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Instant Cash Valuationwww.homesellingexpert.co.uk / www.housebuyerbureau.co.uk
Home Selling Expert is not in itself a fast home buying company. However, it generates its revenue through commissions whenever it recommends particular companies.
Home Selling Expert is a subsidiary of Matthew Cooper Property Consultancy LTD, which was registered on Companies House in 2013. Its registered office address is 1 Edison Court Ellice Way, Wrexham Technology Park, Wrexham, Clwyd, United Kingdom, LL13 7YT.
The fast home buying company with which it is affiliated is House Buyer Bureau, an organisation that was first listed on Companies House in 2014, and that is registered to 7 Faraday Court, Centrum One Hundred, Burton-On-Trent, Staffordshire, DE14 2WX.
The company address listed on the company’s website, however, is 1 The Cornerstone, Market Place, Kegworth, DE74 2EE.
The company operates across England, Wales and Scotland. It operates purely as a “we buy any house” style organisation, offering cash offers directly to homeowners.
While there is a large amount of text and information on most pages of the company’s website, making it somewhat overwhelming, it is also fairly easy to navigate - and House Buyer Bureau appears to be very transparent in terms of its processes and activities.
As is the case with a large number of cash home buyers, the organisation states that it can complete “within 7 days” or according to a timescale set by the seller. It does not reveal an average timescale, but other reviewers have stated that the House Buyer Bureau’s process usually takes 7-28 days.
This is also used as a standard timescale in its “How Long Does it Take to Sell a House?” guide within its Help & Advice section.
In terms of the cash offer that House Buyer Bureau is likely to make, there is an area of the company’s site that is specifically dedicated to explaining “What We Pay”. There, it is clearly stated that the organisation will typically offer 80-85% of a property’s market value.
True cash home buying companies are never able to offer full market value for a property, as they generate revenue by purchasing at a discounted price and selling on the open market.
It is worth noting that vendors may be able to receive “up to 5% more” if they decide to use a separate selling method that is also available via House Buyer Bureau - their “eight-week investor sale”.
They are transparent in their explanation that this approach is for sellers who are “in less of a hurry”.
The company provides a breakdown of the finances of their sales method on their homepage, and compares it to that of the standard estate agent. Here, they explain that they charge £0 estate agency fees and £0 solicitors fees.
The organisation states under its “What You Should Know” section that “using our solicitors is free”. In their FAQs, they state that “if you prefer to choose a solicitor, we will contribute £600 towards their fees”.
House Buyer Bureau explains that they do not ask you to sign any contract. According to their site “you’re under no obligation to accept our offer — both in principle and formal — and you can walk away at any time right up until the point of exchanging contracts”.
Here are what we perceive to be the positive and negative elements of the process and services provided by House Buyer Bureau.
Their website is highly informative, and you don’t need to search far to find all of the key information you’ll need to feel confident in their services.
House Buyer Bureau is a founding member of the National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB), which means that it is demonstrably against fraud and will hold its employees accountable for all of their activities.
It’s also registered with the Property Ombudsman Service (TPOS) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The company states that it is willing to be flexible and work to a completion date set by the seller.
They are clear about their typical offer and their fees - not only are their agency services free, but the use of their recommended solicitors is too, and they will even give you money towards the fees charged by your own conveyancer - which is very rare within this particular industry.
House Buyer Bureau has also put together the “HBB Price Promise”, which is a statement promising that their formal offer won’t change, that they will beat the “genuine purchase price” of any competitor, and that the seller will not need to pay anything if they decide not to use the company to sell their house.
House Buyer Bureau’s website is fairly dense with text on the majority of its pages, which can make it overwhelming.
The information they provide about the typical amount of time they take to sell property is relatively vague.
They don’t have a huge number of reviews across Google and Trustpilot, and while they do have almost 500 on Feefo, none have been left within the last year.
The company states that “we do all our valuation work remotely”. This does put the seller at a slightly higher risk of receiving an inaccurate offer. This is an additional concern considering that the company will not be able to offer 100% of the property’s value in the first place.
House Buyer Bureau has reviews across three major feedback platforms:
Responses to their services seem wholly positive, although they have received no new write ups on Feefo in the last year. It is worth noting, though, that this is the platform on which they have the most reviews by far, and they have also achieved their highest overall star rating here.
