How to Check Out a Cash Home Buyer Before You Sign

Anyone can print a card that says cash buyer. Learning how to vet a cash home buyer takes an afternoon and uses public records you can search at no charge. This post is the checklist we would want a seller to run on us, and it is part of our guide to selling a house as-is in Chicago.

None of this is adversarial. A serious buyer expects these questions and has the answers ready. The reaction you get to the questions is itself information.

Important notice: Fair Value Investments (a d/b/a of Probate Professionals of America, LLC) is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. You may stop doing business with us at any time and may reject any offer. If you stop paying your mortgage, you could lose your home and damage your credit rating. We do not provide foreclosure-rescue, loan-modification, or credit-repair services and cannot promise to save your home or stop a foreclosure. For free help, contact a HUD-approved housing counselor at 1-800-569-4287 or consumerfinance.gov/find-a-housing-counselor.

Confirm who the buyer is

Start with the name, because everything else hangs off it.

Get the exact legal name that will appear on the contract, plus a street address and the name of the person who signs for it. A phone number and a logo are not an identity.
A brand is not a company. Plenty of buyers market under one name and sign under another. Both are fine as long as you know both, and as long as the name on the contract is the one you checked. Ask for the entity name and confirm it matches.
Check the entity exists. The Illinois Secretary of State runs a free, public business search for corporations and limited liability companies. Look the name up and see when it was registered and who is listed as agent.
Ask whether they intend to assign the contract. Putting a house under contract and then selling that contract to a different buyer is legal and routine in Illinois. It is also the reason the person at your kitchen table may not be the person at the closing table. You are entitled to know this before you sign, and to have the answer written into the contract.

Look up what they have actually bought

Recorded documents are public, and they are the closest thing to a track record a buyer has.

In Cook County, the Clerk's recordings office holds recorded deeds, mortgages and liens, and its search lets you look up documents by name. A buyer who says they purchase regularly here should appear in that index under the entity name they gave you. If the name returns nothing, that is not proof of anything on its own, but it is a good reason to ask a follow-up question.

Each collar county keeps its own recorded-document search, run by the county clerk or the recorder depending on the county. Our county pages set out which office holds what in Cook, DuPage, Will, Lake and Kane counties.

Ask which role the person is in, too. A licensed broker representing someone else is not the same thing as a buyer purchasing for their own account, and the difference changes who owes you what. Broker licences are verifiable free through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, and the pillar guide links its licence page.

The title company and the earnest money

This is the part that protects your money, and it is quick.

Ask which title company will handle the closing, then call that company and confirm a file has been opened. You are not checking up on anyone; you are confirming the transaction is real.
Earnest money goes to the title company or an escrow agent, not to the buyer personally and not to an individual's account. If a buyer asks you to accept the deposit directly, or offers to skip it, ask why.
Get a signed copy of the contract the day you sign it. Not a promise of one later.
Ask to see the settlement statement before the closing, and check that the figures on it match the contract. Surprises on the statement are much harder to fix at the table than the day before.
Ask what happens if they do not close, and find the paragraph that says so. A contract with no real consequence for the buyer walking away is a contract that lets them walk away.

Have your own attorney read the contract

In Illinois, residential closings are normally handled with attorneys on both sides. Using one on a direct sale is standard practice, not a sign of distrust, and the cost is small against the transaction.

Give your attorney the contract and ask them to look at:

Who the buyer is, and whether the contract can be assigned.
The inspection and financing contingencies, and what each one lets the buyer do.
What happens to the earnest money in every scenario where the deal ends.
The closing date, any extension terms, and who controls them.
Which closing costs each side pays.
Anything about possession after closing.

The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission publishes a free public lookup for licensed Illinois lawyers if you need to confirm someone's standing.

One rule with no exceptions: never sign a deed, a power of attorney, or anything described as getting the paperwork started, before the closing. A deed transfers ownership of your house. It belongs at the closing table and nowhere else.

Red flags, and where to report one

Most buyers are ordinary businesses. These are the patterns worth stopping for:

A fee asked for before closing. A legitimate buyer does not charge you to look at your house or to make an offer.
An offer that expires while you are on the phone. A real number survives a night's sleep and a call to your attorney.
Discouraging you from involving an attorney, or suggesting you do not need one.
Any arrangement where you sign the deed now and remain in the property as a renter, with or without a right to purchase it back later. Illinois regulates that shape of transaction closely, with notarised contracts, mandatory notices and a cancellation window, precisely because it is a common vehicle for fraud. These arrangements turn up most often around a foreclosure or a tax sale. Take anything like it to an attorney before you sign a single page.
Paperwork with blanks in it, or a request to sign now and fill in the details later.
A document recorded against your property that you did not sign. The Cook County Clerk runs a Property Fraud Unit and a free alert service for exactly this.

Two places to take a complaint or a question: the Illinois Attorney General's complaint page, and, where a foreclosure is in the picture, Illinois Legal Aid Online's guidance on foreclosure scams. Both are free.

Questions to ask any buyer, including us

Read these off a piece of paper. Write the answers down.

What is the exact legal name that will be on the contract, and who signs for it?
Are you buying for your own account, or representing someone else?
Do you intend to assign this contract? Will you put that answer in writing?
What did you use as the finished resale value, and which sales did you use to get it? It is fair to ask how the number was built, line by line.
What is in your repair estimate, itemised?
Which title company, and where does the earnest money go?
What are your contingencies, and what ends them?
What happens, specifically, if you do not close?

A buyer who answers all eight without friction is probably fine. A buyer who treats the list as an insult has told you something useful.

Frequently asked questions

Is it normal for a cash buyer to have earnest money held by a title company?

Yes. That is the ordinary shape of a residential purchase in Illinois, and it is what you want. Money held by a neutral third party under written instructions is protected in a way that money handed to a buyer is not.

Should I get more than one offer?

Getting a second offer, and a written opinion of value from a licensed broker, is usually free and tells you whether the first number was reasonable. Even if you end up taking the first offer, you will take it knowing what it was worth.

Is it a bad sign if a buyer wants to assign the contract?

Not on its own. Assignment is a normal part of how this market works. What matters is that you know about it before you sign, that it is disclosed in the contract, and that your protections do not evaporate when the contract changes hands. Ask your attorney to look specifically at that clause.

If you want to ask us these questions

We would rather be checked than trusted on faith. Ask us every question on the list, look our name up in the recorded documents, and bring your own attorney. If you also want to see the arithmetic behind our number before you decide anything, that is what our how we price a home page is for. There is no fee to get an offer and no obligation to accept it.

About this article: it is general information written by a home buyer, not by a lawyer or a housing counselor. Fair Value Investments (a d/b/a of Probate Professionals of America, LLC) is a private real-estate investor and home buyer purchasing property for our own account. We are not a licensed real estate broker, not a law firm, not a lender, and not a government agency, and nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice. Any offer is made at our discretion after we evaluate the property; a cash offer, if made, may be below market value. You are free to consult your own attorney, tax advisor, or a licensed real-estate professional before deciding. There is no fee to receive an offer and no obligation to accept.