These "Sell Your House Fast" Businesses

Gaz83

My fiancee and I are sick fed up of our flat. We bought it a couple of years ago from her father at a decent discount so we can afford to make a bit of a loss on its current market value and still make a profit on what we bought it for.

We are sick fed up of the place and want out of it as soon as possible, for various reasons. I should point out that money troubles are not one of these reasons - we can comfortably afford all payments and are at no risk of any default.

Does anyone have any experience with these businesses?

BitterAndTwisted

"Sell your house fast" usually means "we'll make you an offer and then we'll drop the offer at the very last minute so low you'll cry". They're often scams just to make hefty fees out of you when you're compelled to drop out.

Be very, very wary. Usually, any property which is sensibly-priced will find a buyer in the normal way. Search for the threads about "SellYourHouse4Free" and "Investment Property Group"

justjohn

not all are scammers...many offer a percentage lower than the market value so they cam make a profit. I have heard some offer 20% below market value.

googler

Let's assume your flat has a genuine market value of £100k - if you got 3 estate agents and 3 surveyors in, they all quoted a figure around this.

Let's also assume that these 'buy quick' people will offer you 75% of the market value, and don't renegotiate on this at the last minute.

That gets you £75k.

Do you think you could sell your house, through normal channels, for more than £75k, possibly close to £100k?

I'd say you probably could. It might take a little longer, but aren't you better off with the money in your pocket rather than the investors' ....

Henry_P_Chester

Why not just get an estate agent round to value it then knock 20% off that. Should go pretty quick!

Gaz83

Thanks for the replies guys. We're in a position that even if we were able to sell it for 70% of its current market value we'd be able to pay off our entire mortgage, due to the discount we got when we bought it.

I don't really want to go into our reasons but we've had it advertised on the open market and everything just moves so slowly. One of the things that appeal to us is that one of these companies could buy it from us within a few weeks.

BitterAndTwisted

Why sell it in five minutes for 70% of its true market-value when you could sell it for 100% in a couple of months? The 30% difference could buy you a lot. If the flat is sensibly priced it will find a buyer. it's all about the price, how it's marketed and how it's presented.

MobileSaver

Gaz83 wrote: »

we've had it advertised on the open market and everything just moves so slowly ... one of these companies could buy it from us within a few weeks.

The golden rule is never, ever pay an upfront fee to one of these companies. If you are asked for an upfront fee it is probably a scam.

To put things into perspective how much is your flat currently on the market for? Any house will sell quickly if priced right. The bottom line is that only you can know whether a sale now instead of three months time is worth £20,000 or whatever the figure is.

G_M

And read ALL the small print closely. If you drop out/change your mind after signing terms with them but befor Completion (ie they drop the price ANOTHER 20 %), what penalty clause/cost is there?

ps - how is her dad going to feel about this? If I'd sold you the property at a discount to help you out, and then you flogged it off effectively throwing away my money, I'd be pretty p*ss*d off!

googler

Will her father buy it back?

zappahey

If time is key, why not just send it to auction? You'd probably get the same sort of money that the companies would give you, if not more.