Who are Goodmove
Goodmove (or ‘Good Move’ as they refer to themselves on their website) are a Leeds-based home-buying company. They claim to be able to buy your property in as little as 7 days.
What services do Goodmove provide?
Goodmove say they will do their best to buy your property directly, but if they are unable to do so, they will try to find someone who can buy it. This suggests that they do buy some properties directly but also offer a broker or estate agency service.
What is the buying process for Goodmove?
Goodmove’s buying process is very similar to other property buying companies
Step 1: After you’ve entered your postcode on their website, Goodmove will contact you to gather some basic information about your property.
Step 2: Goodmove will do some research and come back to you with an offer ‘in principle’. They aim to provide this initial offer within 24 hours.
Step 3: If you agree to the ‘in principle’ offer, they will get your property assessed. After this assessment, they will present you with a formal offer.
Step 4: If you accept the formal offer, the legal process will begin. Goodmove do make it clear on their website that if a property survey identifies anything that would impact the value of the property, they may have to amend their formal offer or withdraw from the sale.
How much below market value do Goodmove offer?
Goodmove’s website says they will pay up to 85% of market value.
Pros & Cons of Goodmove
Goodmove - Positives
- UK-based company
- Members of The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB)
- Company accounts suggest that Goodmove does buy some properties directly
Goodmove - Negatives
- Goodmove talk about being ‘regulated property buyers’ – this is misleading. Despite Quick Move Now’s best efforts, the quick house sale industry remains unregulated . Goodmove may be regulated for other services they offer, but the quick house sale aspect of their business is not covered by any sort of regulation.
- Some very worrying customer reviews suggest Goodmove bribe customers to remove negative comments. One customer mentioned being offered £350 to remove their negative review from Trustpilot. This is against Trustpilot’s rules and means Goodmove’s positive score on Trustpilot may not be considered trustworthy.
- Customer reviews make it clear that, in some circumstances, Goodmove is acting as a broker or estate agent. You should exercise caution if you choose this route. Whilst a cash investor may be able to offer a quicker sale, there are no guarantees of this – as evidenced in the customer review quotes included above. Opting for a ‘quick sale’ through this type of company, but not selling to the company directly, often means accepting less than market value but with none of the guarantees offered by a genuine direct cash buying service.
Is Goodmove legit? - Our verdict
Goodmove are members of the NAPB and TPO, which is a good sign. The financial accounts for their parent company indicate that they buy at least some houses directly, but reviews and their own website suggest they act as a broker or estate agent for other properties. As we’ve already mentioned, your property being sold to a third-party (investor or buyer on the open market) means you will have no certainty around timescales or what price you’ll achieve from the sale. This eliminates any of the benefits of using a quick house sale company.
Another area of concern is the alleged censoring of customer reviews. Goodmove obviously care deeply about their reputation, but censoring reviews would mean they are preventing homeowners from getting a realistic idea of previous customers’ experiences.
Caution should also be exercised around Goodmove’s claims of being ‘regulated property buyers’. Despite Quick Move Now’s best efforts, the quick house sale industry remains unregulated. Goodmove have signed up to some voluntary industry organisations, but that does not make them regulated for that service. Any regulation relates to other services offered by the company eg. estate agency services and property surveying.
Are Goodmove any good?
Goodmove’s parent company are in a strong financial position and clearly do buy and sell some properties.
The biggest concern with Goodmove is around honesty and integrity. If the claims of offering ‘bribes’ for the removal of any negative customer reviews are true, they – along with using misleading language about being a regulated quick house buying company – should raise alarm bells for any homeowners considering using their service.
Avoid. Reduce the offer to a ridiculous level just before completion. People are not stupid.Dishonest and waste your time
Feel bad about this deal. GoodMove offered £80K, then reduced the offer to £60K after the survey. They said it was due to the cost to renovate the property, which seems like a fair reason.
On the day of signing, they were legally required to disclose that they weren’t buying and renovating the property, it was being sold to someone else for £80K.
This made me feel like I got a bad deal, because they were making such a high profit margin and had lied during the sale.
