Companies that buy houses.Here's how totell them apart.

Search for companies that buy houses in Utah and you get one long list of near-identical websites: the same photograph of a smiling couple, the same three-step graphic, the same promise of a fast close. Underneath the sameness there are really only three business models, and knowing which one you're talking to explains almost everything about the number you'll be offered and how firmly it will hold.

Local cash buyers

A company that buys with its own money, in one state, and either resells the house after repairs or keeps it as a rental. That's us. The money is made on the repair spread, so the offer is below full retail and the timeline is set by the title company rather than a lender. The upside is that the person who prices your house is the person who signs the check, so the answer to "can you actually close" is a yes or a no on the first call rather than a maybe.

The risk in this category is that it's the easiest one to imitate. Anyone with a website and a phone can call themselves a local cash home buyer without ever having bought a house. The seven questions further down are how you tell the difference in about four minutes.

National franchises

The names on the billboards. A national brand licenses its marketing to a local franchisee, who is the one who actually turns up at your house. The brand recognition is real and so is the marketing cost, and a franchise fee sits on top of the same repair arithmetic every buyer runs. What that means for you in practice is that the offer has one more mouth to feed than a local buyer's does. It also means the quality of your experience depends entirely on which franchisee covers your part of Utah, which is why the reviews you want are the local office's, not the national brand's.

iBuyers

The algorithm buyers. You submit the address, software prices it from public data, and you get a number in minutes. The number is usually closer to retail than a cash buyer's, and that's the appeal. The catch is on the other side: a service fee taken out of the price, an inspection afterwards that can reduce the number, and a narrow band of houses they'll accept at all. Newer builds in good condition in busy zip codes tend to qualify. A 1962 rambler with a failed septic and forty years of belongings in it does not. We set the two models against each other on cash buyer vs iBuyer.

Which one fits which house

If your house is newer and tidy and you want the highest number software will pay, start with an iBuyer. If it's in good shape and you have three months, list it with an agent, and we say that on the phone before anyone asks. If the house needs work, has something legal attached to it, or has a deadline sitting on it, that's the case a local buyer is built for.

These take about four minutes on the phone and they'll tell you more than an afternoon of reading websites. Ask all seven of everyone you speak to, and write the answers down so you can set them side by side afterwards. Most companies that buy houses will answer every one without blinking. The ones that stall on question one or question three are the ones worth crossing off the list.

1. Can you show me proof of funds? A bank statement or a letter from the bank showing the money exists today. Any real buyer has one ready and won't mind sending it. A buyer who needs a week to produce one is probably raising the money after you sign, which means your closing date depends on somebody you'll never meet.

2. Whose name goes on the contract? You want the legal entity, not the brand on the website. Then look it up on the Utah Division of Corporations, which is free and takes a minute. If the entity on the paperwork isn't the one on the sign, ask why before you go further.

3. Do you assign the contract to someone else? This is the important one. Assigning means they sign a contract with you and then sell that contract on to a third party for a fee, so the company that closes isn't the company you met. It's legal and it's common. It just isn't what most sellers think they're agreeing to, and it's where the late renegotiations come from. We buy houses in our own name and close with our own money.

4. What comes out of my side at closing? The answer you want is a list, not a reassurance. Commission, closing costs, title fees, admin fees, a "transaction coordination" charge. Ours is nothing: we pay the closing costs and there's no commission, so the only deductions are what's already owed against the house.

5. Is there an inspection contingency? Ask whether the contract lets them reduce the price after an inspection. If it does, the number you were quoted is an opening position rather than an offer, and you'll find that out a week before closing once you've packed.

6. How much earnest money do you put up, and when? Earnest money held by the title company is the cheapest proof that a buyer is serious. A company that won't commit any is risking nothing by tying up your house.

7. Where are your reviews, and how many? Not testimonials on their own website, which anyone can type. Google, the Better Business Bureau, and enough of them to mean something. We average 4.9 across 520 Google reviews and hold an A+ BBB rating, and the whole process those reviews describe is set out on our sell my house fast Utah page.

Ask us all seven on the first call. If any answer is one you don't like, that's useful too, and you've lost four minutes rather than a month.

Fair is fair. If we're going to hand you seven questions to put to every buyer on your list, here are our own answers, including the ones that send people elsewhere. We're one of the companies that buy houses in Utah, so read this the way you'd read anything a company writes about itself.

What we are

We're a Utah company and only a Utah company. One state, one phone number, no out-of-state call center. We've bought 1,300+ houses here since 2016, from Logan and Brigham City down the Wasatch Front to Provo, and south to Richfield, Cedar City and St. George. We buy with our own money, close at a Utah title company, and put our own name on the contract. We average 4.9 across 520 Google reviews and hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

We buy houses in any condition, and condition is priced into the number at the start so it doesn't change later. Vacant and boarded up. Tenant-occupied, including tenants who've stopped paying. Fire, smoke, water or mold damage. Failed septic, foundation movement, a roof past arguing about. Code violations and unpermitted additions. Liens, back property taxes, HOA judgments. Inherited houses still working through probate. The full list of towns is on our we buy houses Utah page.

What we are not

We aren't the highest number you can get for a house in good condition. If your house is tidy, financeable, and you can wait three months for a listing to work, an agent will usually net you more than we will even after 6% commission and three months of carrying costs. That's arithmetic, not modesty, and we set it out step by step on cash buyer vs realtor.

We aren't an iBuyer, so we don't quote a number from software in 90 seconds and revise it after an inspection. We aren't a franchise, so there's no national brand taking a cut of your sale. And we aren't a middleman: we don't sign a contract and sell it on, which is the practice people mean when they talk about wholesaling.

We also say no. Houses where the payoff is bigger than the house is worth need the lender's agreement before anything can close, and a straight cash sale doesn't cover it on its own. Probate cases where the court hasn't issued letters yet wait on a judge rather than on us. We'll tell you which applies on the first call instead of promising a date we can't hold.

If you're still comparing

Good. This is the largest asset most people own and four phone calls is a reasonable amount of diligence. Take the seven questions to everyone on your list. When you get to us, get your cash offer or call (385) 503-4333 and someone will pick up between 8am and 7pm, seven days a week. What's in the written offer itself, line by line, is on our cash offer page.