‘Cash House Buyer’
The Property Buying Company Review
Overall Score 67%
They have the name but do they do exactly what they say on the tin? The guru investigates The Property Buying Company.
Read on to see what we found.
How we conducted the review
Our reviews are a combination of first hand experience and thorough investigation. We make a genuine enquiry with the company and follow their process up until the point that we can no longer proceed (we can’t actually sell a house unfortunately) which we call our “mystery shop”.
We also thoroughly research the company using publicly available data from multiple sources such as the companies website through to companies house and land registry.
We then use this information to rate the company using our own criteria, based on what we believe should be the gold standard of cash house buyer services. The results against this criteria are reflected in the score that you will find on this page which is out of a maximum of 100%.
How we scored this review
- Criteria
- Are they a registered company?
- Years of trading
- Are they a cash buyer?
- Strong record of purchases and financials
- Registered with “the property ombudsman”
- Registered with the NAPB
- Speed to initial offer (hours)
- Average Offer Percentage
- Do they send a contract?
- Can they provide proof of funds?
- Can you use your own solicitor?
- Are solicitor costs covered?
- Website Usability
- Any dubious claims?
- Customer review rating
- Overall review score
- Results
- Yes
- 11
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- 24
- 87-90%
- Yes
- Yes
- No
- Panel Only
- Good
- Yes
- 4.5
- 67%
Get A No Obligations Cash Offer From A Genuine Cash Buyer
The guru has painstakingly reviewed and analysed the house buying companies in the UK, assessing them against his strict best practice criteria.
In short the hard work has been done for you, if you want a no obligations cash offer from a genuine cash house buying company with best in class service use the guru recommended service below to be matched with the right buyer for you, your house sale could be just a few clicks away.
Not sure if a cash offer will work for you? Find out what you could get in under a minute without having to enter any contact details.
Are they a genuine house buying company?
Is their offer realistic?
No contract or tie in to sign?
Can you use your own solicitor?
No fees to pay?
Are they registered with a redress scheme?
The application process in detail
Mystery Shop
We made an enquiry on the company’s website and waited for a callback so we can rate both the speed of the response and the quality of the information and service provided.
The Property Buying Company Enquiry
I submitted an enquiry through the online form on the property buying company website. The form is an easy to follow step by step questionnaire. Firstly you enter your postcode, then full address at which point you are asked some basic questions about the property, the timeframes that you are looking to sell in and then finally your contact details.
The Property Buying Company First Contact
I received a call from somebody representing the Property Buying Company just under 30 minutes after I’d submitted my details on the website. This call was an informational call, the agent asked me some details about the property, they obviously were looking at it on Google Maps or similar.
They then went in to my reasons for selling and informed me that they offer below market value but they can complete on the purchase fast. The agent showed interest in the property and then asked me some more in-depth questions about the property, mostly around the condition and some further questions around my circumstances for the sale and what timeframes I would like to sell. The Agent then said they would definitely be interested in buying the property and they would go away and do some market analysis and come back with an offer.
They then asked me if I had any questions.
The Property Buying Company Sales Process
The sale process for The Property Buying Company starts with an initial call as described above. After that they carry out some “analysis” and then come back to you with what was described as a “guide offer”, this is a range to gauge your interest. If you are happy with the “guide offer” then they arrange an appointment for one of their regional managers to come around and view the property. Looking at their website they have one manager covering the north and one covering the south. The regional manager will take a look around the property and assess its condition, they will then take this into account and make you a “firm offer” on the spot. If you decide that you would like to accept the offer they will have an “agreement” for you to sign there and then.
We would advise caution when being asked to sign anything, especially in person, you are well within your rights to ask for more time so don’t be pressured. Carefully read over any contract or agreement you are asked to sign, if you are unsure about anything seek help from a legal representative.
Once you have signed the agreement then the purchasing process will start, you will be assigned a solicitor from their panel and book in a “structural survey” of the property and set a date for exchange and completion.
Property Buying Company Valuation Process
The property buying company value your house in three stages.
- The agent and underwriter do what would be known in estate agent terms as a “desktop” valuation, this essentially means that they will look at information available on the property and surrounding area such as recent sold prices.
- A valuer (regional manager) will come around to the property and carry out an inspection similar like an estate agent would if they were valuing the property.
- A RICs surveyor will be commissioned to carry out a survey on the property – if they find any issues this will affect the value of the property.
