In the early 2000’s, quick sale companies, or “we buy any house” firms rose to prevalence, and they still exist today in 2020.
These companies claim to provide a unique quick buying service for property, wherein they offer an alternative way for homeowners to sell on their houses, without the expense of putting them up for sale on the traditional market and paying the fees of estate agents.
However, there have been a number of mixed reviews about these organisations, which has led to some controversy within the media and the industry on whether or not it’s safe to use them. Today, we’re going to be exploring who these companies are, and whether or not it’s safe to sell property using a “we buy any house firm”.
What do These Companies Do?
Instead of immediately going into a review of we buy any house services of sorts, it makes sense to take a little look into who they are, and what they claim to do.
These quick buying services claim to value your property accurately for free. Following this, they’ll make you an offer for the property itself.
Should you choose to accept this offer, then they allege to pay you the money in cash, and have completed the process in its entirety within as little as seven days.
This is regardless of the type of house, its condition and anything else. Hence the term, “we buy ANY house” firm.
Who Do they Target?
As with any sort of organisation, we buy any house businesses do target a specific audience and type of clientele.
We buy any house firms, should they do what they say on the tin, will buy literally any house. Some of the time, home owners will be faced with the challenge of selling on a property that’s problematic. It might be that for some reason, the property is difficult to acquire a mortgage on. It could be that there are repairs on it that the home owner can’t afford to make prior to selling, or that there are even some structural issues that make the property itself nigh on impossible to sell traditionally. Therefore, they may target people with strange and “unsellable” houses as their customers.
Likewise, they also claim to buy houses quickly – and therefore many of their clientele are in a money or time sensitive predicament. It could be that they need to sell on their homes quickly because of debt, or to avoid repossession. It could be that a couple have gone through a messy, unfriendly or even abusive break up or divorce, and therefore need to sell their house quickly. It could even be that someone has been left a property due to a bereavement, and can’t afford to either keep it on or sell it in a traditional sense. Whatever the circumstance, these people have one thing in common – a lack of time, or cash.
So there you have it, these companies do have a specific clientele. Now, let’s take a look at how trustworthy they are…
The Truth
We’re still left asking the question, can you really trust all we buy any house firms? Well, very simply the answer is no – you can’t trust all of them.
Over the years, there have been many reports of customers being ripped off by scamming organisations who don’t do as they say. Although there are some genuine “we buy any house” firms out there, you have to watch out for the frauds amongst them. Many people claim to have been ripped off by the charlatans for tens of thousands of pounds.
One thing to be mindful of, is that regardless of the company, you’re likely to get less than the market value for your property in return for a quick sale. Likewise, many of these companies have been found to have actually taken between four and six weeks to complete the process, rather than the originally promised seven days.
In Conclusion:
Our parting advice would be to exercise using these companies with caution.
Although there are some scammers out there, there are some genuine companies. One way of ensuring the trustworthiness of a company, is checking whether or not they’re approved by the National Association of Property Buyers. If so, then they have to follow a strict set of rules and regulations.
Always read the small print, always do your research, and always be sure to have terms and conditions in writing. Only then can you truly know how trustworthy the company you’re doing business with is.