Cash for houses, any experience

[Bricklayer27]

Hi, I'm interested in the cash for houses does any one have any experience in this? Leafleting ? Etc any help appreciated

[fed up]

Hi, You may have seen my thread on here (receivers). When my final tenants left, leaving me with growing arrears and in need of a fast sale, I also looked at these companies.

On paper, they seem fantastic, one locally claiming to "take away all the worry, leaving you with just the balance".

Now there are a few gimics, so please be very very careful. One is that let's say the house is priced by an agent for sale, it's at £120k. Realistically, it's going to sell at £100k to £110 in that area. The company will begin to break down the sale, with phrases such as you will take 6 months to sell, that's 6 x mortgage payment, 6x house insurance payment (water, gas elec, council tax) they then add those and reduce the offer.

Then they take other fees off, such as agent, solicitor etc., by the time they finish, you believe they are saving you money and are then floored to hear an offer of around £60k and they make it sound like you should be very grateful too.

Gimic number 2, they come along and offer full asking price (yes really ) then the game begins. They ask you to sign a form to your mortgage company, which leaves you on the mortgage and deeds, but gives them permission to make all the payments to the mortgage, they also will clear any arrears. Meantime, they advertise your house for sale, with an ad saying "move in and own your home for just £5k"

The "buyer" then hands over £5k to you (that is your deposit to purchase) then the buyer pays rent plus a premium amount on top, straight to the named person, they make payments on the mortgage and keep the rest, this makes up a deposit over 2 years (apparently) and then the buyer applies for a mortgage, providing their payment history to show they can afford it. Once that's paid, the inbetweener gets a payment and your mortgage is paid off (during this time, your property price could increase by say £10k, that goes entirely to the inbetweener, as you already signed to sell at the original price).

If the buyer cannot get a mortgage after 2 years, they are put out and another sucker (oops sorry ) buyer is sought in the same advert way.

The final one, is a portfolio owner, they see your house at £100k, want to keep the tenant in and leave it as it is, say you have a £70k mortgage, they will simply offer this and this amount only, nothing left for you to retire or live life on

So please be very very wary, they are total rip off's, who pray on those who need to get out fast, they are vulture like (in my opinion) and only look out for their own pockets. The only folk to benefit from this, are those who own a property outright (maybe left to you in a will) and need to just offload to make some/any money out of the sale. Good luck

[Richlist]

Excellent,,,,,very informative post.

[Melboy]

...........and the other Scam is:

They will charge £800 for a valuation. Money up-front is required and then they do a drive by valuation and offer you a ridiculous low price for your property knowing full well you will turn it down but they don't care as they don't want your house anyway and they have got your £800 for 2 minutes "work."