Not every “cash buyer” has the cash. Protect your sale.

Here's the industry's open secret: many "cash home buyers" don't have cash. They're wholesalers — middlemen who put your home under contract, then race to find a real buyer to take their place before closing. If they find one, they collect a fee you never see. If they don't, your sale quietly collapses weeks later. For a family on a deadline — a foreclosure date, an estate to settle, a move already scheduled — that failed escrow can be catastrophic.

We buy houses for a living, so telling you this cuts against our own category. We're telling you anyway, because an informed seller is the only kind we want to work with — and because every test below is one we pass. Use it on everyone, including us.

Six warning signs of a buyer who can't close

1. Same-day pressure. They want a signature today — on a deed, a contract, anything. Real buyers give you time to think; pressure is a tool for preventing comparison.

2. No questions about you. They never ask about your situation, your timeline, or your goals. The only question is when you'll sign.

3. One number, no alternatives. No mention of what your home might bring on the open market, no side-by-side — because the comparison doesn't flatter their offer.

4. Nothing in writing, or numbers that drift. The offer changes between phone calls, or they resist putting terms on paper.

5. No license you can verify. Anyone can print "we buy houses" on a sign. A California real estate license is checkable in 30 seconds, free, at dre.ca.gov. (Ours is CA DRE #01851056 — look it up.)

6. Upfront fees, or a rushed quitclaim deed. No legitimate buyer charges you a fee to make an offer, and no legitimate buyer pushes a deed transfer before the details are settled.

The two questions that expose a wholesaler

Question one: "Are you buying the home yourself, or assigning the contract to someone else?" Contract assignment is legal in California — but a buyer who plans to flip your contract to a stranger should say so plainly. Hesitation, jargon, or "we work with partners" is your answer.

Question two: "Can you show me proof of funds?" A genuine cash buyer can produce a recent bank statement without flinching — and expects to be asked. Excuses, delays, or a vague "lender letter" mean the cash in "cash buyer" belongs to somebody they haven't found yet.

One minute, two questions, and the pretenders excuse themselves from your kitchen table.

Our answers, on the record

Ask us question one: we buy homes ourselves, with our own funds — we do not assign contracts to third parties. Ask us question two: proof of funds is yours on request. Beyond that: we're a licensed California brokerage (DRE #01851056), we put every offer in writing, and we'll show you what your home would bring on the open market next to our cash offer — because sometimes listing it is your better deal, and we'll tell you so.

That's the Two Offers promise: real numbers, side by side, and the choice stays yours. If any buyer — including us — won't submit to the tests on this page, keep looking.