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.

I Am sold will mislead and make promises they won’t honour to extract what they call a “non refundable reservation fee” their words and not tested in court. Once paid all promises and assurances will fall away or unless documented will be denied. No effort will be made to assist as if exchange doesn’t take place they will pocket the fee. Legal documents that were not in the pack will appear, issues on title will appear and you will be met you should have carried out due diligence. Be warned your money is at risk. As for sellers why would they use, when it isn’t free it is a reduced sale price without any binding sale like a traditional auction. The review they claim is no way independent and carried out by staff expect the expected outcome….

Bunch of robbing rogues, how on earth they dupe sellers to use them is bizarre as clearly any offers will take in to account the outrageous 4.5% non refundable fee from the purchaser that iamsold keep regardless if sale goes through. Most good switched on buyers would steer clear. Sounds a great on paper but in reality it's unethical, especially as there is no incentive to chase sale through as they have already received a huge fee in advance. Medway Law is part of Iamsold and are incompetent to a point that they cause sales to fall through and cycle repeats with iamsold generating another huge fee at the poor expense of the seller who keeps having to remarket through them again due to watertight and probably unfair legal sole selling contracts. Be very careful if you are thinking of buying through Iamsold especially if you are not clued up on the process, they are only interested in their up front fee and you stand a good chance of losing thousands.

Thank you for replying
In my situation they work with the Estate Agent
I don't know what the Commission Split is
between I am Sold and Stratton & Creber
Stratton advertised it as a house that needs updating
Two Surveyors quote £200,000 for works and not habitable
I am Sold sent from their layers it is not Grade 2 when it was (They changed this when informed by me via Conservation)
I had to pull out
i did not sign any contract re the confusion with the auction
They have £10,000 of my money and say I cant have it back
And immediately re auction it
Fantastic Scam to have Solicitors being part of the Auction
I was pressurised with constant calls from I am sold
And given miss information through the process

It is auction site, and a disgusting way to buy property. It can have a multitude wrong with it, I think there should be a law to sellers and auctioneers of properties, That they should supply along with the legal pack which the buyer has to pay for! That they must also supply a full RICS survey report class 2 or class 3 structual survey. It is suggested that you buy with your own dilegence, the legal pack has searches included but no survey! So you as a buyer might be interested but need to pay at least £500 on top of the price before making a bid the buyer is expected to possibly pay for every property survey amounting to many of£1000s Just for looking when the survey will probably prevent your wish to bid. Yet the seller who is selling rubbish property pays nothing!!! it could have subsidence or need roofing or have rot everywhere!!! This would also stop over bidding and estate agents causing inflated prices to property when inflation doesn't exist, as many houses on their books are also in need of repair but advertised supposedly valued which most do not do instead they just give an area price expectancy causing a market of poor maintained property over priced. Agents recommend auction as its easy money for them they have no selling to do or they can't sell a property in such bad condition so put it to auction, The guide prices are often exceeded on a half decent property but when the buyer realises the cost of repairs are making it a very expensive way to buy You add £6,600 to your winning bid or more? then you pay for the legal pack £300 plus your legal representative around £6,000 only to find you now have a substandard property that 1/is probably not mortgageable 2/is not accepted by building insurance if its been reported with subsidence and to put it in order can cost you over £50,000 on top. You have no come back on the seller, the agent gets paid from your £6,600 for doing nothing but photos and viewings which they've probably had for over a year as it's not sold, So really auctions are places for the idiot that wants to pay more than the last bidder, A bit sick really isn't it! and the seller gets the money from the biggest idiot, There should be a law preventing this way of sale unless all costs are brought back to the seller for not being openly up front and providing truthful report of property condition at no cost to the unsuspecting buyer

bluejay6, Little did you realise you accepted their terms and conditions before you made any bids! It is a con but they cover their selves, the loser is the buyer, it needs some change of laws to how they can sell

