Selling your House? Watch out..Buyers are about....

We all have seen advertisements that want to sell your house for cash. Now, that seems great if you have had problems selling it, such as buyers who try their best to cut the price or legal delays such as boundary issues. Thus an ad like selling your house for cash, without legal fees or hassle, looks just the job. Right, but is it really? Recently I had a friend who went through this process. The first approach was simplicity itself, a phone-call which more or less was a reaffirmation of what the ad said. So, after agreeing he waited for the Contract. This duly arrived. After cursorily reading through it he filed it away. He noted the agreed price and although not 100% happy about the reduction from his original price he wanted accepted it since he would receive the cash very fast. The company after all was buying.

Actually, after some time had passed he received a phone-call telling him that some offers had been received but it seemed the original agreed price was too high for his type of property and the company now wanted to reduce it. In fact they wanted to set a new ‘agreed’ price. Beginning to smell a rat he contacted me, what was that about offers? Reading the Contract I found out fast some strange things. These contracts appear to state in large letters at the head of the paper – FIXED PRICE AGREEMENT – and further down it says ‘Agreed Purchase Price or Fixed Price £XXXX. Lovely, that’s settled then but no, it’s not really. Reading through the blurb, basically nonsensical stuff, under the heading Fixed Price one sentence says the company is not obliged to proceed at the Fixed Price and reserves the right to offer ‘a price if issues arise or We do not generate sufficient interest’. Sounds reasonable? But wait, weren’t the Company buying the property? With a Fixed price? What is this about generating sufficient interest?

Further on there are sentences about Consequences of Breach and Fees which basically say that if you would sell yourself even perhaps at a higher price than the company’s ‘Agreed Fixed Price the balance belongs not to you but the company. Even worse, the amount mentioned in this particular case, was the difference in the selling price and the Agreed price or Seven thousand pounds whichever was the greater. On top of that demand they sweetly mentioned that a fee was due for advertising blah blah blah.

In short, I picked up that the company despite saying they buy properties for cash, they don’t. They are just glorified Internet based Estate Agents. On top of that there is something ‘fishy’ in the way they perform that work. All of it seems legal because they ensure to hide the intent. The Contract is basically no more an agreement than the company will sell your property. In other words Estate Agents. Yet their advertising says they are buyers. Remember – we buy your property for Cash! No fuss, no costs.

Perhaps it is time the authorities have a look at this way of selling houses before hard working people who want to sell quickly because of a new job somewhere else, are duped by these charlatans and being hoodwinked into selling far below what their home is worth!

If you need an Estate Agent, you’d be better off staying local. On top of that most are registered. I also would have thought that Office/Internet based Estate Agents are usually too far away. So, to entice viewers is vastly more problematic. Just a thought!