Can anyone give me some insight into guaranteed swift house purchase companies?

[stretto]

We receive lots of estate agent letters asking us to sell our flat, but recently received one from a company called saleswift.com
They make an offer within 24 hours, and proceed within a week to completion. They will also cover legal fees, and if you have already engaged an estate agent, they will pay their fee. I think the offer will be lower than on the open market, but it seems like it would cut out an awful lot of hassle, and remove the risk of a broken chain.

Is this all too good to be true?

I rang a similar company when I wanted to sell my last house (i'd moved into dh's house and just wanted it to sell quickly)

They gave me loads of spiel saying they'd complete in a week etc.

But would only pay £5000 over what I owed on the mortgage, so I would have lost several 10's of thousands.

I declined their kind offer

the offer WILL be CONSIDERABLY less than on the open market.

they aren't in the business for their health.

Sure, I know the offer would be significantly lower. But are these companies reliable? Are there horror stories out there about them dropping out or gazundering just before exchange/completion?

They will offer around 25% less and yes there are horror stories because they will appoint their own surveyor.

So do you mean their surveyors can trump up issues which aren't very significant?

More undervalue in the first place so you get even less. If you do decide to just see what they say get your own good estimate of valuation by a few estate agents first.

So would it help to approach a swift sale company and say "these estate agents have valued it at £x, how close can you come to that?" rather than just letting them come up with a figure?

My house was on the market and I knew what it was worth due to similar houses for sale.
But they still said they'd only pay 5k over the mortgage amount.

They then hounded me with phone calls, leaving messages saying that they knew my house still hadn't sold blah blah...

OK, thanks!