Beth:
Hi, I am Beth with TB Properties Buys Land. Over the last several weeks, we had discussed some of the scam offer letters that you may receive in the mail, asking: are they scams or are they legit, and what are some ways that you might be able to tell? Well, today I thought I would bring up a couple examples of people who had received offer letters in the mail and what they were doing to protect themselves from a scam. These are examples that have happened just this week, and so I thought maybe I would share with you so that you could learn.
The first one is lady who has inherited land out in east Texas and she received a letter in the mail. She shared with me that she is finally ready to sell her inherited land that she’s held onto for over 20 years and that she’s been paying property taxes on for that long. She knows that she’s not going to move back to Texas and use the property and she simply wants to be done with it.
I sent her the offer letter via her email, and she started asking some questions about how she was going to get paid. One question she asked was: Does she have to show up in person to close? I had discussed remote closing with her, and she immediately became skeptical about the remote closing process and I thought: wow, this is great that she’s asking these questions. I told her, “Listen, on the contract that I sent you, it lists the Title Company that we’re going to close with.” To be clear, I did offer her choice of title companies if she had a preferred Title Company she wanted to work with. I had told her that we were fine with either way, so long as the Title Company was licensed to work in the county where the property is located.
In any case, in answer to her remote closing skepticism, I told her, “we’ve called out a reputable Title Company on the contract. How about you contact them and ask them all of your funding questions that you’ve got? Ask them to walk you through what a remote closing looks like, and if you wanted to drive out there and close in person, how does that look and how are you going to receive your funding and how do you feel safe throughout the process?”
I told her that regardless of what’s going on throughout the process, you can always contact me, but because she’s working through title, she can always contact them as well and ask them any questions that she’s got directly. That calmed her down and she’s still in the process of doing her due diligence before she signs. Her kids are going back to school this week and she asked for a little bit of time so she can call Title and ask all those questions. Time will tell whether she signs the contract and if we purchase her land or not, but I wanted to share an example with you of how you can learn more in order to protect yourself from a scam.
As a land seller, I would always want to close through a title company. This isn’t legal advice, but in my opinion, a title company offers you the best protection against being scammed and from the property being stolen from you. The title company does the research and all of the closing paperwork for you. They are not going to convey your property from you as the seller to us as the buyer, or anybody else, without funding in hand. To be clear regarding funding, it can’t be a personal check. Title will only accept bank wired funds or a cashier’s check, which is a bank check. On top of that, the paperwork has to be correct from both the seller – that’s you, and from us as the buyer. So once everything’s in their hands and it’s all correct, only then will they record the transaction and fund you.
If you come in person to close, oftentimes you’ll receive your check at closing. If you are closing remotely, they can ask you: “do you want your funds wired directly to your account or would you like them overnighted to you?”
Back to the story of the lady with East Texas land: she knows the name of the Title Company, but I went ahead and sent her their phone number, email, website, and now she has all their information so that she can ask them any questions that she’s got about how the transaction will work and if she has anything to worry about. I had another example, but I might save that for the next video because this one’s already getting long.
In any case, here at TB Properties Buys Land, we buy vacant land, we pay in cash. We always close through a Title Company for your protection and for ours. We would love to give you a free quote on the purchase of your property where we cover all your closing costs. Reach out to us via email, or give us a call, or even reach out through our website. We look forward to working with you. Thanks again.