Comparable sales
What similar homes nearby have actually sold for, adjusted for size, condition and position. This sets the open-market value of the property.
How cash buyers work out offers, and how we work out ours
If you are wondering how cash buyers work out offers, here is our whole method, with nothing held back. Our offers are below open-market value. In return, you get a sale with no fees, your legal fees paid, no marketing and no waiting for a buyer to come along. Below we show the things that set our figure, a worked example and what we put in writing.
Why a direct purchase offer sits below open-market value
We will say this plainly, because it is the most important thing on this page: a below-market-value offer is what you should expect from us, and from any company that buys homes to renovate, let or resell. We are not trying to disguise it.
So why would anyone sell to Resolute Estate Solutions? Because the open market asks things of a seller that not everyone can give. It needs a buyer who likes the house, whose lender likes the house and whose own sale goes through. It needs viewings, a tidy property, often some repairs and months of waiting while each link in the chain catches up. Sales fall apart at every one of those points, which is why we wrote a separate page on what to do when a house sale falls through.
When we buy, we take on the risks the open market leaves with you. We buy as seen, with any condition considered. We pay your legal fees, and we charge you nothing. Those things have a real cost to us, and the difference between our offer and the open-market figure is how we cover it. The rest of this page shows exactly how that gap is built.
The building blocks of every property offer we make
Every figure we put in writing comes from the same building blocks. We work through them in this order whether the home is a terraced house, a flat or a country cottage, and we are happy to talk you through each one on the phone.
Our costs and margin
Our buying and resale costs, the time the property sits with us, and a margin that keeps the company running. We name each of these, not just the total.
Comparable sales: where our figure for your home begins
We start with evidence, not guesswork. Before we call you, we look at recorded sold prices for your postcode and the streets around it, using data from HM Land Registry's price records through the PropertyData service. We want sales of homes like yours: the same type, a similar number of bedrooms, a similar plot and, where we can find them, a similar condition.
Sold prices matter more than asking prices. An asking price is a hope. A sold price is what a buyer actually paid, so it is the fairest place to begin. Asking prices on portals can sit well above what later appears on the register, which is why we do not rely on them.
Then we adjust. A house on a busy road, a flat with a short lease or a home with no parking sells for less than the same size of home round the corner. A corner plot with a garage may sell for more. We note every adjustment we make, so that when we explain the offer we can show you which sales we relied on and why. If you know of a sale we have missed, tell us. We would rather use better evidence than defend a weak figure.
Where the property needs so much work that no one could get a mortgage on it, the buyer pool shrinks, and that affects the figure too. Our page on selling a derelict or unmortgageable house explains why lenders step back from some homes.
Our own costs and margin, listed rather than hidden
This part is often left unexplained. We think you should see it. When we buy a property, these are the costs we carry before we see any return:
- Your legal fees. We pay them, so nothing comes out of your proceeds for your own solicitor's work on the sale.
- Our legal fees and searches. Our solicitor checks the title, the searches and the contract.
- Surveys. Where we need one, we pay for it.
- Purchase tax. As the buyer we pay any Stamp Duty Land Tax due on the purchase. None of it is passed to you.
- Holding costs. Council tax, insurance, utilities and security for the months the property is being worked on.
- Resale or letting costs. Agent fees, marketing and our legal costs when we later sell or let.
After those comes our margin. It is the amount the company needs to make on a purchase to cover the risk that prices move or that the home takes longer to sell. We do not pretend it does not exist. We are a company that buys property, and our margin is how we stay here to buy the next one.
Your online offer and your written offer
Online offer
Our online offer form gives an automated estimate of your home's value. Our indicative offer is 70% of it, because we haven't seen the property yet. It's a starting point, not a final offer.
Written offer
You will receive an offer after discussing our findings.
Good to know
Your final offer may be higher or lower than the first figure. If it's lower, we'll explain why. You can say no at no cost.
