I get a letter at least 2X a month, offering me fast closing and a cash offer of about 30-40% of value. I figure it's a whole lot like the roofing scam where they drive up and knock on the door looking for an elderly widow to answer and write them a check for the materials because her roof is in such bad shape and then she won't pay for the labor until the job is complete, and they never come back. All it takes is one bite on every couple hundred attempts to make a killing, that's why it's so prevalent. Most of us look at this stuff and say "who would fall for this crap?" But there's plenty out there that do or these people wouldn't spend so much time on it. As for the land deal, it would likely stand up in court as I'm sure it goes through a legal closing and deed transfer, they're just preying on that letter or call reaching someone that is hard up for cash and has been sitting on inherited land for awhile and never thought much about it, especially if it's non-farm land and they're not getting any income from it, might find the right person who wants to stop paying property tax on it and put a little cash in their pocket and looks at it as just good fortune someone wants to buy their land with no hassle. They don't know it's at 30% value, and they take the money. Legal, yes. Ethical, hell no, but when does that stop people these days?