They have a name that is synonymous with the ‘quick house sale’ industry but is this just hype based on a strategic name choice or does there service live up?
We decided to undertake a We Buy Any House review. We take an in-depth look at the service and write up our findings below finally answering the question do they really buy any house?
Read on to see what we found.
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%.
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?
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.
We submitted an enquiry on the we buy any house website through the “enter postcode” address lookup on the homepage. After entering the property address and hitting “go” you are taken to a page with a couple of questions about the property namely the type of property (detached, semi-detached etc) and the number of bedrooms. Once these questions are answered you are then taken to a screen where you enter your contact details (name, email, phone number).
Once you have submitted these you are given 2 options. Option 1 is to get an immediate call back and option 2 is to schedule a call at a time that is convenient for you. I chose option 1 and was promised that I would get a call back in the next five minutes. 9 minutes later I received a phone call from one of their agents.
I was greeted by a pleasant gentleman who explained that he would need to take some details from me, tell me a little about the company and how they work and that the call would take around 10 – 15 minutes. He then asked me a few questions about the property and the ownership of the property and if there was any debt currently secured against the property.
Then he asked if I knew anything about the company and if I’d done much research into them and proceeded to tell me that they are the “market leaders” in the quick sale industry and they specialise in buying properties quickly and offering a fair cash price and ultimately they save the time, money and hassle of selling on the open market through a traditional estate agent.
He then went on to say that they can complete in as little as 3 days or a time frame to suit you.
This is in our opinion a very dubious claim. 3 days, although perhaps technically possible, would be highly reckless from a company as they would have to cut massive corners to achieve this if this was the standard practice for a business they wouldn’t be around for long.
Read our article on how fast a company can actually buy your house here.
Then he explained that they don’t pay full market value but there are no fees to pay.
He asked some questions about what my reason to sell was and why I was looking at the quick sale route and went into what was essentially an over the phone valuation (see We Buy Any House Valuation Process for more information on how they come to their valuation).
After this he went on to explain that they have 2 options that they offer;
Option 1: The direct cash purchase, this is the one where they can buy your house as quickly as 3 days for a discounted price. He explained that they would usually look to pay around 70% of the value of the property if I were to go down this route.
Option 2: Have the property purchased by one of their “partners”. This takes longer, he said that 95% are completed within 6 – 8 weeks. These “partners” are pre-qualified cash or mortgage buyers which he assured are all pre-vetted and won’t “be stuck in chains or anything like that” and they are looking to buy property at a discount but not as much as them, the offer he quoted was around 85%.
The agent was certainly pushing me to go with option 2 rather than the “direct cash purchase” option. This is interesting given that they introduced themselves as the “market leaders” in the quick sale industry so you would think that would be the preferred option. It is also worth noting that the offer percentage is low at 70%, could this be to put you off going for this option?
There are companies who claim that they have investors waiting to buy your property and get you to sign a form of contract called an “option agreement” once this is signed they can try to sell your property how they wish, many just try to sell it on the open market. Any figure that they manage to achieve above what they have agreed with you is essentially their commission, which can potentially be tens of thousands of pounds.
The agent had already asked me some questions about the condition of the property and now he was taking a look in the area and talking to me about sold prices of nearby houses. He then went on to explain that they use a piece of software called hometrack which is used by mortgage lenders to value homes. He told me that hometrack had told him that properties in my area took on average 49 weeks to sell.
I looked at another source and the average sale time in the area was around 21 weeks.
He then went on to explain that if either of the offer figures were acceptable to me then they would book a “field agent” to come round and take a look at the property to check the condition, take photos and measurements, make my final offer and sign me up.
He then booked a follow up call so I could go away and think about it.
The sales process is really a 3 step process;
Step 1: a call with a sales agent – this is the call described above. It consists of them asking you some questions about the property and circumstances, doing some proprietary research while you are on the phone and floating the offer numbers. It is also here that they introduce the “second” option of selling to one of their “vetted partners”.
Step 2: a follow up call – I imagine if you are really keen this step might get skipped altogether but I said I needed to think about it (which is always advisable before making any big decision). This second call is really only to see if you are interested in the offer and if you are, they will book in the “field agent”.
Step 3: Field agent visit – if you decide that you want to go with either of the options they then book an appointment with one of their “field agents” the way this visit was described was very much like if you were to have an estate agent come round and value your home for sale on the open market. The only difference here is that the agent will have a contract for you to sign at the end where you are agreeing to sell your house to them for a certain price.
We always advise caution when any house buying company asks you to sign any form of contract upfront. Always read every part of the contract carefully and don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a contract is a standard part of the process, the majority of reputable house buyers will not ask you to sign anything at this stage. Always seek legal advice if you are not sure about anything.