What your written offer and Terms of Business contain
Every offer we make is a written offer. After the viewing, we send it by email so you have it to keep and show to family or your solicitor. It sets out:
- the price we are offering, and that it is paid in full on completion;
- a short explanation of how we reached it, including the comparable sales;
- any conditions, such as a survey, stated before you accept rather than sprung on you later;
- the timescales we are working to for each stage;
- our Terms of Business, which list every fee and cost. There are no fees for you, so there is no VAT to add either.
If an offer is ever amended, for any reason, the new figure comes in writing too, with the reason and the same detail. A figure mentioned on the phone is only a conversation until you have it written down. You can read the step-by-step selling process from first call to completion to see where the offer fits.
One more thing the offer states: the property must be empty by completion. If you or family members live there now, you move out before the sale completes. We do not allow sellers to become our tenants after the sale.
When an agreed price can change, and when we will not change it
A late cut to an agreed price is the thing sellers fear most from property-buying companies, and with good reason. Here is our rule. We only change an offer after you have accepted it if something new, material and evidenced comes to light that we could not reasonably have known at the viewing, and we explain the change in writing with the evidence attached.
Examples of what could count: a survey finding structural movement hidden behind new plaster, a legal search showing a road scheme or the title showing a restriction nobody mentioned. Examples of what does not count: the market feeling softer, a change of mind on our side, or anything we saw, or should have seen, when we walked round.
If we do have to revise the figure, you are free to say no, keep the property and pay us nothing. You will never be asked to cover our costs for a sale that does not go ahead. And if you think we have handled anything unfairly, our complaints procedure and response times explain what happens next.
Turning down our offer costs you nothing
Our offers are free and carry no obligation. We do not put deadlines on them, and we never set a time limit on a figure. You can take the written offer away, sleep on it, talk to family, get an estate agent's view or ask your own solicitor what they think.
If you decide against it, that is the end of it. We will not keep calling. If you tell us you would like to hear from us again later, we note that; otherwise, we only contact you about the enquiry you made. Our company details and the standards we hold ourselves to are set out in full, including who we are and where our registered office is.
When you do want to go ahead, the next step is to send us the property details for a written offer, or call us on 0203 746 5656.
Offers for empty, inherited and rental properties
The method never changes, but the details of each situation can move the numbers. A few examples of what we take into account:
- Empty homes. A property left empty for a long time often needs more work, and every month empty adds council tax and insurance costs for the owner. Read about selling an empty house as seen and the council tax premium on long-term empty homes.
- Estates. Executors often want a clear figure they can show the beneficiaries. Our written offer and its reasoning are designed to do that. See selling a probate property as an executor.
- Rental properties. We buy rental properties with vacant possession, so the tenancy must have ended and the property be empty by completion. Your solicitor and GOV.UK can guide you on the tenancy side. See selling a rental property as a landlord.
Whichever applies, we check identity and ownership carefully before exchange. Our page on the identity and fraud checks we carry out explains why.
For general guidance on getting ready to sell, including the documents a seller normally gathers, the government's How to sell a home guide on GOV.UK is a good, neutral read.
Questions about how our property offers are worked out
Why is your offer lower than an estate agent's valuation?
An agent's figure is what they think a buyer on the open market might pay, before agent's fees, legal fees and any repairs, and assuming the sale goes through. Our offer is below that open-market value because we pay all the costs, take the property as seen and carry the risk of works and resale. The written offer shows how we reached it.
Do you charge any fees or take anything off the price?
No. There are no fees, and we pay your legal fees. The price in the written offer is the amount paid to your solicitor on completion. Our Terms of Business list all fees and costs, and for you there are none, so there is no VAT either.
Will you lower the price just before exchange?
Only if something new, material and evidenced appears that we could not have known at the viewing, and then we explain it in writing with the evidence. You can say no to a revised offer and walk away without paying anything.
Do I have to accept your offer by a certain date?
No. We do not put deadlines on offers. Take the time you need and talk to family or a solicitor if that helps. If circumstances change a lot before you reply, for example if prices in the area move, we would tell you in writing before anything changes.
Does the offer depend on a survey?
Sometimes. If it does, we tell you before you accept, and the condition is written into the offer. We pay for the survey. You are never charged for it, whether or not the sale goes ahead.
Page last reviewed on by the Resolute Estate Solutions team.