But if it wasn�t for National Homebuyers, people who are in financial difficulties wouldn�t be able to sell their property�s. People who are getting repossessed would be in an even worse situation if National Homebuyers didn�t provide the service we offer. People contact us who are having difficulties selling their property�s and we are here to help, we buy the property directly from them. The fee is fully refundable on completion of sale and we pay �1000 towards legal fees, so there is no cost incurred for the vender throughout the whole sale of the property. We are the cash buyer, if we were such a 'scam' we wouldn�t still be in business we have been running for the last 10 years. If we were to be offering ridiculous offers no one would be accepting them we wouldn�t still be running as a company. We make it transparent from start to finish that we pay under market value and we are guaranteed to purchase the property. We state very clearly how we work as a company when you contacted National Homebuyers and if you wasn�t happy with the service you shouldn�t have booked a valuation. We also advertise on TV which is very strict and our offerings have to be verified by Clearcast, so if there was issues they wouldn�t let us advertise.
having recently dealt with n.h.b. i would advise anyone to think long and hard before using them,especially since they charge a fee from the start.their valuation is laughable and insulting to the extreme,even in the face of an independant home buyers report! there are many other companies who offer the same service but without an upfront fee.i would not recommend them to anyone,and i personally will never contemplate using them in the future.in my opinion they are using the current financial situation in the country to take an unfair advantage over people.yes,they offer a cash for homes service and yes ,so do many others.they will say its just the way a business is run,profit margines etc.but to me they are not being reasonable in their valuations.everyone has to make money,but i feel as if i would feel less insulted if i had been mugged it the street.�260 ponds lighter for nothing in my opinion.i would have been better giving the cash to the local cat,s home.
We do not work with your valuation purely because we as a company cannot rely on any other party. We carry out the research ourselves to make sure all the sufficient information is correct. So we can then base our offer on the facts we find. We don�t just base our offer upon the property its self, we also bear in mind other factors. Such as school catchment areas, how near you are to the local town, what facilities are around in the area that benefits the property that would increase the offer being made from National Homebuyers.
Yes I totally understand your comments and all companies need to make profit - as I do in my own chain. However my comment was specifically about the process of the valuation upon which you base your fee. You clearly state that your up-front fee demand is "for valuation purposes"; OK, that is fine - except that in my case a fully legal valuation already existed. Therefore there were no costs whatsoever for you to incur. You could have easily made an offer against the supplied and fully legal valuation within probably minutes of seeing the document. Perhaps you need to bear this in mind when other potential customers have a similar document. Anyway, that's enough from me.
We ask for a up front valuation fee as it costs time and money as a company to gather the information we need to make an offer on the property. You are paying for a service, there for the valuation cannot be started without payment. It shows you are committed to the service and not just wasting our time. Otherwise people could be doing that and just cancelling after and then gaining a full copy of the valuation and the report. We wouldn�t be gaining anything unless you were to accept the offer (Wasting our time and money.) We would be losing out as a company if we were to work like that. Obviously, business being business it�s about profit.
The demand for a 'valuation' is not supportable... read on
Having read the thread of this subject I would like to add one clear fact : the DEMAND for a valuation by NHB is not supportable. The reason is as follows - my family have a house in Scotland which is presently with an estate agent; under Scottish house-selling legislation, the house MUST be subject to an INDEPENDENT valuation by a third-party surveyor outside of the selling chain. The valuation is an important part of the process as it is a document that is used by a buyer to obtain a mortgage. It is valid for a period of 6 months and it cost us �595.00 to be produced. We had ours completed in July 2011. I spoke to NHB and suggested that their Surveyors valuation would not be needed as there was a legal one already in existence. They replied "they would not consider our surveyors valuation and it MUST be produced by THEIR surveyor". I think that everyone reading this post would come to the same conclusion - NHB are using this demand to benefit themselves and, perhaps others might consider, against the best interests of their customers. I of course could not possibly comment other than to present the true and accurate information to subscribers of this site. [/u]
We state very clearly when dealing with clients wishing to sell their property's the valuation fee is non-refundable unless they are accepting our offer provided by National Homebuyers.
'Taking advantage of people in a financial pickle' We don�t cold call people all over the UK offering to buy their property for cash. They contact us, asking for help with selling their property. As in most circumstances they have exhausted all possible methods of selling their property and without us, would have no other option available to them. We simply offer a service that no other 'quick sale company' offers. They have already been informed that the valuation fee is non-re-fundable if they do not accept our offer. And if no customers accepted our offers, we wouldn�t be able to stay in business with just taking valuation fee's from people. We offer under market value because we give such a quick and hassle free service. And if they are willing to accept we can work as quickly as their solicitors can, if that means selling within a week then so be it.
