Selling house to BetterMove

Vinniebeebop

Hi has anyone used BetterMove to sell their house?
A friend has been offered a low valuation on their house from BetterMove but with the advantage of getting a quick sale and no fees. Just wondering if there's anything to look out for?

horsewithnoname

Them dropping their offer just before the sale. 

ReadySteadyPop

Exactly, far better just to drop the price to market value (the price that gets viewings and offers) and sell it yourself.

Albermarle

The normal reaction on here to similar posts about these 'we buy any house' companies, is to advise to avoid them.

If you can live with a lower price, then better just to market it the normal way through an estate agent with a low asking price.

Herzlos

They'll just remarket it at a price between their offer and what you want, and only buy with a sale lined up.

So you're better off just marketting it for the figure they offer because they'll almost certainly try and knock more off last minute.

ReadySteadyPop

Albermarle said:

The normal reaction on here to similar posts about these 'we buy any house' companies, is to advise to avoid them.

If you can live with a lower price, then better just to market it the normal way through an estate agent with a low asking price.

Doesn`t have to be "low" just "lower", if you look at PropertyLog you will see that even just 25k knocked off can sell a house.

Vinniebeebop

Thanks all.
I think part of the problem is that the house has been listed a couple of times and hasn't sold.
So if it is listed again at another lower price it'll start to raise questions as to whats wrong rather than the actual reason (priced too high for the current market).
It looks like these companies supposedly have a database of potential buyers and market to them. I'm not sure if that's actually the case though.

chanz4

yeah they market to investors, about 65% of its value

user1977

Vinniebeebop said:

I think part of the problem is that the house has been listed a couple of times and hasn't sold.
So if it is listed again at another lower price it'll start to raise questions as to whats wrong rather than the actual reason (priced too high for the current market).
It looks like these companies supposedly have a database of potential buyers and market to them. I'm not sure if that's actually the case though.

Why wouldn't these canny investors just do a deal directly with you and bypass the middle man?

Or to put it another way, why would buyers not think there's something wrong when they see BetterMove advertising the property you failed to sell?

Albermarle

Vinniebeebop said:

Thanks all.
I think part of the problem is that the house has been listed a couple of times and hasn't sold.
So if it is listed again at another lower price it'll start to raise questions as to whats wrong rather than the actual reason (priced too high for the current market).
It looks like these companies supposedly have a database of potential buyers and market to them. I'm not sure if that's actually the case though.

It will raise questions about the price drop, and the honest answer is that it hardly attracted any viewings at the current asking price so we have dropped it. That is a perfectly valid reason.

Buyers tend to be more suspicious about recent sales that have fallen through, rather than just a straight price reduction.

ReadySteadyPop

Albermarle said:

Vinniebeebop said:

Thanks all.
I think part of the problem is that the house has been listed a couple of times and hasn't sold.
So if it is listed again at another lower price it'll start to raise questions as to whats wrong rather than the actual reason (priced too high for the current market).
It looks like these companies supposedly have a database of potential buyers and market to them. I'm not sure if that's actually the case though.

It will raise questions about the price drop, and the honest answer is that it hardly attracted any viewings at the current asking price so we have dropped it. That is a perfectly valid reason.

Buyers tend to be more suspicious about recent sales that have fallen through, rather than just a straight price reduction.

Buyers are using apps like PropertyLog all the time now, 25k, 50k or more price drops are common, it is all lost in the mix after you have looked at dozens of properties, people are generally looking at size, location and price, so as you say if the seller is trying to drop to a more sensible price the buyer will just see someone adjusting to the market and probably isn`t going to be overly suspicious about anything (they will have a survey to show up any defects if they want to buy the property?)