You can read our article about why it is not necessary to sign a contract with a home buying company here
The agent had already asked me some questions about the condition of the property and now he was taking a look in the area and talking to me about sold prices of nearby houses. He then went on to explain that they use a piece of software called hometrack which is used by mortgage lenders to value homes.
He then uses all of the information that he has collected to come up with a valuation of the property’s value. This is generally known as a desktop valuation.
If the offer is acceptable the next part of the valuation is to send a field agent to your house to carry out the final valuation. When they are in the house they can get a better understanding of the condition and could potentially spot any major defects that hadn’t been mentioned earlier (cracks, subsidence, japanese knotweed etc).
They offered me around 70% for my property.
This is certainly on the low side for a cash house buying company who would normally offer around 80% of the value of the property.
You can read our article on how much cash house buyers actually pay here.
The two calls that I had with them were pleasant although I did ask some questions that the agent couldn’t provide sufficient (or any) answers to. I did not get bombarded with emails, in fact I asked for the offer to be sent via email for my consideration and they did not send it through in the first instance, when I raised it again in the second call they did email me the offer. They were unable to send me any of the paperwork before the ‘field visit’ which I feel could lead to a “pressure sell” situation during the visit. I would always want to read something and make a decision without someone standing there holding a pen waiting for me to sign a contract.
Here we ask our 4 key questions that you should always ask yourself when dealing with a cash house buying company.
Yes. We Buy Any House are a legitimate company that have been trading since 2015.
Further Reading: How to check that your are dealing with a legitimate cash house buyer
No. In fact it is the opposite, they offered around 70% of the value – this is likely a tactic to get you to choose one of their other services.
Further Reading: How much do cash house buyers actually pay?
Yes.
Further Reading: Why you should never sign a contract with a cash house buyer
No.
The experience overall was fine, I felt like I was dealing with a professional company although there were some questions that I would have expected the agent to have known that he didn’t. The agent is really just there to see if you are interested and to then book an appointment for a house visit which is where the closing takes place.
There are certainly some question marks over whether they are a genuine cash house buyer, surely not many people are going to accept an offer of 70%. For their other service of selling your property to their list of “vetted” investors I did ask some questions about this list, fairly simple ones like ‘can you prove that this list actually exists’ and I was quickly redirected towards the cash buying route which seemed a little suspicious.
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?
Looking at the we buy any house website (https://www.webuyanyhouse.co.uk/) you can see that webuyanyhouse.co.uk is a ‘trading style’ of CROMWELL EQUITY LIMITED a company that was incorporated in December 2015. We But Any House are a UK based company with their registered address being a PO box in Chester at; PO Box 42, Cassidy House, Station Road, Chester, Cheshire, England, CH1 3DW.
We Buy Any House (or Cromwell Equity Limited) are not members of the NAPB and are not registered with the property ombudsman. They are signed up to the property redress scheme (https://www.theprs.co.uk/) which interestingly is a redress scheme for estate agents. Now it is not usually the case that a cash house buying company would need to be part of an estate agent redress scheme unless they were offering estate agent services which there is no mention of on the We Buy Any House website.
They currently have a rating of 4.3 on Trustpilot with around 8% of their reviews being one star.
Some reviews do suggest that their “vetted” investor list might not be as good as they claim.
The website is clean, modern and easy to navigate. The ‘make me an offer’ form is simply and fairly straightforward to use.
They do claim that they can buy your house in as little as 3 days,it is unlikely that they can deliver on that in most circumstances and the vast majority of people don’t want such a quick sale so you have to question why they even say it.
They also claim that the amount you can get from them in 7 days is exactly the same as the amount that you would get through an estate agent in 6 – 9 months. Although the percentage offer they have given in the example is 85% and then over the phone they are offering 70% so the comparison makes no sense.
Interestingly they also don’t buy any house, if you go to submit an enquiry it states that they don’t consider properties worth more than £500,000.
Despite claiming to be the ‘UKs leading house buyer’ it would seem that their tactic is to offer low for that cash house buying option in an attempt to steer sellers towards the “investor” option. Which given the lack of evidence they can provide about the existence of these investors and review evidence that suggests it might not be as great as it first seems might also not be a viable option for a quick sale.
You are also required to sign a contract early on and you can only choose from one of their panel of solicitors with no option of using one of your choosing your own.
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?
If you have had a different experience with the company, either positively or negatively, we’d love to hear from you. Tell us your experience by emailing us at reviews@cashhousebuyerguru.com.
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.
