How the price works
How the price works — the whole calculation, on one page
We’re not going to dress this up. You will get more on the open market than you will get from us, if it sells, and if the buyer doesn’t pull out, and if you can wait five or six months. That’s a real trade and you should make it with your eyes open.
Where the difference actually goes
Not one of these is a fee we charge you. They’re costs we carry.
Stamp duty
We pay an extra 5% on top of the standard rates on every purchase, because it isn’t our home. On a £250,000 house that’s £12,500 before we’ve done anything else.
Both sets of legal fees
Yours and ours.
What has to be spent on the property
Before anyone else would buy it — the roof, the wiring, the damp, the kitchen.
What it costs to own it
While we sell it on: council tax, insurance, utilities, maintenance, and the agent’s fee when we do sell.
The risk that the market moves
Between us buying it and us selling it. That risk is ours from the day we complete.
Running the business
The people who answer the phone, the surveys, the office.
The second thing that moves the price
The rung you pick sets most of it. The rest is the house itself — tap each number to see exactly what we look at, because you should never have to guess. When we buy, we take on everything that’s wrong with it and everything that has to be spent before anyone else would buy it.
1What has to be spent before it’s sellable again
Not decoration — we don’t care about the carpets or the wallpaper and you don’t need to touch either. We mean the things a buyer’s surveyor would stop on: the roof, the wiring, the boiler, damp, structural movement.
2Whether a normal buyer could get a mortgage on it
A short lease, spray foam in the loft, cladding without an EWS1, non-standard construction, knotweed, a sitting tenant. If no lender will touch it, the pool of people who could buy it is just us and people like us — and that shows up in the number. Each one has its own page.
3What it would realistically sell for locally
Not the asking price, and not what the agent said in the hope of getting the instruction. What houses like yours have actually completed at nearby — we show you the comparables with the written offer.
Whatever these three say about your house, you see our reasoning in writing before you decide anything — every number on this page is shown before we ask a single thing about you.
Who you’re actually dealing with. We buy property, and we broker a guaranteed sale between you and the buyer. Sometimes the buyer is us; sometimes it’s one of our vetted partner purchasers — named in the contract, never without your agreement. Either way your contract is with us, and the price, the date and the £500-a-day guarantee are ours to honour.
We’re property buyers, not financial advisers — nothing on this page is financial, tax or legal advice. If the sums matter to other decisions you’re making, put them in front of an independent adviser or your solicitor first.
What doesn’t move it: how tidy it is, whether it’s empty, whether it’s been on the market a long time, or how quickly you say you need to sell. That last one matters — some buyers in this trade drop the number when they smell a deadline. We price the date on the ladder, in public, before we ever speak to you.
Three examples of how it works
These are illustrations to show you the shape of the calculation. They are not offers and your figure will be different. We’ve used a £250,000 house in all three so you can see what changes.
| Example | Sells for | Date chosen | Condition | Illustrative offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A house that needs nothing | £250,000 | 2–4 weeks (27%) | None | £182,500 |
| A house that needs work | £250,000 | 2–4 weeks (27%) | The cost of the works, priced before the offer | £182,500 minus the works |
| A house no lender will lend on | £250,000 | 3–6 months (18%) | Known before the offer — never chipped after | £205,000 |
And here’s what you pay
Nothing.
No fee, no commission, no valuation charge, no withdrawal fee. We pay your legal costs, and you can use your own solicitor — we’d rather you did.
Tell us your date
There's no obligation and nothing to sign. We'll give you a figure in writing, with our reasoning, and you can take it to anyone you like before you decide.
Or call us: 0191 249 3969 · 8am–8pm, seven days