Anyone have experience with iamsold.co.uk?

[spaghettiwest]

We're looking to sell our house and the agent suggested using a service called iamsold.co.uk, which — as far as I can gather — is effectively a bidding website.

The pro is that we wouldn't have to pay any fees to the agent, and the service should create a bidding war.

A potential con is that the (successful) buyer would need to make a "payment of a non-refundable reservation fee of 4.2% to a minimum of £6,000.00 including VAT". Is that going to be off-putting to a lot of potential buyers?

Would love to hear from anyone with experience using iamsold.co.uk.

Sounds like that 'modern method of auction' bollocks. I immediately discount anything being sold in that way; I'm not paying several thousand pounds for the privilege of buying a house, and also you have to exchange and complete to deadlines which is a PITA.

Would put me off immediately. Look at the 1* trustilot reviews and the shirty responses to them from their customer service team

There are also selling fees and they insist on sole selling rights.

Following with interest

I would be put off by this OP and I'm guessing so would a lot of other people, particularly those in a chain.
I used Housesimple (now strike) and sold for full asking in a week and they valued my house quite a bit higher than the local agents. Would that be an option for you? I think the service offered varies across the country but the staff member who did our photos was very professional and it cost us nothing to sell.

I wouldn't use such a service as a buyer.

Thank you all SO MUCH for your input.

This has completely affirmed my iffy feeling about using a service like this —especially as our house isn't particularly expensive, and an extra £6k would be a considerable extra cost to our potential seller.

Thank you for the suggestion @BammBam, however we'll be selling our house from abroad and would feel a bit more at ease with a traditional agent.

Just read some of the reviews as per your suggestion @SquirtleSquad... holy smokes!

Another side - I'm in the process of selling mine with them, but my property needs lots of work - so I know my market was BTL /investors/ house flippers, who are more likely to buy with cash rather than a mortgage. I took into account the fact that the buyer would reduce their maximum bid to account for the fee that had to pay. In my situation, I wasn't losing much by selling for a lower price, as I wasn't paying estate agency fees or paying the mortgage on an empty house for a much longer time compared to using traditional method.

It sold quickly, for much more than I thought it would get. The auction guy I dealt with was great, all the surveys and paperwork etc have been done and signed online. There's a special app they use so you know what's going on. I'm waiting for all the paperwork stuff to go through now, but I'm less stressed about the buyer pulling out, as they've already paid £6k+ in fees. Obviously it's still not guaranteed though!

However, there's a local house on the auction site for £600k starting price - which is probably what it's worth. I have no idea why someone would put a nice, expensive house on an auction site like that. But there are loads of them. And they tend to sit there for ages.....

Hardworking commuting type who likes to smile!

This is from a buyer's perspective.

My sale broke down within a few days of the agreement being struck due to misleading practising of partner agent who told me a whole lot of fibs to get to pay a usurious booking fee of £6k which very quickly unravelled.

Having pointed this out a few days later that what I was buying was very different to what was sold you would expect a refund but no - company hang on very tight to monies paid - very sharp practice bordering on illegal.

1. Property misrepresented - they didn't want to know no refund.
2. Complaint handling is atrocious and company is heavily litigious if they don't get their fee. Even when they acknowledge mistakes they give you a derisory refund and fail to take any responsibility for their part.
3. Do not comply with GDPR and fail to hand over personal data when requested which would prove what fibs were told - phone call recordings is only for them not for you - they refuse to provide it citing GDPR as it may contain personal data of their's apparently?.
4. Apply gagging order to all contracts so you are not able to talk about your case online but I am talking generally about displeasure - Make sure you read Clause 10 2).
5. After losing at bank chargeback, Property Ombudsman they then take you to Court for the fee despite persistent failings being found by two independent bodies.

Use anyone but these sharks please, awful awful awful I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

Madisons Daddy.

Hello Madisons Daddy,

Apologies if I am not reading your post correctly but did you get your deposit money back and if so how?

My son is in the process of buying a property through IamSold auction and was due to be in by April 1st, they are dragging their heels (purchased in February) however on close inspection his solicitor has discovered that some of the property details were incorrect, one being that it is a listed building but stated as unlisted in their information pack therefore he would not be able to improve the property as he had wanted to do.