I managed to get them up a little bit, but still annoyed enough to write this review.
Everything else was great. Professional. Quick. Efficient.
Bottom line. Nobody should walk away from a business deal feeling like they’re the loser.
Always keeping in touch when I needed reassurance or answers to my questions. I always knew the offer would be much lower than market value but the process was clear and easier for me to deal with when I was feeling overwhelmed, than to tackle myself independently. Dealing with 2 separate solicitor firms, 1 for Probate ,1 for Sale of property, had little continuity but both firms were excellent.
The sale completed quickly after that, and I was satisfied with the whole process. Thank you
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Goodmove customer reviews
Goodmove Reviews Trustpilot
Trustpilot Score: 4.8 / 5
Several reviews mention being ‘bribed’ by the company to remove any negative reviews or edit comments. This creates doubt about whether the Goodmove’s high score should be trusted.
Reviews also mention Goodmove marketing properties to investors and open market buyers. This means that, in at least some cases, Goodmove is acting as a broker or estate agent. If Goodmove isn’t buying your property with their own cash funds, they’re unable to offer homeowners any guarantees on either price or completion timescales.
The benefits of using a quick house sale company are the speed and certainty they offer. If the company isn’t buying your property directly, they’re unable to offer either of those benefits. A cash investor may be able to buy your house more quickly a mortgaged buyer on the open market, but there are no guarantees.
When we first looked at Goodmove’s Trustpilot reviews in January 2024, they had responded to 50 negative reviews left in the previous 12 months. When we went back to update this page, we found most of those 50 reviews had disappeared. Goodmove now have just 17 reviews rated 3-star or less, some of them dating back as far as 2019. It’s unclear whether the negative reviews have been removed by the original posters or whether customers have updated their reviews to give Goodmove a higher star rating. As mentioned above, some reviews have mentioned being offered vouchers to remove negative reviews.
Goodmove Reviews Google
Google Score: 4.7 / 5
Similar to the Trustpilot reviews, the positive reviews are very complimentary about helpful members of staff, but due to reports of reviews being censored or filtered, some prospective customers may question how accurate this score is.
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Compare Goodmove with Quick Move Now
| Quick Move Now | Goodmove | |
|---|---|---|
| Established since | 1998 | 2015 |
| Annual turnover | £20.3 million | Goodmove’s parent company – ARN Capital – has an annual turnover of £24.7 million. It’s unclear how much of this came from Goodmove. |
| Members of any professional associations or redress schemes? | Yes, Quick Move Now are members of The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and the National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB) | Yes, Goodmove are members of The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and the National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB). The also talk about being monitored by RICS, but this is only relevant to their in-house surveyors. Any reputable company should be using RICS surveyors to assess your property. |
| Is the company registration number available on the website? | Yes | Yes |
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Frequently Asked Questions About Goodmove
GoodMove’s website suggests that you can expect to receive offers around 15% below market value.
Any genuine cash home buyer will apply around a 15-20% discount to market value.
GoodMove say that their original offer in principle is based on the information you provide about your property and their own online research. If you decide to move forward, they will arrange for either an estate agent or RICS chartered surveyor.
There don’t appear to be any fees or hidden costs when selling a house to GoodMove.
GoodMove’s website suggests that they will cover your legal fees if you choose to use their recommended solicitor. If you want to use your own solicitor, GoodMove say they will pay £500 towards your legal costs.
If GoodMove is buying your property directly, they claim they can complete an average fast house sale in 3 weeks. In certain circumstances, they say they may be able to buy properties in as little as a week.
There is little information on how long you can expect the house-selling process to take if GoodMove act as an intermediary and try to find you a third-party buyer (investor or buyer on the open market).
Our research would suggest that GoodMove act as both. It seems they do buy some properties directly, but their customer reviews and Rightmove property listings indicate that they also advertise a large number of properties on the open market.
GoodMove are voluntary members of The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and the National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB), but the property buying industry is unregulated. Any property buying company that claims to be regulated is misleading you.