“We’ll never hard-sell you or pressure you to make a decision”.
One of the most common complaints when it comes to companies within the fast home buying industry is their tendency to “pester” or make contact with their clients or leads too regularly.
However, we could not find any reviews across the feedback platforms used by House Buy Bureau that criticised the organisation for employing a “high pressure” approach to sales. Even the lowest ratings included no mention of “hard selling” - so we are inclined to agree with this claim.
“All our formal quick sale cash offers come with the HBB Price Promise”
It is very rare that a “we buy any house” company refers to any form of guarantee on their website and then provides evidence or sufficient confirmatory detail.
However, in the case of House Buyer Bureau, an entire section of their site is devoted to their “HBB Price Promise” - and it appears that they are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
The statement runs as follows:
“We promise our formal offer won’t change — in the rare event* that it does, we’ll give you £1,000 to walk away with.
We promise we will beat any competitor’s genuine purchase price.
We promise that if you choose not to sell to us, there will be no costs to you.”
It is worth noting that this is only applicable to fast cash sales, and comes with a condition that the company may renege on the promise if “something significant is found in the independent survey or material legal issues arise with the sale”. This is clearly stated in the “Price Promise” area of the site.
At the House Buyer Bureau’s site, it is clearly stated that the brand is “a business of HBB Relocation Services LTD”. However, House Buyer Bureau does have its own registration number and account on Companies House.
It is also worth stating that the organisation was known as “HBB Investments Limited” between its date of registration and 30th August 2014.
Another connected organisation is HBB Solutions, which offers property part-exchange and chain repair services.
It also appears to pay commission to Matthew Cooper Property Consultancy LTD’s company “Home Selling Expert”.
It also has a number of investors with whom it works - or has worked in the past - including house builders Duchy Homes.
Below, you’ll find a little more information on the operations and services provided by House Buyer Bureau to help you to form a clearer understanding of how the organisation works.
On their “How We Work” page, House Buyer Bureau breaks down their property buying process as follows:
Fill in our short online form — it will only take a couple of minutes, we promise. One of our friendly property buying experts will get in contact to find out a little more about your property and to discuss whether a quick house sale is the right choice for you — no hard selling! We will make an initial no-obligation offer based on the information you provide. If you like our offer, we’ll arrange a free valuation of your property.
We do all our valuation work remotely. We use hundreds of pieces of data from various property portals and speak to local estate agents to build a picture of your property, what we think it will sell for, and how long it will take to sell in the current market. When valuing your property, we consider its condition, the recent sold prices of similar properties, local risks such as flooding and how much comparable properties are on the market for. We want to pay you as much as we can so that you’ll be happy to sell to us.
You’ll receive your formal offer within 48-hours of our first call. We use all of our research along with the information you provide to us about your property to calculate your no-obligation cash offer. The House Buyer Bureau Price Promise backs all our quick sale cash offers. We promise to beat any competitor’s genuine purchase price, and in the rare event that we need to change our offer, due to something unexpected appearing on the survey, we’ll give you £1,000 even if you choose not to go ahead with a sale to us.
Once the final offer is accepted, we will agree a completion date to suit you. The sale will be complete and you receive the cash.
If you choose to accept our formal offer, we recommend you use a solicitor from our panel of quick house sale experts at no cost to you. We can instruct them on your behalf. Alternatively, you may find your own solicitor, and we will contribute £600 towards your conveyancing costs. After you’ve completed the initial paperwork, we’ll take care of everything. Our house buying experts will make sure that your house sale progresses in a timescale that suits you, be that 7 or 70 days — you’re in control!
We will arrange the exchange of contracts and sale completion on dates that are convenient for you. We'll transfer the funds for your property to your solicitor, who will pay off any outstanding mortgage balance then pay the remaining cash into your bank account. Once you’ve handed over your keys, the sale is complete!
The company also offers an “eight week investor sale”, whereby they work to sell your company to a member of their roster of dedicated investors. This does involve the use of a third party, which is slightly riskier and will usually take longer - but is likely to prove more lucrative than a direct cash purchase.
They also make mention of a “house builder part exchange scheme”, accessible via their sister company HBB Solutions.
