House Buyers Wales Q&A

No. You really can sell your house fast, for cash, with certainty.

The trade-off is simple: in exchange for a fast, guaranteed sale, with no chain and no delays, we pay a cash price that reflects the value we provide.

No catches. No hidden fees. No sneaky last-minute price drops. Just a straight cash sale within a completion timescale that works for you.

First, we need to address the elephant in the room — with full transparency and integrity:

No genuine cash buying company can pay full market price and offer a fast, guaranteed, hassle-free sale. Just like you can't have your cake and eat it. If someone tells you otherwise, it's a scam.

"Market value" isn't one number — it's an opinion, and it differs depending on who you ask. Ask an estate agent, a RICS surveyor, the seller, a retail buyer and a cash buyer and you'll get five different answers. The only true market value is the price a property actually sells for and completes at. Everything else is just an opinion—a guess at best—and not "the market value".

An estate agent's asking price is not market value. If a house is listed at £100,000 and hasn't sold, the market has already told you it isn't worth £100,000.

Our offer has to account for the real costs of buying, holding and reselling your home: Land Transaction Tax (Stamp Duty), the opportunity cost of capital, solicitors' fees, insurance, utilities, and estate agent fees again when we sell. These costs are unavoidable and must all be factored into what we can pay. Plus we need a chance to make a fair return for the value, time, capital and risk of our work.

The reality is you have a choice:

a) Highest possible price — you must try selling with an estate agent. But you'll need to accept the long wait, the frustration, the uncertainty, and the real risk of your sale falling through or not selling at all. A little known fact is that estate agents fail to sell almost half of the properties they list.?

b) Fast, certain, hassle-free cash sale — we buy your property and you move on with your life. No chain, no fall-throughs, no mortgage surveyors, no stress.

We give you the options, and you choose what is right for you (with no pressure from us, whatsoever).

Fastest completion we've done is 5 days, but that's too fast for most sellers! Funds can be in your account in as little as 7 days, but most clients pick 21-28 days to align with their timescales and other commitments. You set the date, we work to make it happen.

We rarely buy homes above £250,000. Above this level, the Welsh Government charges a significantly higher rate of Land Transaction Tax (Stamp Duty), which — once our buying, holding, selling and opportunity costs are factored in — makes a workable cash offer very hard to achieve.

Being straight with you: the cash figure we could offer on higher-value properties is likely to be a long way off what most home sellers would consider. We flag this up front so we don't disappoint or offend you (it's never our intention to do that!) — but if you're comfortable with that, we're happy to talk.

No. Never.

The offer we make is the cash you get. No deductions, no last-minute price drops. We've bought hundreds of homes across South Wales and we have never reduced our agreed cash offer price — we never have, and we never will.

You're right to ask though: Almost every other cash buying company does exactly that — dropping their offer at the last minute when you're committed, the clock is ticking, and your back is against the wall.

We have a strong ethical compass. We don't take advantage of people. That's not who we are and it's not how we do business.

No agent fees, no commission, and we cover your standard conveyancing legal fees when your sale to us completes. You get 100% of the cash offer, no fees.

No. Most "cash buyers" are actually commission-based call centres and are just overpriced estate agents and they have no idea whether they can sell your property or not.

Other companies commonly make "offers" over the phone without first viewing your property — which is an obvious red flag. 🚩🚩🚩

Ask yourself: How many times have you bought a house without first viewing it?

Answer: NEVER — and no genuine buyer would make a certain cash offer without first viewing it, too.

If you're not sure if you're speaking to a genuine cash buying company or not, ask these two questions to expose the truth immediately:

1. "Is your company the named buyer on the final sales transfer?" If they hesitate, or say "it'll be one of our investors," they are not genuine cash buyers — they are expensive, non-local estate agents and they have no idea whether they will be able to find you a buyer at the price they've promised or not.

2. If they do answer positively, then ask: "Can you show me a bank statement evidencing sufficient cash funds in your company name, dated within the last 7 days?"

Watch what happens next (99% will run)!

At House Buyers Wales, we are the actual buyers - David & Jason - using our own cash funds. You speak to one of us from the first call to the day of completion. No gimmicks, no sales tricks, no "bait and switch".

Yes. Until contracts are exchanged, you are not committed.

Walk away at any point — no fee, no penalty, no awkwardness.

One thing worth stating: once your independent solicitor has started billable work for you, you'd be responsible for settling their costs if you pull out (we cover legal fees in full only on successful completion). It's a small detail, but we'd rather you knew upfront.

That's also why we never pressure anyone. Take your time. Talk to family, friends, whoever you need. We'd rather you were certain than rushed.

Yes - we buy houses in any condition. In need of full refurbishment or renovation, damp, subsidence, fire damage, hoarder properties, no kitchen, no boiler. The worse the condition, the more useful we usually are as you may very well struggle to sell them any other way (especially if the property is unhabitable or otherwise unmortgageable).

Yes, we buy houses with tenants in situ, and also empty ex-rentals (even if they've been left in a mess). No eviction needed, no long void periods or holding costs. We're experienced landlords ourselves.

Yes - inheritance and probate houses are a very significant proportion of our work. We work patiently and compassionately with executors, at whatever pace the estate requires. We're happy to signpost you to the DIY probate process (which most of our clients prefer, saving both time and money), or to liase with your existing probate solicitors — whichever suits you.

