“Why should I let you in my house?” is one of the most reasonable questions a seller can ask me. I am Grant Howard with Howard Buys, and I want to tell you about a sale in Clark County, Indiana that started with that question and ended with the man handing me his key.
He owned a few properties. This one he did not need.
The owner was older, had a handful of properties, and this one sat vacant. He did not need it and he was ready to be done with it. On paper, simple.
It was not simple, because he did not want anybody inside it.
And honestly? Good for him. He did not know me. Somebody he had never met was asking for access to a building he owned and wanted to bring other people through it too. Being careful there is not paranoia. It is sense.
What a walkthrough actually is
Most of the worry I run into comes from not knowing what the visit is. So here is exactly what it is, and what it is not.
It is people looking, not people working. Nobody opens a wall, pulls up flooring, disconnects anything, or takes anything out. We look at the roof, the mechanicals, the floor, the layout, and we leave.
It is usually short. Twenty minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the house.
You can be there the whole time. Walk with us, room to room. Ask what we are looking at and why. Plenty of sellers do exactly that.
It is not a commitment. Letting me look at a house does not obligate you to sell it to me.
You set the terms. Who comes, when, how long, and what happens while we are there. It is your building.
What we actually did
I met him in person. Not a phone call, not an email — sat down with him and walked him through it: who would be coming, what they would do, how long it would take, what happens after. I explained the whole process end to end, more than once, because I wanted him to actually understand it rather than just agree to get me off his porch.
And it worked. Once he understood that a walkthrough was people looking and nothing more, he let us in — well before closing.
Then he gave me the key
Here is the part I did not expect.
The property was a drive from where he lived, and coming out to unlock a door every time somebody needed to see it was a nuisance for him. So he handed me a key.
I tried to give it back. I told him I would happily drive to him, pick it up when I needed it, and bring it back after, so that he never had to make the trip and never had to leave a key with somebody he had only recently met. I meant it. I would rather do the driving than have someone hand over access before they are ready.
He told me to keep it. He had gotten comfortable enough that he did not want the runaround either. He had exactly one condition, and it was a good one: tell me when you are going to be there. So I did, every time.
That is what earned access — not pressure, and not a clever pitch. He asked hard questions, I answered them straight, and then I kept doing what I said I would do.
He also wanted paid his way
One more thing about that closing. He wanted to receive his money in a form most closings simply do not hand out. I am not going to get into the specifics, because that was between him and the closing table, but a local title company found a way to accommodate exactly how he wanted it.
He got paid the way he asked for, on the timeline he asked for.
The part worth remembering
He did not have to bend to the way I usually do things. Where it mattered, I bent to how he needed it done — and where I could take the inconvenience off him instead, I offered to.
That is the part sellers do not always realize is available to them. The access, the timing, the closing date, and often the way you get paid are all things you are allowed to have an opinion about. If a buyer treats your caution as an obstacle rather than working around it, that tells you something about the buyer.
If this sounds like where you are
A vacant property you do not need that you would rather not have strangers wandering through.
A rental you are finished with — occupied or empty, I buy either.
A house that needs work you have no intention of doing.
An inherited house you never wanted to be responsible for.
How selling as-is for cash works
I buy houses in any condition across Southern Indiana and the Louisville area — no commissions, no repairs, no pressure. You can see exactly how I buy houses and how I calculate an offer, and if you are weighing whether any of this is legitimate, I wrote about that too.
If you have a house you are ready to sell but you are not comfortable handing access to someone you have never met, say that out loud when you call. It is a normal thing to want, and I would rather hear it up front. Call or text me at (502) 414-8334, or start below.