Just bought a house this way. The numbers worked well for me but 4.2% is a hefty auction fee so sellers discounted accordingly

Don't go there. They misrepresent, smoke-screen, gas-light, fake signatures, and lie. It's a web where everyone blames everyone else and no-one is accountable.
To do business with IAMSOLD is like swimming across a bay full of sharks. You might make it through, but the chance that you won't is just too high.
This warning is espcially true for buyers (the ones investing), as they make you sign away most of your rights from the start, with tight deadlines, leaving leeway for themselves to extend completion dates indefinitely, to misrepresent the property, and to relist it when all is said and done.
Because it completion fails, they will always deem it your fault and make you sue them to prove otherwise.
The road to hell is paved with property scammers and their agents.

May I asked how you got on? Did you sell your house to a completely new buyer?

I have never used them. I am just aware of their reputation and occasionally help people out with links to reviews when questions about the method/company pop up.

Do not use this company!! They are con merchants. I lost £6300 through no fault of my own but

I was thinking to buy via this method because there is less competition than traditional auctions. But the 4.5% fee is ridiculous and the fact that the fee + the property price is used for stamp duty calculations.

They also having starting / reserve prices that are too high, so by the time you pay the fees & the stamp duty, you've gone over the market value for the property.

I don't understand how they are still operating, I've seen loads of properties just sit still on the site with no bids

I list £6300 due to no fault. Dreadful unethical company. Stay clear!!!

Stay clear! Dreadful unethical company. Lost £6300 due to their lies

We have a buyer for our home who is currently trying to sell their property with iamsold as their original buyer backed out last minute and so they will re offer to us once they get sold (if they get what they want)...I'm concerned about whether this company sees much through and if we are going to be lead on a merry path for it all to fall through again. Sadly we don't have any other offers and are keen on another property so we feel a little trapped in having to accept. Anyone have any experience of being in the chain of a property dealing with this company?

the problems with Iamsold, is that most property doesn't sell by private treaty because it has faults, like no deeds / subsidence / extensions without planning or notifying the council so you now receive a higher Tax band or even anorder to remove the extensionetc, most of the information is not true sellers tell lies to get it sold like its had subsidence and insurance claimed for then filling TA legal forms say its not had subsidence! You have no way to have surveys unless you like paying out over £500 for every property you you see if interest to be told by a survey of the problems I mention above. Most have a guide price or start price far higher than they are worth. Sellers should be legally bound to provide a proven structural survey at very least. They should also realistically realise that by not paying anything to sell, that the buyer receives their charges and Iamsold charges which usually amount to £10,000 or more to be added on the final bid ( the higher the bid the more charges) from a minimum of £6,600 @ 4.8% ? Making the property more expensive and a risk that you will lose all your money. You complete the digital forms to bid giving iamsold full access to your money if you are idiot enough to pay more than anyone else would pay because you wanted it so much? It's all very quick to get your money completion in 28 to 56days if anything gore's wrong you start paying penalties. Even private treaty property for sale by estate agents is escalating in price, most is over valued by incompetent agents not RICS registered! A lot of property is not to a livable standard but people are out to get rich on rubbish, non Standard construction is difficult to mortgage, so tiled roof and brick cavity walls is standard any different is not standard, so timber framed, and single extensions are classed as NSC this includes new houses that developers arrange everything you need to get into debt! I FACT ITS ABOUT TIME THAT LAWS IN UK WERE UPDATED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM PROPETY ROUGUES

Do not use this company.
If I could give zero stars I would.
Numerous different advisors and all useless. Cost me thousands of pounds, sale fell through, they kept the deposit from the buyer and then no-one knew the complaints process.
I was told that I couldn’t re-list the property and admitted their mistake but still kept the buyers deposit rather than do the decent thing and share it. Worst experience with a company in my 48yr existence. Be warned, do not use

