Co-buying
Is it safe to buy a house with someone I have not met?
You never buy with a stranger. Matching runs a questionnaire, a criminal record check and a phone interview before anyone is introduced, and either side can decline.
The short answer
You never buy with a stranger, because nobody is introduced until several steps have already happened.
The sequence:
- A questionnaire. Budget, timing, where you want to live, and how you actually live day to day.
- A criminal record check.
- A phone interview.
- A profile card, with no last names and no financial details.
- A mutual yes, from both households, before anything else.
- A coffee. The first meeting is a coffee, not a commitment.
What is not shared, and when
No contact details are exchanged until both sides have said yes. The profile card that each household sees carries no last names and no financial details.
That ordering is deliberate. It means you are deciding whether to meet someone based on how they intend to live, not on what they earn or what you can find out about them online.
Either side can decline, without a reason
At any point, either household can say no and does not have to explain why. There is no pressure applied, and declining does not cost you your place.
That right is the thing that makes the rest of it work. A process you cannot leave is not a process, and a match that needs persuading is not a match.
What the process cannot do
It cannot tell you whether you will like living beside someone in five years. No process can.
What it does is remove the obvious risks early and slow the rest down, so that by the time two households are sitting across a table, both have already chosen to be there. The decision that matters is still yours, and it is still a judgement about people.
For some people this is not the right answer
Buying with another household suits people who want the arrangement, not people who are cornered into it. If you would rather own alone and can, own alone.