If you’re thinking about selling your house to a “we buy houses” company in Memphis or anywhere in Shelby County, there’s one piece of state law you need to understand before you sign anything: Tennessee SB909. The law has now been in force for a full year as of April 8, 2026, and it changes the rules for every cash buyer, wholesaler, and investor knocking on your door. This guide walks Memphis home sellers through exactly what Tennessee SB909 requires, why it exists, the red flags it was written to stop, and the specific contract language you should demand before you accept a cash offer in 2026.
What Tennessee SB909 Actually Requires (in Plain English)
Senate Bill 909 was signed into law on March 25, 2025 and took effect April 8, 2025. It amended Tennessee Code Title 47 and Title 66 to regulate the practice of real estate wholesaling â the business of getting a property under contract and then selling that contract to someone else for a markup, instead of actually buying the house.
In plain English, SB909 forces anyone who is wholesaling your house to put their cards on the table, in writing, before you sign. There are three core requirements every Memphis seller should remember:
- The wholesaler must disclose, in the written agreement, that they hold only an equitable interest in your property â not full ownership â and that they intend to market that interest to another buyer.
- They must disclose the effective date of any planned assignment to a subsequent purchaser at least three business days before that assignment takes effect.
- The disclosure has to be in bold, large font so a tired homeowner can’t miss it on page seven of a 20-page contract.
SB909 also gives sellers a private right of action with a two-year statute of limitations if the wholesaler fails to make the required disclosures. That means you can sue. That’s a meaningful change from the pre-2025 environment, where most aggrieved Memphis sellers had no real legal hook to pull.
Why Tennessee Passed This Law in the First Place
Tennessee’s legislature did not pull SB909 out of thin air. It was a direct response to years of complaints â many of them from Memphis, Shelby County, and the surrounding counties â about a specific pattern.
Here’s the pattern in five steps:
A “we buy houses” caller offers a fast cash price for your home. You sign a contract. Earnest money is tiny â sometimes $10. Their inspection period is unusually long, 14 to 30 days. During that window they’re not inspecting; they’re shopping your contract to other investors. If they find someone who’ll pay more than your contracted price, they assign the contract and pocket the spread. If they don’t find anyone, they cancel during the inspection period and you’re back to square one â except you’ve burned weeks and possibly missed a real buyer.
That practice â known as contract shopping, daisy-chaining, or bait-and-switch wholesaling â is exactly what SB909 was built to expose. The law doesn’t ban wholesaling. It just rips off the camouflage.
Wholesaler vs End Buyer: Why It Matters When You Sell Your Memphis Home
This is the single most important distinction for any Memphis seller in 2026, so it’s worth slowing down on it.
An end buyer (sometimes called a true cash buyer or principal buyer) is the person or company that will actually own your house at closing. They have the cash on hand, in their own bank account, to fund the purchase. They are not planning to assign the contract to anyone. When they sign, they close.
A wholesaler does not intend to own your house. They sign a contract with you so they can resell that contract â the right to buy your house at the price you agreed to â to a third-party investor. The wholesaler keeps the spread. Whether and when you actually close depends on whether they can find that third party fast enough.
For you, as the Memphis seller, the practical risks of selling to a wholesaler instead of an end buyer are:
- Higher fall-through risk. If the wholesaler can’t find an assignee, the deal dies.
- Closing delays. “30-day close” can drift to 60 or 90 days while the contract gets shopped.
- Last-minute price chops. A “renegotiation” right before closing is a classic tell that an assignment fell through.
- Loss of better real offers. Every week your house is locked under a wholesale contract is a week a real buyer in Cordova, Germantown, Bartlett, or Southaven didn’t get the chance to make you an offer.
SB909 doesn’t outlaw any of this. It just forces the wholesaler to tell you, on paper and in bold print, that this is what they’re doing â and gives you a remedy if they don’t.
5 Red Flags You’re Talking to a Wholesaler, Not a Real Cash Buyer
If a “cash buyer” is calling you about your Memphis house in 2026, here are five questions and behaviors to watch for. Any one of these should make you slow down. Two or more, and you should walk away.
1. They Won’t Put Proof of Funds on the Offer
A real end buyer can produce a bank or escrow letter showing the cash to close â usually within an hour. A wholesaler can’t, because they don’t have the money. Watch for excuses like “our funder is private” or “we’ll provide it after the inspection period.”
2. The Contract Has an “and/or Assigns” Line After the Buyer’s Name
This is the legal hook that lets the wholesaler resell your contract. SB909 doesn’t ban it, but post-April 2025 the wholesaler is now required to disclose what they’re doing. If you see “and/or assigns” without an SB909 disclosure block in bold, large font somewhere in the agreement, they’re already out of compliance.
3. The Inspection Period Is Suspiciously Long
A real end buyer who’s already driven by your house and run comps doesn’t need 21 days of “due diligence.” Inspection periods of 14, 21, or 30 days are usually contract-shopping windows.
4. The Earnest Money Is $10, $100, or $500
Earnest money is the buyer’s “skin in the game” â the deposit they lose if they walk away outside the contract terms. A real Memphis cash purchase on a $180,000 house has earnest money in the thousands, not single or double digits. Tiny earnest money tells you the buyer can walk away costlessly, which is exactly what a wholesaler needs in case the assignment fails.