When you go back and check their terms and conditions, they are actually absurd. Disclaimers about just about everything (and also one to factor in anything that they might not have mentioned).
I Am Sold exploits its position between agent, seller, and buyer, in order to push blame and liability on everyone but themselves. Within this, they take a hefty "registration fee" which they reserve the right to pocket, regardless of whether the sale goes on. Their complaints procedure is complex, dense and has three stages (why?). The property Ombudsman rarely rules against them, if complaints ever reach there.
In our case there was deep fraud and misrepresentation of the property in multiple ways (for example undisclosed changes made to a listed building and even problems with the deeds - the owner had a different name). This prevented any sale occuring at all. After that, the same bidder from a year previously reappeared on the auction relisting, together with our bid - in order to to force the price up again. It was only when we reacted in horror to this abuse that they erased this online fraud.
The problem is with such giant companies is that to really move against them, a class action suit is needed. If anyone is up for this, we'll join.

This is a factual account of my experience attempting to buy a property with iamsold.

I viewed a house in Girton, Cambridge - starting bid on iamsold website of £675,000. It was exactly what I was looking for and with the property valued at £720,00 seemed like a bargain.

It was being sold by iamsold modern auction which adds a reservation fee price of 4.5% (equates to 5% when factoring additional stamp duty) ON TOP of any accepted price.

It transpired that the £675K was actually a meaningless low price, created to disguise an undisclosed reserve, closer to any price that would be accepted by the vendor. The assumption was that the low opening bid price was simply bait to lure prospective buyers into a frenzy of online bidding in the expectation of bids exceeding the reserve and well beyond the imaginary opening bid price.

I decided to try to by-pass the auction process and make a direct offer, via the estate agent Tucker Gardner, to the vendor, offering £720,000 on condition that the sale did not involve iamsold and their fees. The sale would be clean and simple. I offer what the vendor wanted, the vendor would receive the amount they wanted.

Unfortunately, if my offer was accepted, iamsold would still demand the full fee. There were now 3 options:

1. With iamsold fees included, I would need to pay £756,000 for a property worth £720,000.

or

1. The vendor would need to accept an offer of £685,000 for their £720,000 house.

or

1. Wait for the auction to run its course to watch the bids.

So, over the months, I watched the property on the iamsold website.

AUCTION 1 - a total disaster. Not a single bid.
After the failed auction, the house was back for a second round.

AUCTION ROUND 2 - a total disaster. Not a single bid.
After the failed auction, the house was back for a third round.

AUCTION ROUND 3 - a total disaster. Not a single bid.

After the third failed auction, it was obvious to Tucker Gardner and iamsold that the process had been a total waste of everyone's time, so the house was eventually put on the open market away from iamsold.

You may think that the abject failure of the iamsold process would now allow me to proceed with the sale both myself and the vendor wanted. After all, Iamsold had their chance to find a buyer and been a total failure. Unfortunately, the Iamsold tentacles reach beyond the auction. They have a clause forbidding any person who had previously viewed the property from buying the property without paying the iamsold premium for a period of 6 months!

So, who are the winners in this operation:

THE VENDOR LOSES as any offers will need to be greatly reduced to compensate for the massive iamsold reservation fee the buyer must pay. The problem is compounded by the avalanche of online negative reviews and feedback, discouraging many buyers from even looking at auction properties.
Three months on, the house remains unsold and has been reduced to £700K.

THE BUYER LOSES out as they will need to find at least 4.5% + extra stamp duty on top of any bid.

THE ESTATE AGENT can win should the property sell by earning around double the usual 1% commission.

Iamsold can win. They earn 4.5% to share with the estate agent on the occasion a property actually sells.

Auctions play an extremely important role for the disposal of troublesome properties (subsidence, flood damage, historic neglect etc) where investors and renovators bid on low cost structures. However, why submit a good solid house to auction? Good properties find good buyers - there is no need to pay more than 1% commission and most certainly no necessity for using a process designed for quick disposal of derelict buildings.