Further Reading: You can find more about how cash house buyers value your house here
What Percentage Do Property Buying Company Offer
The property buying company made me a “guide offer” that was between 87% – 90%. This is certainly high given that my circumstances didn’t qualify for stamp duty relief and house buying companies need to pay around 80% in order to make a profit on their purchases. A quick look at the Property Buying Company’s accounts shows a gross margin of about 20% so this number doesn’t stack up, this could suggest that there will be a price reduction further down the line.
Further Reading: Find out more about how much cash house buyers can actually pay
Property Buying Company Communication
The agent that I spoke to was pleasant to talk to and had a very positive attitude. After receiving the verbal “guide offer” over the phone they sent the offer in writing via email. Since then they have several emails that I guess are marketing emails linking to some of their blogs but they were pretty terrible and they thankfully stopped after about a month.
The Guru Grilling
Here we ask our 4 key questions that you should always ask yourself when dealing with a cash house buying company.
Are you dealing with a legitimate company?
Yes. The property buying company is a genuine house buyer buying and selling millions of pounds worth of property each year.
Further Reading: How to check that your are dealing with a legitimate cash house buyer
Is the offer too good to be true?
Yes. Their offer was in the too good to be true zone with a range of between 87% to 90% (if a rather generous valuation). As previously mentioned, cash house buying companies simply can’t afford to pay much more than 80%, if they did this on a regular basis they wouldn’t be in business for long and the property buying company have been trading for over a decade. Looking at the evidence, their accounts, historic purchases and reviews from genuine customers it is likely that if you receive a high initial offer it is likely to be revised further down the line.
Further Reading: How much do cash house buyers actually pay?
Are they asking you to sign a contract?
Yes. Although they euphemistically call it an “agreement” this is a contract that you will sell your property to them at an agreed price. You can’t just walk away without paying then a £900 fee, unless they change their offer at any point in which case you can walk away.
These contracts are always one sided in favour of the buyer and we advise that you should never sign one, you can read our article on why below.
Further Reading: Why you should never sign a contract with a cash house buyer
Can you use your own solicitor
No. You have to use one of their panel of solicitors, it is not actually clear if you get to choose which one or if they are just assigned to you but either way you don’t choose your own.
Overall Customer Experience
Overall my experience with dealing with the property buying company was a positive one, the agents that you speak to are highly competent and well informed with a good phone manner and high level of customer service. Unfortunately when viewed under the guru microscope there are some red flags that are cause for concern regarding the actual service.
Get A No Obligations Cash Offer From A Genuine Cash Buyer
The guru has painstakingly reviewed and analysed the house buying companies in the UK, assessing them against his strict best practice criteria.
In short the hard work has been done for you, if you want a no obligations cash offer from a genuine cash house buying company with best in class service use the guru recommended service below to be matched with the right buyer for you, your house sale could be just a few clicks away.
Not sure if a cash offer will work for you? Find out what you could get in under a minute without having to enter any contact details.
Are they a genuine house buying company?
Is their offer realistic?
No contract or tie in to sign?
Can you use your own solicitor?
No fees to pay?
Are they registered with a redress scheme?
Investigation
Property Buying Company Background and History
The Property Buying Company Limited was incorporated on the 10th April 2012, they currently turnover around £29 million making them one of the largest house buying companies in the UK. They currently employ around 33 staff and operate out of offices in West Yorkshire and London. They have joint CEOs in Karl McArdle and Jonathan Christie who have both been at the company for over 11 years, they also have an Acquisitions Director that, according to their website is a cartoon character, which the Guru can relate to.
The Property Buying Company is one of a number of companies that form a group under The Property Buying Company Holdings Ltd. This group also consists of “the property sourcing company” which claims to source below market value properties for investors. “The property selling company” which is a little unclear about what it actually is, on its website it states “we are an online estate agent with the goal of making your time with us as effortless as possible” whatever that means, but then it goes on to say that they are registered with the national association of property buyers which is only relevant for companies that purchase properties so who knows. There is also mention of “the property rentals company” and the “property funding company” both of which I can find very little information of online.
Memberships and Registrations
The property buying company have been members of the national association of property buyers (NAPB) since March 2016 and are full members of the property ombudsman (TPO) and it commits to its code of practice. This means that there is a route for recourse if you believe they have acted inappropriately.
Property Buying Company Reviews
The Property Buying Company currently have a score of 4.2 out of 5 on Google Reviews and 4.7 on Trustpilot.