5. They Dodge the SB909 Question Directly
Try this exact line: “Are you the end buyer who will close with your own funds, or are you planning to assign this contract to another investor under the SB909 disclosure rules?” A compliant operator will answer in one sentence. A wholesaler trying to dodge disclosure will get vague, change the subject, or explain that “all cash buyers do it this way.” That’s your cue.
The Exact Contract Language Memphis Sellers Should Look For (Post-SB909)
In a 2026 cash offer that complies with SB909 and protects you, the contract should clearly state:
- The buyer’s full legal name and entity, with no “and/or assigns” rider unless an SB909 disclosure block is present.
- A representation that the buyer intends to close on the property in the buyer’s own name and with the buyer’s own funds.
- If the buyer reserves any right to assign, a bold, large-font disclosure identifying that the buyer holds only an equitable interest, that the buyer intends to market that interest, and the effective date of any assignment with at least three business days’ notice to you before it takes effect.
- Earnest money sized to the property’s value (a meaningful four-figure number on a typical Memphis home).
- A short, specific inspection period â typically 3 to 7 days for a true cash deal in as-is condition.
If the document in front of you doesn’t read this way, ask the buyer to revise it before you sign. A real end buyer will say yes immediately. A wholesaler will get squirmy.
Memphis Market Snapshot, April 2026: Why a Real Offer Should Be a Real Number
Context matters when you’re evaluating any cash offer. As of April 2026, the Memphis metro median sale price sits at approximately $199,999, up roughly 4.3% year-over-year, with median days on market around 57 according to publicly available Redfin Memphis market data. Inventory has loosened compared to 2024, but Shelby County is still seeing meaningful trustee-sale and pre-foreclosure activity, particularly in Frayser, Whitehaven, and parts of Hickory Hill.
What that means for you: a legitimate as-is cash offer in Memphis in 2026 is typically 65% to 80% of after-repair value (ARV), minus the realistic cost of repairs the buyer will need to fund. Anything dramatically above that number from someone you’ve never heard of is a strong signal the offer will not survive the inspection period. SB909 was written to put a guardrail on exactly that bait-and-switch.
How Fair Cash Deal Is Different (and Why That Matters Under SB909)
Fair Cash Deal is a local end buyer, not a wholesaler assigning your contract. We close on Memphis-area homes with our own funds, in our own name. We don’t shop your contract to third-party investors during the inspection period, and we don’t write “and/or assigns” into our offers as a fallback.
Practically, that means three things for you:
- The price you sign is the price we close on. No mid-deal renegotiation because an assignment fell through.
- The closing date you sign is the date we close. Most of our Memphis closings happen in 7 to 14 days.
- The SB909 disclosure block is not required for our offer, because we are not the kind of buyer the law was written to regulate. We’re the alternative the law was implicitly trying to protect Memphis sellers’ access to.
If you’ve been burned by a wholesaler before, or you’re worried about being burned, this is the structural difference that matters.
Frequently Asked Questions: Tennessee SB909 and Memphis Sellers
Q: Does Tennessee SB909 apply to every cash offer in Memphis?
A: No. SB909 applies specifically to buyers who are wholesaling â that is, intending to assign their equitable interest in your contract to another purchaser before closing. A true end buyer who is closing with their own funds is not subject to SB909’s disclosure requirements.
Q: What happens if a wholesaler doesn’t make the SB909 disclosure?
A: SB909 creates a private right of action with a two-year statute of limitations. A Memphis seller who was harmed by an undisclosed wholesale transaction can sue the wholesaler. Talk to a Tennessee real estate attorney about your specific situation.
Q: How can I report a “we buy houses” scam in Memphis or Shelby County?
A: You can file a complaint with the Tennessee Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division and, if a licensed agent is involved, with the Tennessee Real Estate Commission. Keep all texts, emails, and signed paperwork.
Q: Is it still legal to sell to a wholesaler in Tennessee in 2026?
A: Yes. SB909 doesn’t ban wholesaling. It requires disclosure. If a wholesaler complies fully â discloses their equitable interest, their intent to assign, and gives you three business days’ notice in bold large font â selling to them is legal. Whether it’s advisable is a separate question.
Q: Is Tennessee SB909 the same thing as the NAR commission settlement?
A: No. The NAR settlement changed how buyer-agent commissions are negotiated and disclosed. SB909 is a state-level wholesaler-disclosure law. They affect different parts of the transaction and can apply at the same time.
Q: Will SB909 slow down my Memphis cash sale?
A: Only if you’re selling to a wholesaler. A direct sale to a local end buyer like Fair Cash Deal is not affected by SB909’s disclosure timeline and can close in as little as 7 days.
For more answers, see our full Memphis seller FAQ or read the Tennessee General Assembly bill text for SB0909.
Get Your 9-Minute Cash Offer From a Local Memphis End Buyer
You don’t have to navigate Tennessee SB909, wholesaler red flags, and bait-and-switch contracts on your own. Fair Cash Deal is a local Memphis end buyer that closes with our own funds, in our own name, on your timeline â without assigning your contract to anyone. We buy houses as-is across Cordova, Germantown, Bartlett, Collierville, Southaven, Olive Branch, Horn Lake, and the rest of Shelby and DeSoto Counties.
Get your 9-minute cash offer now â
No fees. No commissions. No assignments. Just a real offer from a real local buyer, in writing, the way Tennessee SB909 was written to protect.