For the trade
Bringing us a deal, or looking for one.
This door is for people who do this for a living. If you have a property under contract, here is the buy box, what we need, and what you can expect from us as an end buyer. If you are looking to buy, the assignments we do go to the buyers list first.
You have a deal
Under contract and looking for an end buyer who answers the same day, does not retrade for sport, and actually closes. Buy box below.
See the buy box →You want deals
When we assign a contract it goes to the buyers list first, with the scope, the comps and the numbers shown.
Join the buyers list →The buy box
What we buy, and what we do not
Published so nobody has to guess, and so you do not waste an afternoon on something we were never going to take.
- Property types
- Single-family houses, condos and townhouses, duplexes and small multi-family up to four units. Houses on acreage are fine — wells, septic and outbuildings do not put us off.
- Land
- Vacant residential lots, infill parcels and acreage, including the ones conventional financing struggles with. Access, utilities, zoning and entitlement carry the number rather than any scope of work — send the APN and we can start from the county record.
- Condition
- Anything. Cosmetic through to fire, water, foundation movement, failed roofs, open code violations and mid-renovation projects that stalled. The worse the condition, the more the scope matters and the more carefully we price it.
- Occupancy
- Vacant, owner-occupied or tenant-occupied. A tenant in place is not a problem and is not a reason for us to ask anyone to be removed.
- Title
- Liens, back taxes, judgements, probate and partial interests are all workable. They are settled through title at closing rather than beforehand.
- Where
- East Bay & Northern California, Nevada, Southern California. We are based in the East Bay and that is where we are strongest — outside it we ask more questions and lean harder on the numbers. Every city we cover →
Price band and earnest money depend on the market and the deal. Ask and you will get a straight answer on both before you send anything over.
Not a fit
- Mobile and manufactured homes in a park, where the home sells but not the land under it
- Properties with no legal access, or where access is in active dispute
- Anything already in litigation between owners, until that is resolved
- Deals where the only way the numbers work is if nothing at all goes wrong
Outside this but you think we should look anyway? Send it. A list is a starting point, not a rule we enforce against our own interest.
If you wholesale
What you get from us, and what we need from you
You have a limited number of end buyers worth keeping. Here is how we try to stay on that list.
A straight yes or no, quickly
Send a complete package and you get an answer the same day. If we need to walk it before committing, we say so and we go the next day. What you will not get is a week of silence followed by a maybe.
Proof of funds on request
Ask and we send it. We buy with our own funds, so the proof is a bank position rather than a letter from somebody who might lend to us.
We do not go around you
If you bring us a property under contract, the contract is yours and the assignment fee is yours. Cutting out the person who brought the deal is a one-time trick that ends your deal flow permanently, and we would rather have the tenth deal than a better price on the first.
We renegotiate only for a reason
If something material turns up that was not in the package — an unpermitted addition, a sewer lateral, a tenant nobody mentioned — we come back and show you the number. If nothing has changed, neither does the price. Retrading a clean deal to save a few thousand is how a buyer runs out of wholesalers.
We are the end buyer, not another link
A deal we take, we close on and renovate. We are not putting your contract back out to our own list and adding a link to the chain. If a property genuinely suits somebody on our buyers list better than it suits us, we say that to you up front rather than quietly brokering it.
We tell you when it is not for us
A fast no is worth more to you than a slow maybe, and it costs us nothing to give. If it is outside the buy box we will say which part and why, so the next one you send is closer.
Send this and we can price it
- The address or APN, and whether it is under contract or you own it
- Photographs — inside included, and the bad rooms especially
- Your read on the scope, if you have one, and anything you already know is wrong
- What is owed against it: mortgage, taxes, liens, HOA arrears
- Occupancy, and how access works
- The closing date you are working to
Land instead? Send the APN and what you know about access — how we price land.
Send us the dealBringing us a deal
Send it over
If you are buying
The buyers list
When we have a contract we are assigning, it goes to this list first. It is not a newsletter and it is not a drip campaign — you hear from us when there is something real.
What you get sent
- The address or APN, and photographs of the condition rather than the good angles
- Our read on the scope, and what we think the work costs
- The comparable sales we used, so you can check the finished value yourself
- The number, the assignment fee, and the closing date the seller has agreed to
- What we know is wrong with it, including the parts that make it harder to sell on
The terms of it
- No obligation on anything we send, and no consequence for passing
- We are not a brokerage and this is not a listing service — what is on offer is an assignment of our contract
- You do your own diligence on every deal, and we would think less of you if you did not
- Tell us your criteria and your areas, and we will only send what fits them
Every seller whose contract reaches this list was told in writing, before signing, that it might be assigned — and the agreed price does not change when it is. What we tell them →
Questions
From both sides of the trade
How quickly will you give me an answer?
Same day on a complete package. If the photographs or the scope are missing we will ask once rather than guessing, and if we need to walk it we will tell you when we can get there. A fast no is part of the deal — you should not have to chase us to find out we are not interested.
Will you go around me to the seller?
No. The contract is yours and the fee is yours. In a trade this size that reputation is the only asset that compounds, and we would rather have your next ten deals than a better price on this one.
Do you actually close, or do you tie things up and disappear?
We close. We buy with our own funds, so there is no lender to satisfy and no financing contingency to hide behind. Ask for proof of funds before you send anything if it helps — we would rather you did.
How often do deals go out to the buyers list?
Irregularly, because we assign a minority of what we contract and we would rather send nothing than send filler. If you want volume you want a list that promises volume — and you should ask them how many of those deals actually closed.
What does the seller know about the assignment?
Everything, before they sign. Assignment is disclosed to them in writing in the contract itself, the agreed price does not change, and a seller who asks for a non-assignable contract gets one. If that makes a deal harder to assemble, so be it — it is not a corner we cut.
Do you buy land as well as houses?
Yes. Land is priced on entirely different inputs — access, utilities, zoning and entitlement rather than a scope of work — so send the APN and tell us what you know about access. That one answer moves the number more than anything else.
Anything not covered here, call (925) 786-4066. You will get a person who knows the numbers rather than an acquisitions script.
The other two
We do three things.
Which means when we tell you one of them is not right for your property, we have somewhere else to point you — and no reason to push you toward the wrong one.
Selling your house
You own a house and you want it sold
How it works →Selling your land
You own land that is going nowhere
What we need to know →Property management
You want to keep the property and stop running it
See what we take on →Not sure which one you want? Call (925) 786-4066 and describe the property — you will get an actual opinion, including when it is neither.