Final comments:

• 2 months later the house is still unsold - the vendor has lost out and I (the seller) has lost out. I am looking for an alternative property and ensuring any searches exclude AUCTION PROPERTIES.
• Be aware, not all positive reviews are genuine.
• Estate Agents should think carefully about their reputation. As auction sales fail there will be increasing negative feedback for the company.

Interesting to read your account @ofum999. I never went ahead with a transaction with iamsold, having reached similar conclusions after a viewing that came attached to so many T&Cs that I was worried for a moment I might have to give away my firstborn. I ended up completely priced out of a whole geographical area because a particular estate agent who had got into bed with them more or less had a stranglehold on the local market. I wrote them a long and considered email at the time, explaining how this relationship looked to the average housebuyer and suggesting (politely) that they might want to consider their long-term reputation. In fairness to them, they did reply, also politely, but were absolutely fixed in their view that iamsold were fabulous and the answer to all our prayers. For a long while, it seemed as though they were persuading every seller in the area to do an iamsold auction, but I notice lately that that's stopped even though the local market hasn't changed much and is still very flaccid, so I guess they reached the same conclusions themselves eventually. Either that or there's been a particular, very bruising transaction that altered the balance for them. I ended up buying in a completely different area and I'm very happy with my choice, but it was terribly frustrating at the time.

I’m confident that would put off 95% of buyers.

I’ve seen these properties up for sale and won’t touch them myself.

Good idea. Housesimple/Strike has a terrible reputation.

Iamsold, once it has been passed from estate agent or seller to Iamsold, even after failed to sell by auction, the prospective buyer has to pay auction and agents fees! Be aware that if you look careful at property in Iamsold or any other auction is usually faulty With either title deeds or subsidence or other. Estate agents normally advise seller to put into auction because the property will fail completion by private treaty, All property by auction has a guide price which is a spratt to catch mackerel, they know full well that that a low guide price is either a demolition job or /and it will will attract punters to find the biggest idiot prepared to pay too much plus almost £10,000 on top for fees, other guide prices are put by sellers or dreamers asking too much for rubbish property often will not get a single bid. The state of the country with too many immigrants, Other countries at war and World economics. The poor and over priced standard of new builds which according to mortgage surveys having timber frames etc are really built NON STANDARD CONSTRUCTION. Estate agents enjoying over pricing for their commissions, Every house for sale is over priced by a minimum of £40,000 most require major work to upgrade them many are over 100 years old with crumbling bricks and mortar turned to sand, rotton timbers in roofs and joists etc There should be a law against people buying to let on a mortgage if there is such a house shortage to stop them capitalising from young couples that are trying to buy but with B of E rates sure to rise and increase mortgage rates and job futures, The government is bluffing to make it's money and putting you into debts you can't afford house buying will soon make a negative turn. They're needed for a home not to keep making extortionate profits so it is now ending

rather harsh
out of 3,911 reviews 77% gave them 5 stars and 8% gave them 4 stars
"only" 13% gave them 1 star

I think that is a big enough sample tested to conclude they are, for most people, great but when bad, they bad. Hardly anything in the middle is precisely why I don't regard these "trust" websites as indicative of anything, too swayed by emotive / extreme responses, good or bad.

Every 1 reviews on Trustpilot for iamsold is followed by a deluge of seriously suspect 5 reviews:

Ruth Phillips worked hard...
Alex Finch my Completions Specialist was lovely...
Many thanks Suzanne for your support...
Ruth Philips was brilliant!...
5 stars for Nadine...
kept us in the loop throughout...
helped me on any questions I had...
Kept me super informed throughout...
helped us navigate the sales process...
Staff really polite and professional, kept us in the loop throughout ...
on and on and on - all the same. Typical ai fake reviews.

There are so many negative comments for iamsold stating terrible service and confusing T&Cs, how better to counter bad comments with fake positive reviews to the contrary.

I always say, want the truth? Ignore 4 and 5 star reviews. Look at the 1 and 2 stars for the truth.