Everything about your home can be found in public records. How long you’ve lived there, how big your home is, how many bedrooms and bathrooms, whether you’ve added on, your current mortgage amount owed, whether you have a HELOC, when you last refinanced, and more. While that information has always been available in public records, it’s only fairly recently become more easily accessible online.
These days, real estate agents can instantly find any home that fits their buyer’s criteria — even if the home isn’t for sale. Algorithms process all that data to provide agents with a measure of how likely the owner is to want to sell. The result is an increasing number of “cold offers” sent to the owners of homes that are not for sale. What should you do if you get one of these offers?
- First, don’t be too concerned. Yes, it can feel creepy to get an unsolicited offer, but in most cases the buyers and agents haven’t seen your house. It simply fits a set of criteria. The data they used is a matter of public record and an app has aggregated that data, and the offer is just a starting point. You’re not likely to get more than one unsolicited offer.
- Second, double check that your home isn’t being used in a Zillow or Craigslist-like scam. Scammers “list” homes on these sites as ‘for sale by owner,’ then they take deposits from unsuspecting buyers. You can call the agent or buyer who sent you the offer and ask how they selected your home.
- Third, if the offer seems intriguing to you, thoroughly vet the agent and buyer. Consider hiring your own real estate agent to approach the buyer or buyer’s agent for you.