Three companies can all say cash offer, close fast. An iBuyer charges fees off a retail price, a wholesaler sells your contract, a principal buyer closes in its own name. The tells that sort them.
By InTym Properties
"We buy houses" is a pitch, not a business model. Three different machines hide behind it, and they can sound identical on the first phone call: an iBuyer, a wholesaler, and a principal cash buyer will all promise a cash offer, no repairs, and a fast close. The words are the same because they describe the surface of the deal. Underneath, the three models price differently, charge differently, and carry very different odds of actually closing. This post is the map: the three models defined, what each one costs, where each sits on the certainty spectrum, and the contract language that names which one is across the table.
Two posts on this blog already run the deep comparisons. The post on Opendoor versus a local cash buyer works the actual math on a clean house, and the post on cash buyer versus wholesaler does the contract forensics clause by clause. This one stays short on purpose: it defines the terms so the other comparisons make sense.
The iBuyer. A national company that prices your house with an algorithm. You enter an address, the model produces a preliminary offer near retail value in a day or two, and the company makes its money from three places: a service fee charged to you, repair deductions assessed after its inspection, and the markup between what it pays and what it resells the house for. The model only pencils on houses that are already close to retail-ready: standard construction, inside the price band, inside the service footprint. A house outside that buy box gets declined, or routed to a partner agent, which is a listing wearing cash-offer clothes.
The wholesaler. Usually a small operator or an individual. The wholesaler signs a purchase contract with you, then markets that contract to a list of investors. When an end buyer agrees to pay more than your price, the wholesaler assigns the contract and pockets the spread as an assignment fee. The defining fact: the wholesaler never closes, and never intended to. If no end buyer appears before the contract's deadlines, a contingency lets the wholesaler cancel, and you get the weeks back empty.
The principal cash buyer. A direct investor that signs your contract and closes on it in the same entity name, funded with its own money. Pricing is wholesale: after-repair value minus renovation minus margin. There is no service fee, no assignment, no lender underwriting the deal, and the written number is the number. This is the model the words "cash buyer" actually describe. The other two borrowed the vocabulary.
The iBuyer's costs are the most visible and the most itemized: a service fee, repair deductions priced at their estimate, and ordinary closing costs, all deducted from a price that starts near retail. The fee schedule changes, so check current terms for your address before modeling anything. The catch is not the fee itself; it is that the number the fees attach to is preliminary until their assessment says otherwise.
The wholesaler's cost is real but invisible. The assignment fee never appears on your contract because it is carved out of your price before you see it. The end buyer was willing to pay more than you accepted, and the difference is the wholesaler's profit. Your equity funds the middleman.
The principal buyer's margin sits in the discount itself, and a legitimate one shows the formula. The post on vetting a cash buyer treats a written offer with the math visible as a baseline requirement, not a bonus.
Certainty is where the three models separate hardest.
The wholesaler sits at the bottom: your closing depends on a third party you never met showing up before a deadline. Every broad contingency in the contract, inspection, partner approval, due diligence, is an exit ramp the wholesaler can drive away on.
The iBuyer sits in the middle. The company is real and the funds are real, but the preliminary number can shrink after the assessment, the house can be declined after their people walk it, and iBuyer purchase agreements carry cancellation rights most sellers never read. Certain, right up until the file reaches a human.
The principal cash buyer sits at the top: no financing contingency, no appraisal condition, no third party whose approval is needed. The only variable left is whether this buyer's word is good, and that part is verifiable, which brings us to the checks.
You do not have to ask what a company calls itself. Four tells sort them:
The five-question version of this screen is in the cash buyer versus wholesaler post, and the full vetting checklist, entity lookup, title company verification, review cross-check, is in the we buy houses scams post.
InTym Properties is the third column. On single-family houses, the company closes as principal: the entity that signs the purchase contract is the entity that funds it at closing, with no assignment clause, proof of funds on request, and every closing through a licensed title company. On multifamily, InTym Properties may close as principal or hold the contract and assign it to a vetted end buyer, and which structure applies to your deal is disclosed in writing before you sign, because that is the same transparency this post tells you to demand from everyone. The verify page lists every check you can run, and the we buy houses page covers what the company purchases and how the written offer works.
iBuyer, wholesaler, and cash buyer are three different deals wearing one slogan. The iBuyer pays near retail on a narrow slice of houses and takes its margin in fees off a number that can still move. The wholesaler never buys your house at all; it sells your contract and collects the difference out of your equity. The principal cash buyer pays wholesale and actually shows up at closing in the name on the contract. Once you can name the model, the right follow-up questions ask themselves, and the contract in front of you already answers most of them.
Talking to a buyer and not sure which of the three you have? Call or text (650) 540-1854 or email hello@intymproperties.com. InTym Properties will tell you straight what the contract in your hand actually is, and if the company's number is better, you get it in writing, usually within 48 hours.
An iBuyer is a national company that prices your house algorithmically near retail and profits from a service fee, repair deductions, and resale markup. A wholesaler signs your contract but never closes: it assigns the contract to an end investor for a fee. A principal cash buyer signs the contract and closes on it in the same entity name with its own funds, at a wholesale price with no fee line items.
No. A wholesaler contracts to buy your house and then sells the contract to an end buyer for an assignment fee. If no end buyer appears before the contract deadlines, the wholesaler cancels through a contingency and you lose the weeks. The end investor is the real buyer; the wholesaler is a middleman whose fee comes out of the price you accepted.
No. The number an iBuyer shows online is a preliminary offer. The final offer comes after their condition assessment, which adds repair deductions and can drop the number, and the company can decline the house entirely after its inspection. Treat the preliminary number as a ceiling, not a floor.
Ask three questions. Is the offer preliminary until their assessment produces a final number, which signals an iBuyer? Does the contract say and/or assigns or carry broad cancellation rights, which signals a wholesaler? Will the buyer show proof of funds in the exact entity name on the contract and commit to closing in that name, which signals a principal cash buyer?
Written offer usually within 48 hours, signed by InTym Properties, every number shown. No repairs, no fees, no obligation.
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