Experience- 'We buy any house'

[Kate9423]

Has anyone got first hand experience of using one of these companies?

Looking for genuine experience

I haven't, but imagine they will be looking to move fast, pay cash and will pay much under market value for the convenience of a fast cash transaction.

I wouldn't, unless you're in a massive hurry, even then I still wouldn't

Everyone assumes with these places, so I'm looking for first hand experience. Thanks for replying though!

i am not much help either but just to say I rang one once ( but was a good while back), and they wanted money to come round and value the house or list it. Think they said you get it back if it sells but at that point you would have no idea how much they were going to value it! Amount wasn’t insignificant.

If you do some digging online you'll see that their main revenue stram is what they charge for coming round to give you a quote. The offers are about 50% market value so most people abandon the idea at that point and lose the money paid for the survey.

We rang one out of curiosity when putting our house to market, we told them how much EAs had valued the property and they were honest that their offer would likely be significantly less than this.

Yes there was a house in our family sold in this way. It was a difficult time in Covid. House was on the market for 265k and they offered 235k which was taken as there was a time issue with probate etc.

I would not bother with them - unless you’re in desperate need to sell your house quickly (divorce etc) and happy to cut your losses or if your house has been on the market for a while and not shifting…

The pro is that the house will be sold imminently but the con is that you will probably get no where near the actual valuation.

My friend did this back in around 2014 - she had gone through a divorce and wanted to cut ties with EXH due to abuse. It was valued at £260k by an estate agent, WBAH purchased it for £200k and re-sold it 6 months later for £280k having done absolutely no work to it..
Left a sour taste in her mouth as much as she needed to get out of that situation.

I looked into this about 18 years ago when our sale fell through at the last minute. From memory, they would have given us about 65% of the market value . In the end we went straight back on the market and sold about 10 days later for the market value.

When I was desperate to sell I contacted one and I was insulted. They offered me half my asking price.

Don't do it.

That was my conclusion as well. I would pay them then get an awfully low quote.

@good96 they're not a charity.

I would imagine they buy a lot of houses and flats that are very hard to get a mortgage for such as prefabs or houses that need complete renovation or have a stigma attached to them . I would imagine they spend the bare amount to make them habitable and then rent them out .

Definitely looking for first hand experience rather than what people imagine goes on .....

Thanks though for the replies

The properties they buy are from the desperate or people with property they haven't a cat in hells chance or would struggle to sell on the open market. They won't pay market value . If they did everyone would use them . It's plain common sense .

Not really. I'm not desperate and my property could sell on the open market. The market is appalling these days with chains etc so your comment isn't accurate.

I don't know what you want people to tell you.

You will get far below market value for your home. Thats a given. You don't need people with firsts hand experience to tell you that.

If there is an issue with your house making it difficult to sell, or you need to sell urgently, then go ahead.

But it's a given you will not get market value for it. They are a business, they are not a charity.

If you are not desperate and your house could sell on the open market then I don't understand why you would.

Unless you have so much money that you don't mind losing a huge percentage on the sale of your home.

There's so many assumptions and opinions without having first hand experience.

People may have used them before and recommend a particular company or found that if they approached at a certain time of year etc they were offered slightly more or even just knowing how their process was.

Not sure your opinion on whether I'm desperate, have too much money or am just insane is overly worth anything but thanks....

I spoke to one when I was needing to sell my potentially subsiding house and he advised me to auction it instead - which I did and got a fair price. If you need or want to sell quickly, I'd look at auction first.

My neighbours sold to one of these for £140k in July. It came on the market the week they moved out, with no work done to change or improve it beyond emptying the contents into a skip. Initially it was on for £180k, now it's £165k. IMO the £140 was the right price.

It's got a water leak through the entire house which is dripping out the front window with collapsed ceilings and walls. These houses sell for £200k ish intact.

That place needs a new roof, all new internal walls, ceilings and floorboards due to water damage, a full electrical and plumbing replacement including boiler and all new windows.

The problem I see is that it's affecting the prices of other homes in the street.

Auction is always a better option.

Tbf, the three examples on here from people who've actually used them/known people who've used them, aren't the massive rip-offs I was anticipating. Getting 200k instead of 260k or 140k instead of 180k is better than expected and not bad for a guaranteed sale straightaway instead of the hell of chains, uncertainty etc. Course OP can go for the open market, but makes sense to at least ask the question here and she's clear what she's looking for - first-hand testimonies. Which mine isn't, so sorry about that, but still been an interesting thread!

I bought from one. They had bought for waaaay below market value. It was on the market for a while priced too high. After a number of months they dropped the price significantly which is where I bought. They still made a large sum but had capital tied up for months and their buying and selling costs. I think it was sad the previous owner had sold for so little. She was a vulnerable old lady.

Property was 'sold as seen' to me. It basically had a house clearance company empty it and there were no instructions, warranties or anything beyond the deeds. They hadn't paid the utilities when they owned.

To add: the low ball offer the company paid was about 80k which was about a quarter of the market value at the time.

We had a letter from national homebuyers yesterday effectively offering to buy our flat (which is actually sold). I assume they'd pay nowhere near the asking price