Quick Sale Springbok Property

BorderDweller

Hi!  Has anyone come across/used Springbok Properties for a quick sale?  My mother went into a nursing home at the start of COVID and is currently paying her care home contribution and mortgage which is financially unsustainable.  Unfortunately due to COVID and the remote location of her property (which makes buyers few and far between in the first place) after a year we have no sale and are heading to a crunch point.  I am exploring all options and Springbok buy for cash.  Has anyone dealt with them?  I understand they will not be paying market rate I want to know if they are genuine. 

davidmcn

Presumably their business model is just to resell reasonably quickly to somebody else (at a big enough margin for them to take a cut) - so what you really want to find is that ultimate buyer. How hard have you tried to find a buyer? Tried auction?

eddddy

House buying companies typically exploit people who have financial problems. Here's one example of how fast house buying companies work - using example numbers...

• You're marketing your house with an asking price of £200k

• They believe that if the price was reduced to £150k, they could find a cash buyer within 7 days

• So they ask you to sign an 'option to buy' at £120k

• If they can then find a cash buyer who'll pay £150k, they exercise their option and buy from you for £120k

• They create a back-to-back contract where they buy from you at £120k and resell it for £150k on the same day. (And keep the £30k difference)

• If they can't find a buyer who's prepared to pay £150k, they can eventually walk away - they've lost nothing, and you're still left with the house

• They say they'll complete the purchase in 7 days, but the 'option to buy' lasts 6 months - so you can't sell to anyone else for 6 months. During that time, your financial difficulties worsen, so they can bully you into accepting an even lower price.

Using that example, it would be better to just reduce the price yourself to £150k and get a buyer quickly. Then you only have to pay the EA 1%, instead of £30k to the fast house buying company.

Crashy_Time

eddddy said:

House buying companies typically exploit people who have financial problems. Here's one example of how fast house buying companies work - using example numbers...

• You're marketing your house with an asking price of £200k

• They believe that if the price was reduced to £150k, they could find a cash buyer within 7 days

• So they ask you to sign an 'option to buy' at £120k

• If they can then find a cash buyer who'll pay £150k, they exercise their option and buy from you for £120k

• They create a back-to-back contract where they buy from you at £120k and resell it for £150k on the same day. (And keep the £30k difference)

• If they can't find a buyer who's prepared to pay £150k, they can eventually walk away - they've lost nothing, and you're still left with the house

• They say they'll complete the purchase in 7 days, but the 'option to buy' lasts 6 months - so you can't sell to anyone else for 6 months. During that time, your financial difficulties worsen, so they can bully you into accepting an even lower price.

Using that example, it would be better to just reduce the price yourself to £150k and get a buyer quickly. Then you only have to pay the EA 1%, instead of £30k to the fast house buying company.

Maybe, probably better than using this type of company.

Northsouth2

Springbok have tried to rip me off £20k telling me buyer offer £180k when really offered  £200k.no saying this is standard they have to make fee yet say no selling fee and if I sell to buyer direct they will sue me £7500 can they do this I have a number of text and emails from them saying buyer offered less and letter from buyer confirming  £200k offer please anyone help

eddddy

Northsouth2 said:

Springbok have tried to rip me off £20k telling me buyer offer £180k when really offered  £200k.no saying this is standard they have to make fee yet say no selling fee and if I sell to buyer direct they will sue me £7500 can they do this I have a number of text and emails from them saying buyer offered less and letter from buyer confirming  £200k offer please anyone help

Based on what you say - I think they are doing more or less what I explained 3 posts higher up the thread.

• Springbok are offering you £180k to buy your property

• Springbok are planning to sell your property to somebody else for £200k

• They will probably do both of those (buy and sell) at the same time on the same day - so they don't need any of their own money to do that

(Or they might be 'assigning the contract' which has a similar outcome.)


It's quite possible that your contract has a clause saying that you have to pay a £7500 fee. Maybe it's because they have an "Exclusive Option to Purchase" or "Sole Selling Rights" or because it's a buyer that they found.

You need to read the contract to find out more.

Maybe especially look for clauses that mention £7500 or 3.75%.  

It sounds like they might not have explained their contract to you very clearly. It would be very interesting to know more about the contract.

A lot of people aren't big fans of companies that work this way. I'm certainly not a big fan.

chanz4

I laughed at there valuations, walked away