Companies that buy houses for a quick sale?

MissyGee

Hi there

I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice at all in relation to approaching a company which buy houses directly from sellers for a quick sale, ie missing out the whole process of having to put the house on the market?

I'm a home-homer and I'm in a position where I want a quick sale to basically move away due to an ex-partner causing me problems.

I don't have a lot of equity in the house, probably just about £6k and realise that I probably also won't be offered 100% of the market value from a quick sale company.

However, I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as to any reputable companies I could approach to enquire about it?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Fire_Fox

Welcome! Do you know what the value is based on sold prices in the street and area? Not just not 100% but generally a substantial hit, you have to pay legal fees as well as pay your mortgage off. Have you thought about letting the property, auctioning, offering it through an estate agent at a quick sale price, asking them to check any buyer is ready to proceed?

MissyGee

Hi - thanks for the reply!

The market value based on nearby sales is anywhere from £75 - £85k.

What generally would be offered for that would you think? Tbh I'm so keen to get rid of the house I would consider having to actually pay to get rid of it. Me and my partner aren't gonna be looking to buy somewhere else any time soon, going to rent.

I hadn't actually thought about going through an estate agent - I was hoping to do it discreetly without it being advertised anywhere etc so that ex-partner doesn't find out.

I wasn't too keen on the idea of renting it out and becoming a landlord, but maybe this is an option I'll need to look at.

Re an auction - also hadn't thought of that as an option.

Notmyrealname

MissyGee wrote: »

Hi - thanks for the reply!

The market value based on nearby sales is anywhere from £75 - £85k.

What generally would be offered for that would you think?

£50k-£60k. They won't offer you anywhere close to £6k below market value.

MissyGee

Argh - I thought it would be grim, but not that bad :-(

Oh well, on to a plan B, C and D!

Thanks for the reply.

FireWyrm

These quick sale companies are scams to catch the unwary or just plain desperate. Watchdog did a piece on them about 6 months ago. First of all, you'll only get an initial bid of around 70% of market value. Next, just as you're about to exchange and you have little choice but to continue, they'll drop it to 60% or some as low as 40% which is a real scandal. Dont touch them with a barge pole.

If you dont want what little profit you might have to get swallowed in fees, check out the 'online' agents who do fixed fee packages. You'll pay solicitor fees, but generally speaking, agency fees are in the several hundreds as opposed to the more traditional agents who will gouge you for thousands. There are many many discussions on these boards concerning the online agents and many (including myself) consider them to be much better value for money than the traditional highstreet agent. You are under no legal obligation to use an estate agent, and you dont even need a solicitor for a straight forward conveyancing, although you would be wise to engage one.

Better_Days

Do you think your ex is likely to find out via the online house selling sites - eg Right Move, Zoopla? If so, it will make it more difficult to sell the house without your ex finding out.

If you use an EA, you don't have to have a board up in front of your house.

You could ask your EA to do 'back burner' marketing only. This could mean no Rightmove/Zoopla, no newspaper ads, nothing in the EA window.....but if someone comes in to the EA and asks for something that matches the criteria of your property then they will be told about it. This lowers the risk of your ex finding out the property is being sold. Of course the downside is that you are reducing the pool of potential buyers enormously and it is likely to take much longer to sell.

Another option is to ring local EA's and ask if any of investors on their books would be interested in your property, although I suspect that you would have to take a hit on the price. Not sure how much though - sure someone else will be along to advise.

Wouldn't go for the 'quick sale' companies, never heard anything good about them.

Difficult situation.

go_cat

Mods - we could really do with a sticky at the top on the subject of quick sale house companies please

Fire_Fox

go_cat wrote: »

Mods - we could really do with a sticky at the top on the subject of quick sale house companies please

PM the forum team, MSE doesn't have mods and most threads are not read by anyone.

Running_Horse

MSE does have mods, just under a different name.

Instead of a sticky they could have a search button....oh wait.