Company called "British Homebuyers"

verybigchris

I've just bought through them. Only differences from a normal EA (from my perspective as a buyer) were that they would only sell to someone who was chain-free, and they have a "concierge service" which is primarily a way to upsell services but it did help speed the process along.


In the end the vendor's solicitor was so incompetent that what should have been a 6 week sale took 3 months, but I'm not sure if the solicitor was linked to British Homebuyers or not.

TomPucci85

eddddy wrote: »

OK - it would be good to know more...

Did they do anything that a regular estate agent wouldn't do?

I guess to give a bit of background, I was on the market with a regular EA back in 2017, they got me a buyer but the sale fell through due to issues with the lender.

I ended up taking it off the market after not getting any more viewings after it fell through.

Mid-2018 I got a send-to-all style marketing letter from British Homebuyers, I indulged them for a bit. They suggested I market for £195k, got a half dozen viewings, and locked in a buyer for £205k. Transaction went pretty smoothly as there was no mortgage involved this time round.

eddddy wrote: »

Had your property already been listed with a regular EA at the same asking price - or did NHB persuade you to reduce the asking price?

The other agent was marketing my property for £210k, British Homebuyers suggested I start at £195k.

eddddy wrote: »

If you'd reduced the asking price by the same amount with a regular EA - do you think it would have sold anyway?

Yeah I’d say it would have done. One positive is that I much more valued the service received from British Homebuyers, they were always polite and informative. (I was having a nightmare when having issues with my buyer with the previous agent, I’m sure their incompetence in communication is one of the reasons it fell through)

eddddy wrote: »

How much did NHB charge you? Did they 'hide' their charges by doing a 'back-to-back' contract, or by charging the buyer, or something similar?

Not sure what you mean by a ‘back-to-back’ contract. Only charge was on completion, fee was around 1.5%, so the same as the other agent I used, only contract I signed was a sole agency agreement, there was no minimum tie-in and 30 day notice period. Don't know about any charges to buyer, but I don't think so, it seemed pretty standard practice

Overall, from my perspective at least, I'd say it was a positive experience.

kinger101

Hmmmm. Just 10 posts. All of which recent. And now 2 bumps for the same company.

matrix1781

muppetscotland said:

Thanks for replies. To be honest I can work out for myself what "healthy scepticism" feels like. But given how many users are on MSE, I had hoped I'd find someone with genuine first hand experience.

I am not a fool, I'm going to have my own solicitor (a family friend) involved every step of the way. But thanks anyway, it's always fun to have total strangers talk down to me.

Did you go through with this? I am planning to sell the home via these guys in Aberdeenshire so keen to learn from your experience

matrix1781

Any other recent experiences?

Crashy_Time

kinger101 said:

Hmmmm. Just 10 posts. All of which recent. And now 2 bumps for the same company.

Lets face it, their business will be booming soon?

Competsoph

I was recently bidding on a property through British home sellers (unsure if they’re related).
National company so difficult to get hold of at times. Got my friend to enquire about the same property and they didn’t get back to her. They seemed to be holding out for higher offers without really pushing the seller to make a decision. Overall if cheaper, probably a contender depending on your situation but wouldn’t be my first choice. 

Just checked, they are the same base company.

Former_MSE_Tine

Hi, the company has asked for a right of reply. MSE doesn't endorse anything a company says on the Forum:

"We work hard to create a home buying company with the whole purpose of providing customers an honest and ethical way to sell quickly. We are aware of the terrible practices a minority of companies have and do practice. Unfortunately the bad practices of the few tarnish the good services of the many.

To be clear, we have never and will never reduce offers last minute, nor do we tie customers in, charge up-front fees or operate any unscrupulous tactics. This is entirely unethical and we believe in and are part of the property ombudsman code of practice for home buying companies. A copy can be found here;

https://www.tpos.co.uk/images/codes-of-practice/TPOE7-5_CoP_Residential_Property_Buying_Companies_A5.pdf

Many comments on this thread are from users that have not used our service and throwing generalizations and assumptions based on the poor actions of companies in this industry. We too hate that some companies operate in that manner.

We are not allowed to market or describe our services through this response, so please feel free to contact us to gain context of what we do, how we do it and see for yourself the honest nature of our service before you choose to comment negatively. It is hurtful to everyone that works hard here to provide an honest service.

We thank those that have commented that have had genuine experience of our company.

We wish all well and kind regards,

British Homebuyers"

Crashy_Time

Many people perhaps don`t like the economic reality of actually getting a house off your hands?