We Buy Any Home Reviews

We Buy Any Home Reviews
Contents

If you’re hoping to secure a quick sale of your house or looking for an alternative to an auction house sale, you may have considered using a company like We Buy Any Home.

Indeed, the guaranteed speed of sale factor is a major reason why more sellers than ever before are choosing this route over estate agents and other “open market” options.

But can you trust the company, and what do the reviews say?

We’ll run through how the selling process works, analyse We Buy Any Home reviews from past customers and highlight some potential alternatives.

What is We Buy Any Home?

We Buy Any Home is a popular UK property buying company established in 2014 by Elliot Castle who launched the company in response to his own frustration in dealing with estate agents.

The firm gives property owners an upfront cash offer for their house. The money to purchase these properties comes from a private fund called Kazai Capital.

This means that the company uses its own cash to buy houses rather than relying on lenders or third parties, unlike many other home buying companies which try to raise funds after they make offers.

We Buy Any Home also prides itself on transparency, with no hidden costs and a commitment to offering a genuine service.

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How it Works

Now, let’s go through how the entire process works when you conduct a house sale with We Buy Any Home.

Enquiry

Enquiry with We Buy Any Home

The first step is to make an initial enquiry by filling out your details online. After, someone from the team will contact you to find out more information about your home. Representatives will effectively play the role of the estate agent in the process, acting as your go-to during a house sale.

They may ask you about the property’s:

  • Location
  • Size
  • Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
  • Condition
  • Tenure – i.e. freehold or leasehold (if the latter how many years remaining on the lease, service charges and ground rents)
  • Financial specifics (mortgages or other secured debts against the property)
  • Urgency of sale

Valuation

We Buy Any Home Valuation

Then, the company will make you an initial offer. This typically comes within 24 hours of you providing the information about your home.

We Buy Any Home has its own valuation software that it uses to calculate a fair price, based on the details about your home and the current market.

It will then give you a no obligation cash offer. Before you accept, you can pull out of the process at any time.

Note that you can’t expect this offer to match the full market value of your property. The price to pay for the convenience of a guaranteed cash offer is that property buying sites get to make a profit through buying homes for a lower price.

However, for many people, this is worth it to ensure a quick sale.

Typically, We Buy Any Home offers 75-80% of a home’s market value.

Acceptance

Acceptance to Sell to We Buy Any Home

If you decide to accept the genuine cash offer, you can proceed to the sale completion almost straight away. This is one of the major advantages of working with a site l like We Buy Any Home rather than selling on the open market with a local estate agent.

You won’t need to worry about waiting for other people in the chain to sort out their financing, or deal with people pulling out of the process at the last minute. This ensures you can sell your house fast.

However, this doesn’t mean the house sale will be immediate. First, two local estate agents must come to make an independent valuation of the house.

The company will also appoint a solicitor to handle the legal processes. We Buy Any Home generally covers the legal fees involved in a property transaction, although this isn’t always the case.

Completing the Sale

Completing the Sale with We Buy Any Home

The We Buy Any Home sales progression team will

Remember the eventual sale price may be different to what was initially presented as an offer.

For this reason, it is always worth speaking to a solicitor to check that there will not be any “last minute” drops.  Sadly, this is a common occurrence in the “we buy any home” industry.

Should I Use We Buy Any Home?

Like the idea of selling a property quickly but not sure if We Buy Any Home is the right option for you? Let’s run through the pros and cons.

Benefits

Overall, We Buy Any Home offers a reliable and trustworthy service. It’s a registered member of The Property Ombudsman (TPO), which has a dedicated category for home buying companies. Plus, it was a founding member of the National Association of Property Buyers, an organisation committed to transparency among property professionals.

This means it has to follow strict regulations and provide the best service possible.

Selling your home through a property buying company is also a hassle free option. When you sell through an estate agent, you have to spend time marketing the house and waiting to find a buyer, all while knowing a prospective buyer could drop out of the process at any time up to the exchange of contracts.

Receiving a guaranteed cash offer also offers peace of mind, which is a real incentive to many.

It’s also a major plus that We Buy Any Home is so transparent about the charges involved. There are no hidden fees, and you will know what all the costs involved will be when you receive your free cash offer.

Best of all, the company covers most solicitor fees (as long as you use the solicitor they appoint).

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage of using We Buy Any Home (or any cash home buying company) is that you won’t get the full market value for your house.

Depending on how independent estate agents value your house, you might decide that you’d rather pursue a sale through the open market to obtain a higher price, even if it means waiting longer.

Also, not all property buyers have their legal fees completely covered by We Buy Any Home. This inconsistency is confusing and offputting to some buyers.  Sellers can even get charged up to £1,000 for the ability to even use their service.

Below, we’ve outlined some of the pros and cons of using this homebuying service.

Pros of We Buy Any Home

  • Speed and efficiency of sale
  • A genuine cash buyer (not relying on 3rd party funds)
  • No estate agents or auction house “middlemen”
  • No sales fees or commissions
  • A well established company in the industry
  • Reasonably well trusted by Google for terms like “sell my house fast”

Cons of We Buy Any Home

  • Purchase prices are between 75-80% of the market value (i.e. they want a 20-25% discount on the value)
  • Sellers often have to pay a non-refundable fee to be able to proceed
  • Known to regularly drop prices before exchange, often when sellers have little or no choice but to proceed
  • Complaints that sales take longer than originally stated
  • Issues with the company not maintaining sufficient contact
  • Sellers are obliged to sign an “option agreement” (note these documents have absolutely no legal validity)

We Buy Any Home – Customer Reviews

We Buy Any Home has more than 800 reviews on Trustpilot, with an average rating of 4.0.  It also has 258 reviews on Google, with an average score of 3.9.

We Buy Any Home - Customer Reviews

This gives it a “great” rating by most standards. For the most part, past customers said they received excellent service throughout the whole process and appreciated the stress free approach professional experience.

Those who gave negative reviews complained that the process was more long-winded than they expected, or that the no obligation quote they received was lower than expected. Some customers said the sale process took longer than they anticipated.

We Buy Any Home Alternatives

Even if you like the idea of We Buy Any Home, you may wonder how it compares to other options. The good news is that the company promises to give a higher offer than any other quick sale company, and will even beat any other offers you recieve.

The main alternative is to take the “traditional” route and simply work with local estate agents instead. Although this will take longer, you’ll be able to gauge the true market value of your home and have access to a wider pool of property buyers.

Another option is to opt for an auction. Similarly to property buying companies, an auction can usher in a quick sale, but it will at least expose you to multiple buyers instead of forcing you to rely on the valuation process of We Buy Any Home.

There’s now more choice than ever, such as a modern method of auction.

You could also consider working with other home buying companies, but remember to check review websites to see if they have positive feedback. Most will also offer less than market value (and lower than what you would achieve through an estate agent).

Make the Right Choice For You

We Buy Any Home can be an excellent option for property owners who would rather receive a no obligation cash offer and sell their house quickly than go through the lengthy process of selling on the open market with estate agents.

The service has many positive reviews and is a reliable home buying company regulated by the Property Ombudsman. However, it offers less than market value for houses, so it may be worth exploring alternatives such as property auctions, which can also be a way to sell a house quickly.

If you decide to pursue the idea of a property auction, you can keep in the loop through Property Auction News. We post the latest news, policies, and updates in the world of auctions