Our free house clearance service is something our inheritance clients find invaluable. When a loved one passes, the last thing you want is to spend weeks clearing and cleaning a house full of a lifetime's possessions just to get it ready for sale. Work with us and you don't have to: take whatever is valuable, sentimental or useful — leave everything else for us to deal with after completion.

No. Whatever the state of your property, we've seen and bought properties a hundred times worse. Don't spend a weekend cleaning for our visit. If the house is full of stuff (furniture, paperwork, an entire lifetime of belongings), we clear it for free after completion. No extra cost.

Yes. We pay both solicitors - ours and yours. You don't see a bill from anyone. One thing worth stating: once your independent solicitor has started billable work for you, you'd be responsible for settling their costs if you pull out (we cover legal fees in full only on successful completion). It's a small detail, but we'd rather you knew upfront.

That's also why we never pressure anyone. Take your time. Talk to family, friends, whoever you need. We'd rather you were certain than rushed.

It depends on the house, location, condition and prevailing market. Often, we buy houses to rent or re-sell. We refurbish and renovate where needed. We're a Welsh company doing this for the long term — we live, work and breathe South Wales property.

Yes, 100%. Our group of House Buyers Wales companies are all legally registered and report to Companies House, HMRC and Welsh Revenue. ICO registered for data protection. Rent Smart Wales registered and licensed with Welsh Government. We are corporate members of the NRLA and Guild of Residential Landlords. We are local members of Federation of Small Businesses. We are very well known, liked, trusted and respected in the South Wales property community and have an outstanding reputation for being genuine and fair.

Unlike most fly-by-night fast-sale and cash-buying companies, we proudly put our names and face to our business.

We are proud to have over 123 Google 5-star verified reviews and many video testimonials which we'd encourage you to see for yourself. We're happy to give you our solicitor's contact details before any visit so you can verify us independently. You will meet either David or Jason face-to-face, unless you are selling to us remotely (we've bought many houses in South Wales from people living elsewhere across the globe).

No "for sale" boards. No listing on Rightmove or Zoopla. Remember, unlike 99% of 'fast sale' outfits, we are not estate agents — we are genuine cash buyers. Selling to us is 100% private, discreet and confidential. No neighbours asking questions. No strangers snooping around your house. The only people who'll know are you, us, and the solicitors (who obviously work confidentially).

Be really careful of other cash buying companies as we've heard many horror stories of homesellers discovering their property has been listed publicly on Rightmove and Zoopla, with a "For Sale" board being erected, alerting all the nosy neighbours — all without the homeseller's express prior knowledge or consent.

(Remember, at House Buyers Wales, we don't do that — we are NOT estate agents masquerading as cash buyers, so there is no reason for us to advertise your sale publicly.)

Yes — but you'll need to act fast and contact us right away so that we have sufficient time to stop the repossession and avoid you being liable for any further costs and fees that your lender will recover from you. From the start, you will need to be fully open and transparent about your situation and how far advanced the repossession process is, so we can work quickly with the right information.

David & Jason have helped many people in this position. Speed is everything — the longer you wait, the harder it gets — and the more fees the lender will levy on you. Ring us straight away and we'll work out how best to help you.

You pay stamp duty (or Land Transaction Tax, as it's called here in Wales) when you buy. If you've already bought another property before selling your existing one, you will have likely had to pay the significantly "higher rate" for your additional purchase. You may well be able to recover this additional rate if you sell your original property within a certain timeframe — for instance, by selling to us.

(As a house buying company, we are also government-classified as additional property buyers and so have to factor in any higher rate Land Transaction Tax that we must pay into our offers.)

We are South Wales experts — Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Caerphilly, Cwmbran, Barry, Bridgend, and all the Valleys (up to the Heads of the Valleys road). We tend to operate as far west as Llanelli, and as far east as Chepstow. We sometimes (but not often) go further afield, but only if it makes sense for all parties.

A few reasons.

(1) We're (very) local and Welsh — and experts in the South Wales region, with over 30+ years of direct, local experience. Not a Manchester-based call centre with the word "Wales" in the website heading to trick your Google search.

(2) We're genuine, honest cash buyers — not middlemen, not brokers and definitely not estate agents. (Beware: Most "cash buyers" online are really just estate agents, but they won't tell you that upfront.)

(3) You'll meet us in person. Not a "valuer" subcontracted by the head office, nor an estate agent. You'll meet the solicitors face-to-face (unless you'd prefer not to) — you're also welcome to use your own, preferred solicitor too.

(4) We never drop the price — the biggest complaint about national cash buyers is the last minute price drop to force you to sell at a very low price. Our hundreds of 5-star reviews evidence that we don't do that.

(5) We have 30+ years of property buying experience in South Wales. (Actually, it's actually closer to 50 years, combined between David & Jason!)

(6) We're registered, licensed and regulated members of the Welsh Government's Rent Smart Wales scheme. We are voluntary corporate members of numerous professional bodies, including the National Residential Landlords Association, the Guild of Residential Landlords and the Federation of Small Businesses.

(7) We have the best reputation in the business — and we're not about to risk it for a "quick buck".

There's really no catch — the trade-off is understanding that a cash buyer needs to pay a cash price in exchange for the multiple benefits you'll receive in return: speed, certainty and a smooth, easy, stress-free sale. If you can understand and accept this reality, then we can definitely help you.