Danny Buys Houses

Danny Johnson

Welcome to the Danny Buys Houses Podcast, hosted by Danny Johnson, a trusted real estate investor in San Antonio. Whether you’re looking to sell your house fast, exploring cash for houses, or curious about cash house buying companies, this show is for you. Danny breaks down the process of selling to “we buy houses” experts, sharing tips, stories, and insider know-how to help San Antonio homeowners sell quickly and stress-free. Tune in for practical advice and learn how to turn your property into cash—on your terms!

  1. 6d ago

    Will a cash offer on my house go down after they inspect it?

    No, but only if the offer is made after the house is inspected. At least, this is how I handle it at Danny Buys Houses. If you receive an offer from a cash home buying company, they will likely not make the offer until after inspecting the house.  It is important to also clarify what is meant by the inspection. Some companies will get a professional inspection, but most do not.   I have been buying houses for investment for over 23 years and have a good idea of what to look for.  For this reason I do not hire a professional inspection.  This means that when you call me for a cash offer, I go and visit your house personally.  There I will look at what needs repair and updating and will determine your offer based on what I find.   My latest acquisition was from a couple that were concerned about this very thing.  While discussing the next steps after making the offer, they asked if I would have to have more follow up inspections and whether my offer will stay what it is.  I told them the offer would absolutely stay the same and that there would not be any more inspections.   Now, I am not perfect and have made mistakes in the past.  Early on, I mistakenly wrote down that a house had 3 bedrooms when it in fact only had 2.  I made the offer based on having a much higher resale value and did not realize my mistake until a couple days later when I was reviewing the house pictures I took for creating a scope of work.  The deal would lose money at the price I had agreed to.  In that situation I did have to contact the seller and very sheepishly asked if they would agree to a lower price due to my mistake.  We did have a contract so I would have honored it had they said no. Thankfully they agreed and we still closed quickly.   Since then, I have vowed that I would be more careful in my analysis as to not make that mistake again. I have since made some smaller mistakes but always bought at the agreed upon price.   If you want to get a cash offer for you San Antonio house, please visit my website at https://dannybuyshouses.com. I would love to talk with you about your situation and help in any way I can.

    Will a cash offer on my house go down after they inspect it?
  2. Oct 19

    How do cash home buyers decide what to offer you for your house?

    see our Valuation Methodology at https://dannybuyshouses.com/valuation-methodology The instant answer many sellers think is that cash buyers just decide a really low-ball offer and make that to see if they can get it.  While a few unscrupulous house buying "companies" may do that, most do not. Any company that has been in business for several years knows that we must have criteria for the real estate investments we make.  After over 20 years, my company, Danny Buys Houses has a a good idea of what is needed to make a house purchase worth doing. Of course, this number we calculate must also make sense to the seller. We certainly do not buy every house we make an offer on, but we do close on every house where a seller agrees to sell to us.  Honestly, the formula use is pretty simple. The complication can come in when coming up with an accurate number for each variable. We take what the house will likely sell for after we make all necessary repairs and updating. This is determined by looking at similar, recently sold properties in the immediate area (neighborhood or roughly half-mile radius). We then take 70% of that number.  This is to give us 30% for insurance, property taxes, hoa fees, reselling costs, profit and other fees we will have while we own the property. You see how we snuck profit in there? Yeah, we want to make a profit.  From this 70% number we subtract the costs we anticipate from the fix up and updating of the house.  An easy example is a house that will sell for roughly $250,000 after updates.  70% is $175,000.  If we will spend $40,000 on repairs and updating, we will offer $135,000 to buy the house for cash.  If you would like to see a bigger breakdown with more examples of how we determine what we will pay for your San Antonio house, see our Valuation Methodology at https://dannybuyshouses.com/valuation-methodology

    How do cash home buyers decide what to offer you for your house?
  3. Oct 12

    What's the downside of selling my house to a cash buyer instead of using a realtor?

    https://dannybuyshouses.com/compare Some people that contact me do not think there is one. But there definitely is. We offer below market value when we make you a cash offer to buy your house.  Many times, you could probably get more money by listing with an agent. The reason so many people still sell to my company, Danny Buys Houses, is they just don't want the hassles of listing their home and waiting for a qualified buyer, only to have to make repairs and negotiate.  This is especially tough in the down market we've been in for years. Just last week, a wonderful couple called me because they saw a house we had fixed up and sold on the next block over from them. They wanted to downsize and called me to see what I would offer. After walking their house, I asked them if they were sure they didn't want to list with an agent as their house was in really good condition. They said they just didn't want to deal with it. They had made up their minds to move into an apartment and were ready to go. The uncertainty of when the sale would be completed with listing with an agent was what they really wanted to avoid. With the cash sale, they were getting certainty and were able to move forward with the timeline they wanted.  I made them a fair offer with the closing date of their choice. They considered it for a day and then accepted. They know they won't be getting as much money as they would if they waited but they considered the tradeoff worth it for ease and certainty.   We have a bigger breakdown of the differences between selling for cash and listing with an agent on our website at: https://dannybuyshouses.com/compare

    What's the downside of selling my house to a cash buyer instead of using a realtor?
  4. Sep 29

    Who are the most recommended cash house buyers in San Antonio?