House Buyer Bureau has only ever filed accounts for a “dormant company” on Companies House. However, HBB Relocation Services have filed their “Group of Companies’ Accounts” up to March 2021, revealing a gross profit of £2,726,455 - a decrease of around 53.7% from the previous year.
The 2021 figures were from a turnover of £44,402,669, down from £105,437,605 the previous year.
While House Buyer Bureau does work with investors if the seller selects their “eight week investor sale” option, they also state that “we do not need to secure financing, nor will we pass your business on to a third party. We are happy to provide proof of funds — just ask!”
Yes - if you choose a conveyancer from their selected roster of legal experts, House Buyer Bureau will cover the cost. If you decide to use your own solicitor, the company will still provide you with £600 towards their fees.
A valuation from House Buyer Bureau comes free of charge, as is stated on multiple pages of their site.
The company does not charge estate agency fees, nor does it tie you in to a contract at any point in the process.
As mentioned earlier in this review, the organisation clearly states that “you’re under no obligation to accept our offer — both in principle and formal — and you can walk away at any time right up until the point of exchanging contracts”.
No viewings need be arranged when you sell to House Buyer Bureau, as the company will buy your property directly from you with no third party involvement.
It is unclear whether viewings are required as part of their “eight week investor sale option”, as this does involve an additional party - so it is certainly worth checking this with the company.
It appears that House Buyer Bureau does not even require surveyors to make a visit to your property in order to make a formal offer - although this does come with its own risks, as it may affect the accuracy of their valuation.
In 2018, the company won a Gold Trusted Service award from review site Feefo, for the high number of five-star reviews it had received on the platform at the time.
In 2022, it was also named among Derbyshire’s Top 50 businesses for the third year running.
House Buyer Bureau has a 4.6-star overall rating on Trustpilot - based on 174 reviews, and the same via Google - based on 88 reviews.
The company also achieved a 4.9 star overall rating via Feefo as a result of 498 reviews - although all feedback on this platform was left more than a year previous to the time of writing.
House Buyer Bureau has accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Its Facebook page has 497 likes and 514 followers, and was launched in 2013, prior to the organisation’s registration on Companies House.
It posts there sporadically - for example, at the time of writing, its five most recent posts are dated 2nd November, 1st November, 29th October, 25th October and 22nd September.
The post before this was made back in February of the same year.
The company usually shares content about its services and activities.
House Buyer Bureau has a Twitter account, but this has just 35 followers and has not been operational since 2014.
The company’s YouTube account has just 6 followers and five videos, but its oldest uploads only date back five months at the time of writing. They consist of adverts and video testimonials - along with a BBC Radio 4 feature.
Their LinkedIn page has 1,549 followers, and the company posts here at least once per month and often multiple times per week. It features similar content to their Facebook page.
We hope you have found the above information useful when choosing a fast home sale company.
This Company Review and in-depth Summary have been created to provide users with a clear understanding of the organisation’s specialisms, processes and practices.
All of the information above was researched and fact-checked using:
The company’s official website
The Companies House website
Relevant review sites, including allAgents, Feefo, Google, Reviews.com and Trustpilot
Relevant social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
The websites of regulatory bodies such as the National Association of Property Buyers, the Information Commissioner’s Office and The Property Ombudsman
The websites of relevant rewarding bodies (from which the company claims to have received accolades)
Independent reviews of the company found via Google’s search engine
If you wish to double check any of the information provided in this summary, you can refer to these same sources.
The entirety of the information we have included in this review was correct at the time of writing. We will continue to fact-check and update the review at regular intervals in order to achieve the highest possible levels of accuracy.
We highly recommend that you undertake your own research into any home buying organisation you may be considering, as we understand that you may have unique requirements or specific queries that are not covered on this page.
You can learn more about our company comparison techniques and approaches in the “About Us” page of this site.
You’ll find a selection of handy guides in our “Resources” section. These articles may provide you with valuable information regarding selling your property fast, for the best possible price.
Alternatively, if you require a fast valuation to get a clear idea of the amount you should be offered for your property, please tap the “Valuation Tool” button below. For further information, to make any enquiries or to request advice, please tap the “Help and Support” button.
0800 046 1949
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