UK House Buying Companies – Who is best?

There are some legitimate property buying companies, but unfortunately there’s also a large number of rogue traders masquerading as property buying companies. If you’re considering using a property buying company, it’s important that you research the industry carefully, looking at both company accounts and customer reviews. You can also read our house buying company reviews.

In 2013, in response to a complaint from someone who had a bad experience with a company claiming to be a cash home buyer, the Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets Authority) launched an investigation into the professional home buying industry. They invited 15 directors from home buying companies, including Quick Move Now, to participate in the investigation.

Unfortunately, at the end of the investigation – despite strong recommendations from the directors at Quick Move Now that the industry required formal regulation – the Office of Fair Trading concluded that the industry should remain self-governing.

Disappointed by the investigation’s conclusion, and determined to raise standards within the professional home buying industry, Quick Move Now joined forces with a select group of other home buying companies to create the National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB).

The National Association of Property Buyers sets out a clear code of conduct that it asks member organisations to voluntarily adhere to, but unfortunately it does not have the capacity or authority to monitor the industry.

Different companies that buy houses will have different business models for what they do with the properties they purchase. Some will keep the properties and rent them out, but most will re-sell them on the open market. This means the company takes all the risks associated with how long the property will take to sell on the open market and what price the property will achieve.

Whilst it is a positive sign if the company that you are considering using is signed up to organisations such as the National Association of Property Buyers and The Property Ombudsman, it is important to remember that these are voluntary organisations and are not a substitute for property industry regulation.

It’s vital that you carry out your own independent research to ensure that the company you are considering is a genuine cash home buyer that can deliver on their promises.

There are several places you can look for information about house buying companies.

A company’s website is a good place to get an overview of what they do and how they work. Any sections of the website that talk about the company’s history or introduce you to members of staff will give you a bit more insight into who you’re thinking about working with. Unfortuantely, because the industry isn’t regulated, it’s not as simple as just taking a website at face value. It’s important to dig a little deeper to see whether the claims they make stack up. You can do this by checking their financial credentials on Companies House (a government website that allows you to look up company accounts) and by looking at independent company reviews. If a company claims to be buying a substantial number of properties, they should have an annual turnover of several million pounds. You would also expect the number of customer reviews to reflect the number of properties they’re buying. If a company only has the funds to buy 20 properties a year, you should be suspicious if they’re received hundreds of reviews over the last 12 months.

This isn’t necessarily as straightforward as it seems. Unscrupulous companies have been known to fake positive cash home buyer reviews and pay people to remove any negative ones. It’s important to keep that in mind when reading reviews, both on their own website and on independent review sites such as Feefo, Trustpilot, and Google.

To get an idea of what it might be like to work with the company, you should also look for any patterns in reviews, such as cash offers being reduced just before exchange, sales taking longer than a month (unless requested by the homeowner), and homeowners being tied to any sort of contract (sometimes called an option agreement).

No genuine cash home buying company will charge for their services. Instead, we cover our operating costs by purchasing your property at a discount. You can typically expect to receive 80-85% of market value from any genuine company. Any company offering more than 90% will not be buying your property and should be treated as ‘too good to be true’.

Any genuine company will have company accounts that back up their claims of being able to buy your house directly (which is the only way they will be able to guarantee a quick sale).

You should be looking for an annual turnover of several million pounds and a current balance of more than £1 million. You can find company accounts on the government website, searching either by company name or company number.

Yes, if a company is genuinely buying your house themselves, you should be free to walk away without cost or obligation, any time up to the legal exchange of contracts (the point at which any property sale – whether to a company, via auction or through an estate agent – becomes legally binding).

A genuine company should be able to buy your property and have the money in your bank account in as little as a week.

If you’re looking for a fast house sale, a genuine home buying company should be able to offer you a quick, simple and stress-free house sale.

Step 1: Get in contact and give us some basic information about your property.

Step 2: Once we’ve done some research, we’ll be able to give you an indication of how much we might be able to pay for your property.

Step 3: If you’re happy with the indicative offer, we will ask a local estate agent to do a valuation. Based on that valuation, we will make you a formal offer to buy the property.

Step 4: If you choose to accept the formal offer, we will start the legal process of buying your property and ensure the sale completes on your chosen date.

Estate agents advertise your property to potential buyers. This means they’re not able to offer any guarantees on how quickly your property will sell or how much you’ll achieve for your property. The whole process takes an average of 5-7 months, but can take considerably longer if you are part of a property chain.

A property auction will take place on a specified date, and the process is much quicker than selling via an estate agent. The risk of property auction, however, is that only around 70% of properties that go to auction sell. Those that don’t sell will have been advertised at a low ‘guide price’, which can make it difficult to sell the property via any other method after the auction has taken place.

Selling to a home buying company offers a speed and certainty that can’t be matched by any other method of property sale. In exchange for a quick, guaranteed sale you will achieve less than market value, so it won’t be the right choice for every homeowner, but for those looking for a quick or guaranteed house sale, home buying companies offer a valuable service.

Unfortunately, around 1 in 3 property sales will fall through before completion. If your sale has fallen through or you’re worried about your sale, Quick Move Now could step in and save your onward move.

Our best advice would be to make sure you go to a reputable company.

Unfortunately, there are some companies within the industry who have a bad reputation for reducing their offer just before exchanging contracts. These are usually companies who are acting as brokers, connecting you with a buyer, rather than buying your property themselves.

Check out the companies’ customer reviews and avoid any where customers mention having their offer dropped without good reason.

Company accounts are the key to this. Unless a company has a current balance of more than a million pounds and an annual turnover of £5 million-plus, they’re unlikely to be buying your property themselves.

If they’re not buying it themselves, they’re relying on investors, mortgages or third-party buyers, all of which result in unknown timescales and unpredictable purchase prices.

A genuine company should be able to buy a freehold property around a week after the formal offer has been accepted. Leasehold properties will usually take around 2 weeks. A deposit can be paid when contracts are exchanged, and the remaining funds will be transferred when the sale completes.

Quick Move Now is the UK’s oldest and largest cash home buying company. Established in 1009, the company has bought more than 6,500 properties directly from homeowners, with a combined value of over £1 billion.

Quick Move Now only buy direct. This mens the team are experts in the property buying industry and are able to offer a wealth of support and advice to homeowners considering using a quick house sale company.

Members of The Property Ombudsman and founding members of the National Association of Property Buyers, Quick Move Now have worked tirelessly to improve the property buying industry. We exist to provide a valuable and trustworthy service for homeowners.

As a business, it is impossible for us to pay full market value, but our customers choose Quick Move Now because they believe the guaranteed sale we are uniquely placed to offer is a more attractive option than the hassle and uncertainty that comes with selling on the open market. A genuine property buying company will always pay below market value, in exchange for a no-risk, guaranteed house sale where you are in complete control of the timescales.

You can read genuine customer reviews for Quick Move Now on Trustpilot and Google, or in the review section of our website.