Companies who will buy your house - advice needed

steph2901

Hi everyone, I'm after a bit of advice.

My husband is renting his house out at the moment through an estate agent, but the tenants are causing a problem for the neighbours. He would like them out, but doesn't really want to carry on renting it out and would like to just get rid of the place. Houses aren't really selling where it is, so he was thinking of selling to one of those companies which buy houses. Are there any recommendations?

Pixie5740

Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Your husband could easily just put the property up for auction, with or without the current tenants therefore cutting out the middle man.

steph2901

Do you still have to pay an auction fee if the place doesn't sell? We have no idea what these tenants have done to the house as it appears the letting agent hasn't done their job in doing quarterly inspections of the house. The house is an hour away from where we live, so we haven't seen it since last October.

marksoton

steph2901 wrote: »

Do you still have to pay an auction fee if the place doesn't sell? We have no idea what these tenants have done to the house as it appears the letting agent hasn't done their job in doing quarterly inspections of the house. The house is an hour away from where we live, so we haven't seen it since last October.

Then call the agent to account and start booting them out.

eddddy

steph2901 wrote: »

Houses aren't really selling where it is, so he was thinking of selling to one of those companies which buy houses. Are there any recommendations?

Sadly, that isn't how those companies work.

They are not charities that help out homeowners who are unable to sell their houses.

Briefly, they work like this...

1. They will decide what price the house would have to be to sell in two weeks (which may be a very low price).
2. They will offer your husband 80% of that price
3. So if they manage to sell the house, your husband gets 80% of the sale price and they get 20%

So your husband would do better to ask a standard EA to sell at the price in Step 1. That way your husband gets (almost) 100% of the sale price, instead of just 80%.

eddddy

steph2901 wrote: »

Do you still have to pay an auction fee if the place doesn't sell?

Yes.

Is the house mortgageable? If so, it's better to sell the house via a standard EA (ideally without tenants).

steph2901

Yes, he has a mortgage on it which would need to be paid off.

Maybe auction would be best? We really can't afford to have it standing empty for ages.

slowpoke_rodriguez

steph2901 wrote: »

Yes, he has a mortgage on it which would need to be paid off.

Maybe auction would be best? We really can't afford to have it standing empty for ages.

Why would it be empty for ages?
Kick the tenants out and whack it on the market at a price that will sell.
You bought it; someone else will too!

Pixie5740

Evicting the tenants will take time. The sooner your husband gets the ball rolling the sooner they'll be out. Do you know if they are in a fixed term or periodic tenancy?

Since the property is only an hour away it wouldn't be that arduous for your husband to send a letter giving the tenants at least 24 hours notice he's coming to do an inspection and seeing for himself what's going on. The tenants might be causing a nuisance but then again it might just be a busy body who would complain no matter who was living next door.

steph2901

slowpoke_rodriguez wrote: »

Why would it be empty for ages?
Kick the tenants out and whack it on the market at a price that will sell.
You bought it; someone else will too!

I didn't buy it, he owned it before we met.

Yes, maybe he will have to try selling it at a low price

eddddy

steph2901 wrote: »

Maybe auction would be best? We really can't afford to have it standing empty for ages.

That's not necessarily the quickest route.

With an Auction:

- You have to wait for the next auction.
- Entries for auctions close about 4 weeks before the sale date
- So a minimum of 4 weeks before the sale

And with conventional auctions... it's very, very difficult to buy with a mortgage. So you'll only be targeting cash buyers, so your target market is smaller and the price achieved is likely to be lower.


With an Estate Agent:

- If priced competitively (i.e. around the likely auction price) you might get offers within days
- People needing mortgages can make offers. (i.e. a bigger potential market, which means sale price is likely to be higher)