    Let’s breakdown who we are typically competing with here at Danny Buys Houses and why people tend to want to sell to us or one of these competitors.  Yeah, I know you probably figured I would just talk about how Danny Buys Houses is the only company you should work with.  The reality is, sometimes other buyers are a better option. Only you can make that call and I always recommend you get offers from multiple cash house buying companies.  When I get a call to make a cash offer on someone’s house, it is usually the case that I am not the only person they have reached out to.  The other companies sellers tell me they have contacted usually consist of OpenDoor, HomeVestors, and Texas All Cash.  I personally have known Geremy from Texas All Cash for well over a decade and know he is an honest man running a good company.  OpenDoor and HomeVestors are larger national companies.  HomeVestors has franchisee owned local branches. The reason why sellers tend to contact us is because we all have many years of local experience that has resulted in helping thousands of sellers sell quickly, without hassle. Our online reviews and BBB accreditation give sellers confidence they will be working with an honest and reputable company. Yes, there are a lot of bad actors in this business and it can be hard to know who is actually capable of closing the deal. I truly believe certainty of the sale is what most sellers want, even above how much money they will make. This just comes from personally working with hundreds of sellers over the last more than 20 years.  I know that may sound like bragging, but it really is just to drive home how important it is to work with a cash buyer that has been in business for a long time and has a good reputation.   Even if you do not sell to one of these companies, you will know what to look for.  Who offers the most? It depends on so many factors, and that is why I recommend contacting multiple companies.  Sometimes OpenDoor offers several thousands dollars more than us and sometimes we have quite a bit more. It depends on the house and what each companies goals are at the moment.

    Who are the most recommended cash house buyers in San Antonio?
  5. Sep 24

    Can a cash sale actually close in 7 days? What can cause delays?

    Can a cash sale really close in 7 days? What can cause delays? This comes up a lot when we make cash offers. People are sometimes skeptical that they can truly have their house sold within one week and be completely done with it. A recent seller, John, was "done with this house". He wanted to have everything done quickly so that he could get rid of all of the stress the home had caused him due to finding mold in the house. We were able to close within 7 days and he finally got the relief he wanted. He now had the time and energy to be there for his family again. It's not always this fast and easy however. There are some things that will delay a closing. Inheritance issues is probably the biggest delayer of a closing. If a will hasn't yet been probated or there are heirs that have died, things can get delayed while everything is handled by the title company and any needed attorney. Most of the time we can move quickly through an inherited probably with an affidavit of heirship, but other times court approval is needed. Short delays can sometimes be caused by HOA's. If they cannot provide the paperwork necessary for transfer right away. This is not common but does happen and usually only delays by less than a week. Sometimes lenders delay closing because they take longer to provide a payoff for the existing mortgage. This usually is not more than week but can be a couple weeks. We do not get professional inspections or appraisals so those never delay a closing for us. We put together a comparison of a cash sale to Danny Buys Houses versus a traditional sale through an agent that you can find here: https://dannybuyshouses.com/compare

    Can a cash sale actually close in 7 days? What can cause delays?
  6. Sep 14

    Is this cash offer fair, or am I getting lowballed?

    Is this cash offer fair, or am I getting lowballed? This question is completely understandable when getting cash offers from house buying companies. When I get these calls at Danny Buys Houses, it is usually because the seller contacted someone to get a cash offer for their home. They got the cash offer, but they did not get any explanation as to how that offer was determined.  The first thing to mention is that the term lowball could mean simply getting an offer lower than expected. This all hinges on what is expected. If the value Bexar County has assessed your house at for property tax purposes is what you were hoping for, you’re likely to be disappointed and feel you have been lowballed.  Many areas of San Antonio have been over-valued for several years. Homes are simply not selling for what the county has them valued at.  Most sellers that I’ve spoken to over the more than 2 decades I have been buying houses in San Antonio understand that they will likely get a lower offer by selling fast to a cash buyer. The reason is we are buying as an investment and are likely going to fix up the house and sell it. There are a lot of costs involved in buying the house, remodeling the house and then selling the house. When we account for those costs in our offers, they bring the offer amounts down considerably.  Consider that just selling a house in the current market in San Antonio is typically requiring we pay about 10% of the sales price in buyer cost assistance and agent’s fees.  For a house that sells for $300,000, that is $30,000!  You may have heard about the 70% rule many house flippers and cash house buyers use. We take 70% of the estimated resale value of the home after we make repairs and updates. The 30% reduction is to cover those resale costs, our holding costs (property taxes, insurance, any rehab loan fees, utilities, HOA fees, etc) and our profit.   Therefore, most cash house buying companies, at least in San Antonio in 2026, are taking what they consider to be the price they will be able to resale the house for, multiplying that by 70% and then subtracting what it will cost us to repair and remodel the house to selling condition.  The benefit that companies like Danny Buys Houses gives you is that we have trusted contractor crews that give us good rates. This allows us to remodel the homes at lower costs than a homeowner might be able to. This helps bring our offers more in line with what would expect to net if you were to make those repairs and updates yourself and then sold through an agent.  Nobody likes lowball offers. We cannot speak for all cash house buying companies but we hope this discussion of how we calculate our offers helps you to determine whether an offer you get is truly lowball.  Selling a house is stressful. Armed with knowledge of how cash buyers work can help make it a little easier.    If you want more information about how we value homes, please see our valuation methodology at https://dannybuyshouses.com/valuation-methodology.

    Is this cash offer fair, or am I getting lowballed?

About

Welcome to the Danny Buys Houses Podcast, hosted by Danny Johnson, a trusted real estate investor in San Antonio. Whether you’re looking to sell your house fast, exploring cash for houses, or curious about cash house buying companies, this show is for you. Danny breaks down the process of selling to “we buy houses” experts, sharing tips, stories, and insider know-how to help San Antonio homeowners sell quickly and stress-free. Tune in for practical advice and learn how to turn your property into cash—on your terms!