National Homebuyers

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We have decided to sell our house through National Homebuyers (the ones of the TV).

We are happy with the price they have given 21% below market value and are about to accept there offer. Have any of you delt with them?

We are buying a fairly expensive house and are starting to write cheques out. What i am worried about is a day or two before exchange they are going to try and renegotiate there price.

What i am basically asking is do you know if they are a honorable company or do they have a reputation.

Thanks

Gary

PS I know about the Watchdog program, that was to do with high fees

clutton_2

they do charge excessively high valuation fees which you have to pay - or so i understand - most other Quick sale companies pay the valuation fee for you

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We have a formal offer and did not have to pay a fee. The thing I am worried about is are they the sort of company who try to renegotiate?

Gary

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Bump........

Fusewire_2

Gary,

Speaking as someone who was in the quick house buying business, NHB did have the worst reputation. Mainly as you rightly say for charging extortionate valuation fees - but they then offered 50% of whatever the external valuation came out at.

Can I ask if you've had a proper (internal) valuation yet? If you have and they've made you an offer you can accept, then it may be worth the risk. Have you had any other companies round making offers? It may be worth getting some other opinions/offers for free first.

Sorry I can't be more helpfull, I didn't actually deal with anyone who had accepted a previous offer from NHB before.

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I have not had an internal valuation only external. but I have a firm offer and both sides have instructed solicitors

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anyone else?

theGrinch

they dont have a particularly good reputation on and off tv.

why didnt you get a range of quick sale companies to look and offer?

i recall that watchdog programme and they certainly lowered their offer a few times on one case as the legal process continued. It seemed to start at 25% below market value and ended at 50%

martinman3

theGrinch wrote: »

i recall that watchdog programme and they certainly lowered their offer a few times on one case as the legal process continued. It seemed to start at 25% below market value and ended at 50%

I saw that programme too. It seemed as if they would charge a large non-refundable fee for a valuation and drop their offer to a level that nobody in their right mind would accept. The company spokesperson could not prove that they had ever actually bought a property and that was in a rising market. In the current climate I don't believe any offer they made would be worth accepting.

If anyone on here has sold their property to National Homebuyers please tell us all about the experience.

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martinman3 wrote: »

I saw that programme too. It seemed as if they would charge a large non-refundable fee for a valuation and drop their offer to a level that nobody in their right mind would accept. The company spokesperson could not prove that they had ever actually bought a property and that was in a rising market. In the current climate I don't believe any offer they made would be worth accepting.

If anyone on here has sold their property to National Homebuyers please tell us all about the experience.

I can't believe that they do not buy property's as surely they would be in breach of one of the advertising bodies regulations

Fusewire_2

The way that a lot of these companies operate is by finding an investor to buy the property for sale. In other words:

1 -You contact NHB (or whoever)
2 -They make you an offer
3 -Once offer is accepted they pass details to an investor for a finders fee, usually 1-2% of purchase price
4 -The investor (not NHB or whoever) buys the property directly from the seller

This is pretty much the way the bigger companies work, but not all. I would specifically ask the company in question who actually buys the property, you will normally find that its a private individual.