How Do You Sell a House to a Cash Buyer?
Are you interested in selling your house to a cash buyer? Perhaps you are motivated by the fact that both selling and buying property and moving to a new house are considered one of the most stressful things you can do in life. You’ve likely heard of the many benefits that come from finding a cash property buyer.
It’s certainly quicker, eliminates the need to wait for the buyer to make mortgage arrangements and reduces and even eradicates the dreaded property chain completely. However, particularly if you are looking to cash property buyer companies, you need to be careful. There are a lot of sharks and untrustworthy types out there.
How, then, can you sell a house to a cash buyer without getting ripped off? The following tips discussed in this post can help.
Check If They Are Regulated
The first thing you need to do is check whether or not the company you are interested in selling to is a member and therefore regulated by the NAPB, the National Association of Property Buyers. This also means they have registered to the Property Ombudsman Code of Practice and have made a commitment to provide the best quality standards when operating in the cash property buying sector.
The quickest way to check for this information is by looking for the logos on their website. You need to be careful, though, as some unscrupulous companies display the logos and are not members, so it might be best to check directly if you have any concerns.
Find Out Where They Are Located
All legitimate businesses in this company should have a fully registered office address that is displayed at the bottom of all pages on their website. Find their location using Google Maps or another program or app and just try and figure out if they look like an authentic business or not. If it doesn’t look like a fully functioning office or there is no postal address and just a number, do not proceed to work with them until you get more information.
Who is Buying Your Property?
This may seem a strange thing to ask, but there are far too many organisations and agencies out there that are misrepresenting and falsely advertising themselves as cash buyers when really they are estate agents or listing services. Make sure they provide you with evidence that they will be making the purchase directly themselves and not be sneakily trying to sell on to a third party. You should also check if they are listed at sites like Zoopla and Rightmove, as this is another indication they are not cash property buyers and therefore can’t offer you a guaranteed sale.
Is the Offer They Make the Market Value or Lower?
This again may sound like a strange question because getting the market value is surely a good thing? Well, in any situation other than when selling to a cash buyer, it would. If the company you are speaking to offers around 90 to 100% of the market value, avoid at all costs as they can’t possibly be a cash buyer. There has been a government ruling in place that stops a cash buying company from buying at market value because they have to pay higher stamp duty charges and have legal fees and other costs to consider. If they were offering you the market value and were genuinely cash buyers, they would not make any profits – does that sound like something a company would actually do?
Check Their Reviews
To get a real sense of a company, you need to not base it on their own blurb and look to testimonials and reviews submitted by genuine customers. Ideally, you should use Google Reviews and Trustpilot, as these platforms have strict rules, so you are almost certain to get an authentic insight into what the company is like.
Read the good and the bad to get a fuller picture of what they are like.
Are They Going to Cover Your Fees?
Any genuine property cash buyer will not expect you to pay any fees. At Cash Home, we don’t, and we don’t think any should. This is, after all, one of the reasons you are interested in cash buyers in the first place, to save all that hassle and some money too.