Considering We Buy Any House because you want a quick sale but want to verify their reviews and get the best price possible for your home?
In this new report, our team of experts reviewed 6,388 customer consultations (UK homeowners) over the last year and produced this article to answer all of your burning questions. It reveals the top tactics to get the best price, avoid scams and ultimately ensure your house sale completes when and how you want it.
We let you in on the secrets...
How to get the best offer price
We Buy Any House Reviews checked
Checking if reviews are legitimate
If the original cash offer is not what you were hoping for but you do prefer to use that property company, get more offers from other firms and use those to negotiate, you can even ask and compare other benefits like cash advances. Some sell house fast companies may even give a 'guaranteed cash offer'. These are always worth keeping track of.
Even if this property is ‘the one’, there’s no harm in implying that there’s another property you’re interested in. Estate agents routinely use the ‘there’s lots of interest in this house’ trick to get you to make or up an offer. Telling them you’ve got options is a cheeky way to stop this tactic in its track.
The easiest way is to talk to a couple of local estate agents and ask them a simple question: "If you were to put my house up for sale right now, giving it 4-8 weeks, what price would you be the most confident in achieving that's as close to the asking price as possible?"
The question above encourages agents to give you a more considered estimate of open market value (as opposed to the usual deliberate overvaluation used to impress and win new clients).
Online property companies such as Zoopla and Right Move make it easy to see what similar properties in any area have sold for, and that of those on the market today. The Land Registry website is also a reliable source to search average house prices in any given area.
A quick house sale company won't mind some haggling. Don't forget to negotiate using the terms and benefits other than the selling price.
Things like any reductions to the offer due to essential renovations, cash advances, the exact time of completion, solicitors, even who and when the keys will be handled by!
You maybe chain free or your house has been redecorated, or maybe there is development in your area. If so, be sure to make this information is known to the agent as some vendors might be more open to accepting a house offer lower than the asking price for a hassle-free transaction.
If similar properties in the area have sold for less, this is a valuable bargaining tool.
Not all companies that buy houses are the same. Make sure you look at what different ones can offer.
Don’t sign on the dotted line until you have a final offer in writing. Don’t rush or be pressured into a decision. Furthermore a genuine cash buying company does not need you to sign any documentation upfront and do the surveys first and foremost, thereafter present you with an offer and if accepted instruct solicitors. The only documents you should be signing is the official solicitors paperwork. This way you are protected as solicitors are regulated by the solicitors regulation authority (SRA).
We Buy Any House is a company owned by property professionals and purchase properties across the UK. As their name suggests they buy any home in any condition, with a simple and straightforward service. They are cash buyers that offer a reliable cash buying service with a good set of reviews.
How their quick sale process works:
Answer: According to their website, they offer is up to 90% of the verified market value of a property.
We buy any home are a UK company based in London. They are property professionals with over 30 years of experience in buying houses and claim to be 'the UK's leading cash home buying company'. We buy any homes property buying service states they can purchase your house in as little as 7 days with no hidden costs or legal fees to worry about.
How their quick sale process works:
Answer: According to their website, they offer is up to 80%-90% of the verified market value of a property.
We Buy Any Home are national property buyers who appear to be reliable cash house buyers similar to house buy fast who offer a hassle-free service. They are regulated by both the NAPB (national association of property buyers) & the Property Ombudsman. The majority of their reviews are positive and the customers suggest they usually offer up to 80% of the market value for your property.
Yes thats right, try to only read the low star reviews (1 or 2 out of 5 star ratings) and analyse them for insights into a company's sales process, admin processes, how much they pay & do they knockdown prices or any other issues? Additionally, is the customer service not professional? Do they use dodgy valuations or surprise home sellers with late fees or other charges? This will allow you to really see if we buy any house gets many complaints or problems.
Look for the well-established review badges on the website of a we buy any house company. Are these partner review websites legitimate and well established? Are the reviews verified using an email address and other details? Popular ones include Feefo, Trustpilot, Safeguard and Reviews.co.uk. This will give you an indication as to whether the company offers an honest service & is a genuine cash buyer.
Are the customer reviews spread naturally over the years? A review should be from a customer who has happily sold their house via a quick sale (not just a service review). In the house buyers market there naturally should be fewer reviews as a legitimate company can only buy so many properties each month. If a company is posting many hundreds of reviews over a short time, e.g. within 12 months then you need to ask yourself, are they really buying hundreds of houses for cash every month?
Are the customer reviews actually hosted on the 3rd party review website, not just images or other text on the companies website? Good review websites like feefo.co.uk have a live widget feed from their database showing all of the recent reviews. You can check the stated reviews on a companies website by looking for the company directly on the review partner website itself.
Do they read like a legitimate customer would write? Or are they could be very short or generic and very similar sounding statements made? Are there often many quick short 5 star reviews after a bad review? These are all good ways to spot fake reviews.