Property Buying Company Good Reviews
On Trustpilot 82% of their reviews are 5 star and a further 12% are 4 star with verified reviews complementing the customer service. It is worth noting that many of the positive reviews seem to be from people who are at a very early enquiry stage and have only had perhaps one or two calls and have not proceeded with the service.
Property Buying Company Bad Reviews
On Trustpilot 3% of the Property Buying Company’s reviews are 1 star which rises slightly to 5% if you look at the last 12 months. Unlike the majority of the 5 star reviews the 1 stars as you could expect are from people that are not happy with the actual service i.e. the house buying service that they are offering. There are reviews that mention last minute price reductions and some that mention them pulling out of the sale. One even says that they received an email from “the property sourcing company” advertising their house for sale when they believed it was going to be a direct sale.
There are some lengthy negative reviews that go in-depth on the issues that they encountered, you can read them on Trustpilot if you want to learn more.
Review Integrity
There are a few things worth noting with the property buying companies reviews. As previously mentioned (and mentioned by some reviewers) they ask for reviews at several stages, most of which are before the sale has actually completed and a large number are only after an initial call. You can see the evidence for this in the reviews themselves, many of them use terms such as “so far”, “good advice” and “early days”. In some cases this process also leads to duplicate reviewers, I found one person who had ended up reviewing the company 3 times, this person seemed genuinely pleased with the service but they got three 5 star reviews for the price of one.
The Property Buying Company have flagged (i.e. tried to remove) 19 reviews in the last 12 months (all 1, 2 and 3 star) which lead to 13 being removed. This is not a massive amount, less than 5% of their total reviews received in that period, and there are probably some genuine reasons in there. Although looking at all of the reviews it does seem like people are being encouraged to use the names of the person they have spoken to, this is actually a breach of trustpilot guidelines so it makes bad reviews an easy target for removal.
There is also at least one reviewer that mentions being offered a £100 voucher to remove their review.
Property Buying Company Complaints
I could find no evidence of complaints outside of the company’s reviews.
Property Buying Company Website
The Property Buying company has a nice clean looking website that is straightforward to use and make an enquiry. There are a few informational articles such as “can I sell my house from abroad?” which don’t look fantastic but provide some useful information and a comprehensive “news” section with articles on lots of property related topics.
You can find a list of the team which includes photographs of the staff and even personal contact details such as email and telephone number, not sure why you would want to contact the “apprentice content producer” but you apparently can.
Claims
When you visit the Property Buying Company website you are greeted with the claim “we buy any home in as little as 7 days” now although this is possible in some very particular circumstances it is in no way standard practice.
Further down on the website they do state that the average sale time is 2-3 weeks, now I’d like to see the data on that but it is at least a more realistic timeframe.
Another bit of information provided on the homepage is a table which compares the final amount you will receive from the property buying company (in a 7 day sale) with a 9 month estate agent sale. In this table they claim that if you had a £100,000 house you would actually be financially better off selling to them as opposed to an estate agent, this is just not the case.
Summary
From the start of your journey on the website through to the initial phone call The Property Buying company comes across as a very slick and well polished machine. They have the credentials of being one of the largest house buyers around and they are registered with the right bodies. On the surface all seems to stack up, but dig a little deeper and the cracks do start to show. The main causes for concern being the use of contracts and intisingly high initial offers. There is evidence in both their reviews and recorded financial data that they are not always paying the amount that they are stating initially and this high initial offer is likely a tactic to get you to sign up with them. As with any big decision you should carry out your due diligence and only if you are truly comfortable should you proceed.
You can find the Gurus list of top rated house buyers by clicking the button below.
Get A No Obligations Cash Offer From A Genuine Cash Buyer
The guru has painstakingly reviewed and analysed the house buying companies in the UK, assessing them against his strict best practice criteria.
In short the hard work has been done for you, if you want a no obligations cash offer from a genuine cash house buying company with best in class service use the guru recommended service below to be matched with the right buyer for you, your house sale could be just a few clicks away.
Not sure if a cash offer will work for you? Find out what you could get in under a minute without having to enter any contact details.
Are they a genuine house buying company?
Is their offer realistic?
No contract or tie in to sign?
Can you use your own solicitor?
No fees to pay?
Are they registered with a redress scheme?
Disclaimer
While we make every effort to ensure that the information included in this article is as accurate as possible at the time of writing and subsequently revisit and revise the information in light of any changes it is always recommended to carry out your own due diligence before engaging with any company. The views in this article represent our own experiences and opinions and individual experiences may vary.
“Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your house sale around it.”
