: a firm number given before seeing the house, a deadline designed to prevent a second opinion, any request for money from the seller, reluctance to show proof of funds, and evasiveness about who is actually closing.
None of these on their own proves bad faith. Together they describe a business model that depends on the seller not asking questions, and the remedy in every case is the same. Slow down, ask the question in writing, and talk to your attorney before signing anything.
What a legitimate Brentwood cash sale actually looks like
Somebody visits the house. In New York both sides instruct attorneys, and yours reviews the contract before you sign anything. A deposit is held in your attorney's escrow account, not handed to the buyer. Title is searched, which is where liens, judgments and open permits surface. Then you close, on a date in the contract.
What should not happen anywhere in that sequence: a renegotiation because of something an inspection found, a new party appearing as the purchaser, or a request for money from your side. If any of those occur, that is the point to stop and call your attorney rather than the buyer.
Our own answers to those four questions
The same questions, answered for us. Proof of funds: yes, on request. The number: it holds from offer to closing, because we price the condition up front. Your attorney: your own, always.
Assignment: ask us directly whether we will close on your house ourselves, and you will get a plain answer about your specific property rather than a slogan.
And when a Brentwood seller would net more by listing, we tell them. It loses us some deals. It is still the right advice for a real share of the people who call.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A three-bedroom estate sale on Thomas Street. A three-bedroom on Grant Avenue. Both in Brentwood, bought and paid for by us.
Brentwood is roughly 62,387 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11717, and the housing stock is mostly ranch, cape cod, hi-ranch. Around Suffolk Avenue and Crooked Hill Road, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Brentwood stop pulls buyers who commute, which supports the good houses and does very little for the ones that need a roof. We have been buying across Suffolk County for 15+ years. We know what the Brentwood Union Free School District does to a resale price, which blocks still have oil tanks in the ground, and what a house like yours is actually worth here.
What happens to your details when you fill in a form
On a lead broker's site, it is sold. Often to several buyers at once, which is why a single form submission can produce calls from six companies within a day. Some of those sites are built to look exactly like a buyer's site and never make an offer at all.
Before you enter an address anywhere, it is worth reading what the privacy policy says about sharing, and noting whether there is one. A company that will not tell you what it does with your details has answered the question. This applies to us as much as to anyone, and ours says we do not sell your information.
What it means when a contract gets sold on
The contract you sign contains a clause saying whether it can be transferred. If it can, the buyer can find somebody else to step into their place and take a fee for arranging it.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this and a lot of houses trade that way. The risk you carry is completion risk: your sale now depends on a third party being found, and if none is, you have lost the time. A buyer closing with their own funds carries no such dependency. Whichever you are dealing with, you are entitled to know which it is before you sign, and your attorney will tell you what the clause actually says.
If you have already signed something
Take it to an attorney today rather than trying to work it out yourself, and take the whole document including anything you signed at the door.
What matters is what the contract says: whether there is a period in which you can withdraw, what the deposit arrangements are, whether it is assignable, and what happens if either side does not complete. Those are specific questions with specific answers, and an hour with an attorney is worth considerably more than any reassurance from the other party.
Do not rely on a verbal assurance that you can get out of it. If it is not in the document, it does not exist.
Common questions
Are all the companies texting me about my house scams?
Most are not scams in a criminal sense. They are lead brokers and contract flippers operating legally, and the problem is usually that nobody explains which one you are dealing with. Ask directly and the picture clears up fast.
Should a cash buyer ever ask me for money?
No. Never, for any reason. There is no legitimate fee, deposit or application payment that a buyer collects from a seller.
They offered more than everyone else. Is that good?
Treat a conspicuously high offer with more care, not less. A number well above the others is sometimes real and is often a way to secure the contract and take other buyers out of the picture, after which it is reduced. Ask whether the figure is binding and whether it can change after an inspection, and get the answer in writing.
Do I really need my own attorney?
In New York, yes, and use your own rather than one suggested by the buyer. It is the single most effective protection available to you, and it is standard practice on both sides of every residential sale in the state.