Does the company have some well-explained testimonials that show a real picture and other facts about the house sale? If a testimonial is very "professional" and looks too "clean" then it could be a fake testimonial where an actor and professional video creation company was used.
One of the first things you should do as a homeowner is to confirm whether you are dealing with a genuine cash house buyer.
You'd be surprised to find that many so-called quick sale firms are in fact either middlemen, lead generation companies (that sell your details onto legitimate companies), or simply normal estate agents who operate under a false guise and try to sell your house on the open market after they've tricked you into signing a contract to use their house buying service.
Many we buy any house companies often miscalculate the true value of your property resulting in a lower final offer.
An experienced property company will ensure they have good market data and tools to determine the true value of your property - usually asking for extra information which helps them accurately predict what your property is worth.
These firms will tell you things like we buy any house at 100% market value in order to get you on their side.
A common scam or tactic by dodgy companies is where a firm overvalues your property or gives you a cash offer they actually have no intention of paying. Then as completion time approaches they take advantage of your situation and start bombarding you with messages to try and get you to agree to a lesser figure so they can make more money out of the transaction. These types of buying companies cannot offer you a guaranteed sale or sell your house quickly.
They likely are just middlemen and are now trying themselves to sell quickly to true cash home buyers. Don't be surprised if the firm tells you they are lowering their offer because of external factors or market value changes. In almost all cases this is a lie.
Furthermore, a genuine quick sale firm will be able to buy your house within 7-14 days pretty easily. It's very unlikely that any external factor or market change will force them to make a lowball offer in the space of just a fortnight!
It's important to note that legit organisations and misleading firms that pose as cash buyers differ in extra or 'hidden' fees so be sure to confirm what you will be paying for before signing anything.
The hidden costs often come in the form of upfront fees, survey fee's, a legal fee and closing costs. Be vigilant as the 'hidden fee' is not always made clear at the start.
Many quick sale firms claim that they will buy your house in 7 days. This is very much doable but only if they are true cash house buyers.
If the firm cannot meet the deadline they have set (whether that is 7 days, 14 days, or more) then alarm bells should start ringing on your side. It could be that the firm is trying to sell your home on the open market or sell your details onto a real cash buying company
What are option agreements?
They are agreements put into the small print of a contract between you and the buying firm.
One common 'agreement' you should watch out for gives these dodgy firms the right to sell your house via a third party. To avoid this scam read the small print.
If you see something like this, do yourself a favor and find another firm who will buy your property – you're not getting a quick cash sale with them. They do not have the cash funds available to purchase your house quickly.
A firm must be FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) regulated to offer rent back schemes.
If you're looking to sell up and then rent back, remembering this will help you avoid this scam.
This regulation was put in place because many rogue firms in the past would promise sellers that they could stay in their homes for an agreed amount of time after they had sold it, but then after a short while, they would force them out without warning!
There will always be people looking to make a quick buck so we don't foresee we buy any house scams disappearing anytime soon, however, if you're careful and research into a firm thoroughly before selling up, you will have a much better chance at avoiding getting undersold or scammed in any other way.
The points we've provided above will help you get a better price, avoid getting scammed and also give you the confidence to sell your home to a genuine company - when checking reviews ensure you read we buy any house reviews for 2022.
Both an estate agency & house buying companies operate in the property industry but there are a number of differences between high street estate agents and we buy any house companies. Let's take a look at some key stats and fees below:
Commission charged:
High street estate agents: Typically between 0.75% - 3.0% +VAT. We buy any house companies: 0%.
Completion time:
High street estate agents: Average time 3 – 6 months. We buy any house companies: 7-14 days.
Additonal fees:
High street estate agents: Likely to charge for legal fee's, survey fee's etc.
We buy any house companies: A genuine company will not charge you any additional fees.
Ease of sale:
Highstreet estate agents:On average 1/3 of sales fall through selling with a traditional estate agent.
We buy any house companies: More likely to complete due to fewer obstacles such as not having to worry about broken house chains or getting a mortgage as they buy in cash. This will get your property sold fast as these companies only deal in quick property sales..
Pro's
Con's
In 2022, most firms will try to sell on the property. After a sale goes through with a customer, it then falls to the we buy any house company to finance the refurbishment of the property. More often than not the property is left in a poor state so this can cost a large amount.
Once the refurbishment is complete the company will either:
It's possible to sell your house via a quick sale firm even if your home is already on the market but you must ensure that no sole agency agreement was signed.
It's imperative for a homeowner to read all fine print as they could incur fees for canceling a sole agreement and the time in which they're allowed to cancel can vary.
We buy any house firms work by purchasing houses in cash. This allows us to skip many of the steps involved in a house sale if a person was to sell via more traditional methods (for example with estate agents).
This results in the seller receiving both a faster sale and transfer of monies!