Has anyone sold their house to the ‘we buy any house’ type businesses

[Goinggrey88]

We are on the market. It’s a bungalow, we have had lots of interest, but the people that are interested haven’t sold their house, there are 4 potential buyers who want it. We want to sell as we have seen a house that we really want. I know it’s the wrong time of year. We have received several letters from
various ‘we will buy your house in 7 days’.

Has anyone ever sold their house through one of these companies, how much lower did you get from your valuation? Was it easy?

Another question. Is it worth changing estate agents? Again several letters from estate agents, one has written to us 7 times in 4 weeks.

Thank you.

I haven't but I came close to using a firm. But they won't offer you very much.

I've changed EAs and that's how I got my last house sold along with a significant price reduction.

You need a lot of traffic, proceedable buyers and a good campaign. As long as the price is right it should sell.

They will rip you off. You will pay a heavy price for the 'convenience' of selling to them and they will knock you down to a rock bottom price. The same as the car versions of the business. That's their business model. They usually buy difficult to sell properties from sellers with little or no other option. If you have buyers falling over themselves to buy your house, please consider going with them.

Avoid Springbok. I dont know about whether they will buy any property but they guarantee a fast sale. They were a nightmare

Perhaps you should tell your estate agents that you need a cash buyer? A buyer who needs a mortgage might be OK too if they have nothing to sell.

About 30% below market value. Some firms are better than others, you need to do due diligence.

Personal expereince have a look atQuick Move Now, but expect a value of 75-80ish % . If you are getting a lot of interest then I'd try and stick it out.

Never used them but have family who have. They will offer you a lower than market amount, you'll accept on the grounds it will sell quickly. Then they will continue to find faults and knock it down more close or gets to completing knowing most people are desperate and will still accept.

I have another family member who works in conveyancing they said it's not uncommon for them to end up paying significantly below market value once done. One recently offered 280k on a property that was estimated to make around 350k. In the end they sold for well under 200k. Family were backed into a corner.

Of course you can pull out, but they push and prey on people who are desperate.

It's all in the small print. If you ask them to make an offer, go through the contract with a fine tooth comb. Their normal practice is to reduce their offer considerably and you then discover that you have signed a contract with a clause which allows them to do this. If you pull out there is a large fee payable.

I would not bother changing agents. If you are getting offers they must be doing a reasonable job. Check the details thoroughly though. And also check how it's marketed on Rightmove. My friends detached house was on RM but if you put 'detached' as a filter, hers did not come up. Check all the filters are correct for your house.

Not the same but we looked at a new build part exchange and they offered us 13% below what it was valued at. I would imagine it’s similar or worse as they want to sell on your house for a profit.

As for changing estate agents check your contract sometimes they have clauses

A friend of mine did. He had awful neighbours and couldn’t stand life next door to them any longer. He’d have accepted virtually anything to get away and said it saved his sanity. Apparently it was bought by someone who had a lot of buy to let’s in the area and they rented it out to a family who gave the neighbours hell, so he felt it was karma.

Why not put it up for auction?

Our neighbour tried this after 2 sales fell through. She agreed a price with a National company for well below the previous offers.
On the day of exchange they dropped the price by another £8,000! She backed out and sold to some lovely FTBs and all went smoothly.

I think you also have to pay your EA commission as the we buy any house company have only found it because you are on the market with the EA so a double whammy!

They offer very low
Change agent instead - i am in the midst of selling/buying right now. Some agents actively market. Some sit on it and do nothing if it doesn't sell itself on rightmove.
I'm registered with tons of agents to buy. Only 2 of them ever email me a property i might like. They are the agents you want to sell with
Also some won't show your property unless viewers are "proceedable" ie under offer which is just bonkers. I had rows with agents sbout this who wouldnt show me a property cos I wasn't under offer. Wtaf, i could have had an offer the next dat

Thank you. We are close to the end of the clause that states they can be the only EA.

In desperation i contacted one and they offer 30-40% of market value so i would have taken a huge loss and not covered outstanding mortgage.

We stayed another few years & decided just to go on the market and see (in an area and style of house that never seemed to sell well) & we ended up doing a part exchange on a new build in the end.

it depends how desperate you are to leave and what hit you can afford to take

Love a bit of Karma.

We can’t really afford to take a hit. We are downsizing to a new home which is more or less what we want to sell for. I’ll have to hold out I think.

I think we will have a chat with estate agent and look to change them. It doesn’t help he told me he expected it to sell within four weeks. 😩

Unless you are desperate don’t do it. They will knock a large percentage off to start with and just before exchange knock more off again. Not worth it at all.

We have potential buyers but they still have property to sell so no one is ready to buy it.

ill have to be patient. Thank you for commenting.

We kept receiving letters like that when we were selling. They claimed in the letters they would likely offer certain amounts that were only a bit below what we were asking for (190,000 instead of 200,000), the reality was an offer of 125,000, so we didn’t use them. I’ve spoken to others who say they often drop the offer significantly again at the point you are ready to sign. They are like the loan sharks of house selling I think - only use if you are desperate, and even then, don’t!

Your EA needs to stop viewings by those that are not proceedable.

I haven't, but if it's anything like the car version then they'll not offer you anywhere near what it's worth. Unless you're desperate I wouldn't even consider it

Hi. Thank you. That’s the kind of letters. The minimum they said was 409 which is only a few thousand under the ‘ offers over ‘ price . I think I’ve heard enough. We will hold out. I’m just very impatient, I spent three weeks throwing half our life away thinking we would be moved soon. 🤣. Oh well we are ready when it finally happens. Thank you to everyone who responded.