Who are The Property Buying Company
The Property Buying Company are a Yorkshire-based business that claim to be able to buy any house using their cash house buying facility.
What services do The Property Buying Company provide?
The Property Buying Company say they will buy your property in an average of 2-3 weeks at no cost to you.
What is the buying process for The Property Buying Company?
The company website outlines a 3-step buying process.
Step 1: You will be asked to submit an enquiry form that contains some basic information about you and your property.
Step 2: Their website says someone from The Property Buying Company will contact you within 24 hours with a free, no-obligation cash offer. Once you accept the offer, one of their regional managers will visit the property and gather some more information. After this you will receive a formalised offer.
Step 3: The Property Buying Company’s progression team will then ask you to instruct an independent solicitor to act on your behalf. They say they will cover your legal fees and searches, and arrange a professional valuation of your property. After legal work has been collected and valuations completed, you will progress to exchange and sale completion.
How much below market value do The Property Buying Company offer?
The Property Buying Company’s website suggest that they will pay around 80% of market value.
Pros & Cons of The Property Buying Company
The Property Buying Company - Positives
- UK-based company
- Members of The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB)
The Property Buying Company - Negatives
- The Property Buying Company’s website claims that ‘all properties are bought using cash from [their] own reserves’, yet most of their customer reviews suggest the company has acted as an estate agent or broker. This means they attempt to find a third-party buyer for the property, rather than buying the property themselves. When companies operate in this manner, the homeowner is usually still expected to sell the property at a significant discount, but will not get any greater speed or certainty than selling on the open market via an estate agent.
- Several reviews mention that The Property Buying Company ties homeowners into using their services by getting them to sign a contract and putting a notice on the property. This prevents you from selling to anyone else. One customer reported that the company used the tie-in contract to try to pressurise them into accepting a lower offer.
- One customer review on Trustpilot said The Property Buying Company had tried to bribe them to remove a negative review. This may call into question the validity of the company’s 4.7 star score.
Is The Property Buying Company legit? - Our verdict
From their customer reviews and business accounts, it is unclear how many properties The Property Buying Company buy each year. Many of their reviews seem to suggest that the company acts as a broker, trying to connect homeowners with investors looking to buy properties. Whilst this might be a good option if your property is likely to struggle on the open market, or is perhaps unmortgageable, it will mean accepting a significant discount on your property’s market value, but without any of the speed or certainty of a genuine cash home buying company. If a company is buying your property directly, with their own cash funds, they should be able to complete the sale in 1-2 weeks. If they are relying on investors, they will have no control over timescales or property purchase prices.
Customer reviews also highlighted several worrying practices. Multiple reviews claimed that The Property Buying Company pulled out of sales at the last minute, missed agreed sale completion dates, reduced their offer, tied homeowners in with unfavourable contracts, and put a legal ‘notice’ on the customer’s property that prevented them from selling to anyone else.
Are The Property Buying Company any good?
The Property Buying Company claim to buy properties with their own cash funds. Whilst that may be true in some cases, it appears from their customer reviews that a substantial part of their business also involves acting as an estate agent, selling properties to property investors. Any company selling to investors will be unable to offer any guarantees around price, timescale or whether the sale will be successful.
If you want a quick or guaranteed property sale, the only appropriate route will be a genuine cash home buyer, who will purchase your property directly with their own cash funds.
Homeowners may also be concerned about claims that the company tried to bribe one customer to remove their negative review. This calls into question whether their high Trustpilot score can be trusted and whether their reviews represent the true experience of their customers.
Homeowners should also be wary of any property buying company that tries to tie them in with a contract. Any contract that ties you into using a company’s services is a major red flag in the property buying industry, as it suggests they will act as a broker rather than a direct cash house buyer. You can read more about this here.
con artists. Made the offer then waited a few weeks before reducing it, saying the market value was less than they thought. Then found out they had sold it on for way over what they said. Avoid like the plague
We agreed a sale with this company for a price much lower than the house is worth but one we could live with. A couple of weeks before the agreed completion date, we had our 1st red flag, where they said something came up in the survey and a director would be in touch. Since then despite numerous phone calls and emails we have not had a response back. In our case we didn’t even receive the expected low offer, just radio silence. We would like to sell but not desperate, so will be cutting ties with this company.
Everything with The Property Buying Company seemed good at first. The staff were polite and professional, the offer I was given seemed good – much higher than offers I was getting from other cash buying companies. I signed the sales contract and was very excited to proceed. Then the sales process, involving a visit to the property, legals, etc, started dragging on a lot longer than I thought it would. I wasn’t getting regular updates from staff and things felt off. A month, then six weeks passed and I was getting pretty anxious and distressed. I’d spent my whole summer excited for the sale, looking at other houses for my onward purchase, etc. But then at the final hour, after seven weeks of waiting, The Property Buying Company pulled out of the sale. They said this was because of information around the level of service charges having come to light in the legal pack, but they could have established their position on service charges by making appropriate inquiries within the first week. In the end, I felt like I’d been on a very tough emotional rollercoaster, which left me utterly flat and deflated. I honestly felt quite depressed for a significant period of time after the experience. I’d advise the company to be a lot more careful about the offers they make, do more research from the get go, and please don’t string people along. It’s just not fair. Adam from the company did offer a £300 Amazon voucher for the hassle, which I did appreciate, but the whole thing did take some time to bounce back form, and it was an experience I would have rather avoided.
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The Property Buying Company customer reviews
The Property Buying Company Reviews Trustpilot
Trustpilot Score: 4.5 / 5
Although their overall score is high, The Property Buying Company’s customer reviews raised some big concerns. These include:
- Tying customers into using their services by asking them to sign a contract and putting notices on customer properties that prevent them from selling to anyone else.
- Mention of cancellation fees if you decide not to go ahead with the sale.
- Dropping their offer at the last minute or pulling out of the sale altogether.
- Not buying properties directly – unless a company is buying your property directly, they’re unable to provide any certainty around cost or completion date
The Property Buying Company have replied to 84% of negative reviews left in the last 12 months. They have also requested the removal of 22 reviews over the same time period. 11 of those requests were rejected by Trustpilot, the remaining 11 were removed because Trustpilot couldn’t get a response from the reviewer.
The Property Buying Company Reviews Google
Google Score: 4.4 / 5
The company has many positive reviews, but also reports of sales falling through at the last minute with no notice, lengthy sale times, and vastly reduced offers.
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Compare The Property Buying Company with Quick Move Now
| Quick Move Now | The Property Buying Company | |
|---|---|---|
| Established since | 1998 | 2012 |
| Annual turnover | £20.3 million | AAs a small company, The Property Buying Company are exempt from having to publish full company accounts, so we’re unable to see their annual turnover. |
| 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, The Property Buying Company are members of The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and the National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB). |
| Is the company registration number available on the website? | Yes | Yes |
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Frequently Asked Questions About The Property Buying Company
The Property Buying Company’s website suggests that they will pay around 80% of market value.
The Property Buying Company say they calculate your offer by using their in-house underwriters and property research.
The Property Buying Company say there are no fees associated with using their service.
The Property Buying Company say they will pay your legal fees as long as you use their recommended solicitor.
The Property Buying Company say they can buy in as little as a week, but most people choose to move in 2-3 weeks.
Although The Property Buying Company claim to be able to buy your property directly with their own cash funds, a large number of customer reviews suggest that they have acted in the capacity of an online estate agent or broker.
The Property Buying Company are not regulated by any industry bodies. This is because the entire industry is unregulated. Companies can, however, choose to be members of voluntary industry organisations. The Property Buying Company are members of The Property Ombudsman and the National Association of Property Buyers.