How selling your house to us works

What we'll ask about the house

When you call I Buy Rhode Island Houses or fill out the form, we'll ask where the house is, what shape it's in, who's on the title, what's still owed on it, whether anyone lives there, and when you'd like to be done. You don't need to clean up or make repairs before we see it.

If more than one person owns the house, every owner has to sign to sell the whole thing. When that isn't possible, we've sometimes bought one owner's share instead.

How we figure the offer

I Buy Rhode Island Houses uses the same math on every house. We start with what the house would sell for after repairs, then subtract the cost of the repairs, our costs to resell it and our profit. The offer comes to you in writing.

A cash offer is less than a full retail sale. In exchange, you skip the repairs, the showings, the commission and the wait for a buyer's loan. More on how cash buyers figure an offer.

What happens before closing

Once you accept an offer from I Buy Rhode Island Houses, a Rhode Island title company or attorney's office handles the closing. A few things happen along the way:

• The closing office checks the title for mortgages, liens and anything else recorded against the house.
• Your town's tax collector issues a municipal lien certificate within five business days, showing any unpaid property taxes or municipal charges. It costs $25 or less.
• Rhode Island requires the seller of a one- to four-unit home to give the buyer a written disclosure of known problems before the purchase agreement is signed. Selling as-is doesn't change that, though executors selling estate property and a few other sellers are exempt.
• Your mortgage and any liens get paid off at closing, out of the sale, and you get what's left.

What can take longer than 7 days

I Buy Rhode Island Houses can close in as little as 7 days when the paperwork is ready. A few Rhode Island situations add time:

• If the house is part of an estate, the executor needs authority to sell it. When the will gives the executor a power of sale, the house can usually be sold without separate court permission. When it doesn't, the executor asks the local probate court for a license to sell, and the court sets a minimum price for a private sale. How selling a house in probate works.
• Rhode Island puts an automatic estate tax lien on real estate a person owned when they died, and the estate files a tax return partly to get it released.
• A title problem, like an old lien that was never released or an heir missing from the paperwork, can take time to clear. How selling a house with liens or title problems works.
• If you live outside Rhode Island, the buyer has to hold back 6% of your net proceeds at closing for the state's Division of Taxation. Filing an election at least 20 days before closing bases the holdback on your actual gain instead.

What you don't have to do

When you sell your house to I Buy Rhode Island Houses, you don't have to:

• Make repairs or clean the house out. In most cases you can leave behind whatever you don't want.
• Show the house to strangers or hold open houses.
• Pay an agent's commission.
• Wait on a buyer's mortgage approval.
• Pay the closing costs. We cover them.