To be frank, business is business. Buying property's is how we make our money as a company. People come to us who are having trouble selling their home, or need a quick sale for fast cash! They are under NO OBLIGATION to accept our offer. And are also fully informed on how the company works (plus terms and conditions)
In holding slavishly to the NHB official publicity line, LaurenNHB's entry should disabuse anyone of the notion that there is any welfarist aspect to NHB. It is a predatory organisation able to move in on hard-pressed home owners in arrears or having difficulty maintaining the upkeep of their home - especially since the government reduced the level of mortgage interest payments to people on benefits down to 5%. NHB's policy is simply to buy homes at knock down prices and to sell them on for a profit. How laudable! How commensurate with the common good!
The government is to attempt to hold in check, via increasing shareholder powers, boardroom and city greed and the lavish salary and salary increases that the High Pay Commission finds so "corrosive" in British life.
Isn't it high time that the the likes of NHB were also regulated, their business practices monitored and an independent complaints mechanism (with teeth) introduced to prevent it and others from operating via fine print legalese and taking advantage of people in a financial pickle?
I have had dealings with NHB and found them ruthlessly profit orientated and ready to impose any risk factor on the prospective seller by reducing their intitial buying offer on the property. Of course, if the prospective seller declines a reduced offer they forfeit the Valuation fee they paid to to NHB.
As LaurenNHB's entry clearly shows, it is the wellbeing of NHB that comes first and last in its thinking and operational activities. It takes a purely instrumental view of its homeowner clients, perhaps many of whom would have done better by steering well clear of it and other companies like it.
Frankly, I wouldn't go near them again supposing they disinfected themselves first.
National Homebuyers do not work to any set percentages and we do make it very clear we do not work to any set percentages or averages. We base every offer on an individual basis. We also make it clear we offer below market value. We charge a valuation fee as it costs time and money as a company to gather all the sufficient information. We also state if you are not happy with the offer you receive from National Homebuyers we do pass the file back to the under writers to see if there is any room for improvement.. And most cases we do increase our offer.. If we were to just charge for the valuation fee and offer 'silly offers' we wouldn�t still be in business after nine years because nobody would except our offers, our goal is to purchase property's and if we were to make silly offers (wasting your time and money as well as ours) we wouldn�t be purchasing property's there for we wouldn�t still be in business.
Penman & Greenwood Investigate - The Daily Mirror
DON'T BUY INTO THIS HOME DEAL
16 June 2005
MILLIONAIRES Julian King and Chris Newman say they want to buy your home: but be warned - their deals could leave you seriously out of pocket.
Trading as National Home Buyers, they offer to buy "any property", and fast. The catch is you have to pay between �240 and �1,240 for their survey.
And if you don't like their offer there are no refunds. Among their victims is Brian Bason of Newport, Isle of Wight.
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A Home Buyers rep told him their typical offers were about 10 per cent less than the market value but, wanting a quick sale, Brian paid �95 for a survey.
Then came the sting. The house was valued at �200,000 yet Home Buyers offered just �140,000 - 30 per cent less. Brian told us: "This was not a serious offer and I think I was duped to get the survey fee."
Tina Pye of Bradford paid Home Buyers �395 for a survey which valued her home at �99,950. The firm offered only �63,000. She has since sold for �90,000.
"This is absolutely disgusting and a rip-off," she said. "At least Dick Turpin wore a mask."
Armed with a file of Home Buyers aggrieved customers, who on average were offered just 64 per cent of the market value of their homes, we met King, 33, and Newman, 32, at their HQ in Burgess Hill, West Sussex.
They insisted that they have "thousands" of happy customers and none of their staff make promises about how much might be offered.
King said: "Everything is as truthful and as clear as it possibly could be."
In small print some of their paperwork does say "any offer made could be considerably less than the current open market value" and Home Buyers has shown us testimonials from content clients.
"We are revolutionising they way people can sell their house," insisted King.
So on average, what per cent of the valuation do they offer? King and Newman refused to answer, saying the information was "commercially sensitive." How many people who pay for surveys actually sell to Home Buyers? Again, "commercially sensitive".
King said: "Every effort is made to make sure all of our customers are fully informed."
Odd then, that the Advertising Standards Authority has just ruled against Home Buyers UK Limited for failing to properly inform customers.
The adjudication came after the company reneged on a promise to improve its adverts. And why was their company, Pavillion Homes Limited, shut down in the High Court last year over an unpaid �14,000 debt?
Again they wouldn't say, this time blaming "ongoing litigation".
King and Newman live in massive luxury homes and King drives an �80,000 Porsche. King has told friends that, while he is "not quite in the rich 500", he hopes to retire soon.
His plans will be delayed if people read Home Buyers' small print very, very, carefully.
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