Despite competing iBuyers temporarily pausing iBuying since the increased spread of coronavirus, HomeVestors, which coined the slogan We Buy Ugly Houses, is still buying houses.
HomeVestors, a Dallas-Fort Worth-based company, purchases homes that require work to be done, and get it off the owner’s hands in exchange for cash.
Via virtual consultations, the company said it still plans to write new purchase contracts. These virtual consultations vary by each individual franchise and are based on what is most comfortable for them – via FaceTime, Zoom or Google Meets, to name a few.
Although the company doesn’t refer to itself as an iBuyer, virtual consultations are important to the company now more than ever, HomeVestors Chief Executive Officer David Hicks told HousingWire.
“They’re [each franchise] very creative. You’re going to have to adapt to the realities of today, and how to do business in today’s world,” Hicks said. “This is something that they kind of developed at franchise level to deal with the crisis.”
As the virtual feature was launched about a month ago, Hicks said that each of the 1,100 nationwide franchises is prepared for its individual markets with knowledge and confidence in them.
Even though other real estate tech companies are pausing services and even going virtual, Hicks said that the use of technology will help buyers and sellers in the long run.
“COVID-19 is forcing everybody to get better and use technology in a better way, anything that we can do to help the consumer and the seller in our case via ways to sell the house, I think it will end up making our franchises better and making the markets better,” Hicks said.
Hicks said that even though the company is getting less calls from home sellers, there’s still a market for them to purchase “ugly” homes.
“One of the reasons we’re getting calls is because there have been a lot of other investors coming and going,” Hicks said. “By now, people that really need to sell their house are going to sell to someone they can trust.”
“Our franchises are closing on deals, we bought a bunch of houses last week,” Hicks continued. “I think that’s one of the reasons that people come to us because they trust us when we buy their house. We’re going to make them an offer right now, we’re going to stick by the offer and we’re going to close it.”
