Questions about The New Homes Group.

valueformoneydude1

I have a few questions about a company called The New Homes Group [TNHG] and I want to see if any of you have come across them and if you have what you have to say. My situation is as follows -

My partner has viewed a house and wants to purchase it. The house is in Witham, Essex. It is marketed by a local estate agent but it appears that the New Homes Group are actually managing the sale because my partner was soon passed to them to give an offer.

This seems to make sense as the occupier is an OAP and a widower and he is moving to somewhere more suitable for his position, which completely makes sense. I suspect the current occupier has secured his onward property / chain which looks to be a sheltered accommodation flat. Rightmove listing says that there is a completed onward chain.

My partner offered a competitive offer on the property and they went back and forth with TNHG in negotiations with the price. My partner’s best offer was rejected a few days later after “a new offer came in from a viewing that happened after you viewed the property” and then 2 days later they called back to say “that potential buyer with a higher offer” has pulled out and would you be willing to revisit your original offer.

If I was the seller I’d want the best price but also I personally have not heard of a buyer rescinding an offer within 2 days. But that’s just me and it could be normal. This spooks me because it could be possible that they are nudging the offer price up and also it suggests to me they’d have no moral issue with gazumping or even just increasing the price by 5k or 10k the day before exchange, because they can.

I have read all the Google reviews, all 242 of them, and they are nearly all one star or five star. They are pretty polarised. I would typically take that to be a pretty bad sign of how the company behaves. Most of the good ones list TNHG employee’s names so I feel it’s safe to suggest that these reviews have been prompted by TNHG. The average rating is 3.6 out of 5. There’s a lot of mention of rushing buyers, arbitrarily moving deadlines, pushing different forms of conditional selling and using their in-house mortgage service. I’m not, but my partner is a FTB so I really don’t want them to have a rough time with this, but I don’t want endless services being pushed when better services can be had elsewhere independently for much better prices.

My partner has already found their own surveyors and mortgage broker but they are keeping an open mind about the services that the TNHG’s “partner” solicitors, brokers and surveyors etc can offer, I don’t believe they can match truly independent solicitors or brokers, so far that’s been true.

We’re also seeking to get our own surveys done (RICS L2, ECIR and Gas), from surveyors and contractors of our choosing, not someone suggested by TNHG. There is another MSE post about TNHG expecting the buyer to pay for TNHG’s searches/surveys, which feels wrong. The buyer always pays for their own surveys so I don’t want to fall down a similar rabbit hole like that either.

Thank you for your time reading this and I look forward to hearing if any of you have anything to say. I fear I’m overthinking it all, but the Google reviews spook me. But then, there are some very good reviews that read as if they are real. If this was an eBay seller, I wouldn’t buy from them.

Bigphil1474

From what I've read, they get involved with properties that have been part exchanged for new builds. Maybe the vendor is moving into a new build retirement home or similar. Like you, I've read good and bad. Sounds like they might be good in some circumstances, but not so in others. Personally, I'm not interested in adding to the stress so would avoid.

Herzlos

They'll want a fast sale and there's no chain so gazumping shouldn't be much of a concern.

The higher bidder that appears and pulls out is a standard pressure selling technique and almost certainly doesn't actually exist. The goal is to get you to panic and "outbid" them, or at least not try and negotiate down any more. I'd just ignore that part entirely and stick with what you're willing to pay.

If you like the house, then there's no reason not to proceed, your solicitor (that you choose independallly from any recommendations) will keep everything honest.

Albermarle

Buying houses can be a bit stressful, even when dealing direct with the EA/vendor. For sure dates can move around and the EA will push to use conveyancers that they recommend etc. So probably not that much different in reality.

My partner’s best offer was rejected a few days later after “a new offer came in from a viewing that happened after you viewed the property” and then 2 days later they called back to say “that potential buyer with a higher offer” has pulled out and would you be willing to revisit your original offer.

I think a good reaction to this would be to say after now having had time to think about it, and continuing to look around the market, we now feel that the price we offered was a bit high, and make a lower offer. Play them at their own game.

monkey-fingers

I would have said that the higher offer was a sales technique, but having read of the other bloke who pulled out because the house might have had a dog, nothing would surprise me.

Problem is, making an offer and accepting an offer is not a contract. Anyone can do anything, right up to the point of exchange.

So the person making the offer may have found a better property or had buyers remorse.

Or maybe it once had a dog in.

valueformoneydude1

Thanks guys for all your comments. There's been no movement today but your thoughts have helped us consider what happens next. Will update you when there's some news.

SarahB16

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896736#Comment_81896736

Please do come back and kindly update us with how this goes. I think there are many older people who wish to downsize so it would be good for us to be able to track your progress working with the New Homes Group (noting of course you're not the older person but the seller is).

daveyjp

They appear to be a third party company that deals with sales of company part exchange properties and handle the sale process, they are one of many similar companies offering 'completion' services, especially properties where the seller isn't a traditional owner occupier,

Property buying and selling is a stressful business and quite often these companies are the ones who get it in the neck as they are the only contact a buyer has if things aren't going as quickly as they would like. A negative review is a way of venting,

In reality there are lots of factors involved in property transactions, neither buyers or sellers are perfect.

.

kingstreet

It's owned by Skipton BS, same as Connells.

valueformoneydude1

To update you all - TNHG called back and tried to nudge my partner up again “because there is now a new higher offer”. My partner stood firm at their offer. The house also changed agents bizarrely and has gone off the market now. I assume it’s now with the other buyer and my partner has not heard back now.

SarahB16 – I don’t really have anything to update you with unfortunately, all I can say is that they are money orientated and not really willing to budge from the price once they’ve set it. I assume that they have their % cut in mind and therefore they aren’t really interested in anything else, including buyer or seller. I am assuming that you are interested in using them or a company like them to facilitate your move in the future. All I can say is that I would not use them and I don’t think they offer value for money.

daveyjp – I think your description is best, they are a sort of part-exchange company for houses effectively. However I still think the reviews speak for themselves.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904780#Comment_81904780

 I don’t really have anything to update you with unfortunately, all I can say is that they are money orientated

All businesses are money orientated and trying to get as much out of their customers as possible. Some are just better at not making it as obvious than others .