We have tried desperately to get his deposit money back as feel he has been mis-sold the property. Despite numerous communications by his solicitor and ourselves each request is being ignored so we are completely at a stand still and no idea what to do ☹️

DM Me for further details. In short implement chargeback via your bank and Property Ombudsmen.

AVOID! We are still in the process of selling a probate property and withdrew it from the auction site. You are liable for the iamsold fee FOR THE RESERVE PRICE for 12 months after termination if you sell to anyone who viewed (or is related to anyone who viewed...) during the auction process even though we are probably going to need to drop the price below the reserve... I thought they worked really hard chasing potential buyers BUT if there is no buyer there then selling conventionally would be best (we thought there would be an advantage for buyers securing deal before stamp duty amnesty but then the dates shifted). The property we are selling is c. £240k and buyers at this price point are more sensitive to additional costs...

Steer clear of IAMSOLD if you are a buyer you could end up by payi ng a reservation fee of an additional 4.2% which in my case they wanted £12,180 on top of the offer price

They have the cheek to lie and tell you that the am ou nt will b e refun ded if your house sale falls through this is n ot the case

I’m looking to buy a house I want through them and I feel that what ever I bid will be 6k less than I’m willing to pay. Anybody who has any common sense would be the same. You’d need to have the money ready to go as the deadline is 56 days (when it suits them). It make the homes less likely to be brought to live in and only for investors which will only pay minimum price as there looking to make money not make a home. DO NOT USE.

we specifically wouldn't look at houses using this method. Just brings in another layer of stress and uncertainty

We are currently viewing a house sold by them and personally the fee is putting off, would not want to lose £10k of my money that's for sure. :(

We saw the house only on photos bit really like it...do t want to go through the process though...is there any way around it??

8 Highfield Crescent Barrowford BB9 8QN
I have a property currently on auction with them.
The property at 8 Highfield Crescent, BB9 8QN is currently subject to court divorce proceedings and I have asked the auction company to remove the property from their auction list but they have refused.
Any buyer will lose their deposit of £6000 when the property is withdrawn as the property is subject to a court order and maliciously placed up for auction by my ex partner.
It seems they arent bothered as they keep the deposit regardless of the property being withdrawn.

I am truly disappointed by this company! We went to view the property in January on a Friday, in the afternoon we received a call saying the auction was finishing at 4pm, i spoke with my mortgage broker and agreed to bid, we was then told on the Monday that the auction was to finish that afternoon and that the buyer wouldn’t accept our bid, we negotiated for the price to include the fee and agreed that we would get the fee back at the end of the completion as it was included in the price, we also had a caveat in place on the contract that stated if the mortgage was declined, or the seller wasn’t able to renegotiate on the price if a down valuation was picked up we would get our fee back within 5 working days of the termination date. Unfortunately, the property was found to have a defective lease and on 7 March the mortgage application was declined. We advised I am sold of this to be told that although we had a caveat in place a panel would need to review and decide on if we could get this money back. I spoke with a solicitor who told me this was a beach of contract, but I am sold are still saying this needs to be done. We was advised it would go to the panel on Friday 17 March and we would have a decision back by 23 March, I emailed I am sold the n Thursday 23 March for an update as my solicitor requested this, to be told the case wasn’t reviewed last week and that it would now be reviewed this Friday 24 March, and that we will be informed today of the decision. My solicitor does want to take this further as they are now in serious breach of contact. I will await the call today but won’t hold my breath for the decision, if we don’t get the call I will be taking this to court to get the funds back as it is black and white that we would, today is the 8th working day from the termination date, and as the contract stated we would get a refund within 5th working days of the termination date, again this is a breach of contract. PLEASE Do not go with this company!

In our experience I am sold are preventing a sale. The seller had really poor advice to use them for an expensive beautiful and unique property. Now interest rates are rising the property is losing value. They found us, very serious buyers, after 1 year with Iamsold but we won't deal with Iamsold. I dread to think how long they will wait for another buyer like us

Hi don't bother buyers will just reduce their bid taking into account the fees better for quick sale use fixed fee company locally and reduce the price regards Dave

@Lavlea - did you ever get your money back?

I had a really bad experience with them.
No morals or ethics.
Complete cowboys..stay away