Looking to sell your property fast but not sure who to trust? Complete our contact form
Looking to sell your property fast but not sure who to trust? Complete our contact form
Critical Analysis:
When you’re selling your property, it’s of vital importance to know who you’re working with.
In here, you’ll find everything you need to know about BetterMove.co.uk and whether you should trust them to sell your property quickly.
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Company
Established in
2019
Members of NAPB
Yes
Members of TPO
Yes
Registered with ICO
Yes
Approved by CTSI
No
Will “BetterMove” pay all of your legal fees?
Yes, in most cases
Do they ask you to sign a contract?
Yes
Government verified transactions
No
Cash offer
Average sale time
30 days
Fastest sale time
14 days
Availability
24 / 7
Complaints procedure
Yes
Customer service
4.5 / 5
Google rating
N / A
Trustpilot rating
4.6 / 5
Reviews.co.uk rating
4.9 / 5
Feefo rating
N / A
BetterMove provides fast cash offers and has a team of property assistants. They will help you sell your property, no matter the condition, in as quickly as 14-30 days, if that’s your preference.
If you decide to work with them, BetterMove will promote your property to their internal database of potential buyers with the aim of achieving the fastest sale possible.
4.7 / 5
(source: Companies House)
BetterMove is a property buying company based in the UK. But they employ a slightly different approach to property selling.
BetterMove claims to have a database of potential buyers, which allows them to find someone interested in your property fast.
From what we’ve seen thus far, the team at BetterMove aims to provide a fair service and competitive cash offers. If that’s not the case for you, please contact us to let us know.
On their website, they state the company focuses on speed, value, and convenience, and ensures each one of their customers is completely satisfied with the sale of their property.
However, even though their claims sound good, we wanted to put them to the test.
When working with them, they’ll buy the property from you at a price that satisfies both parties involved, and then sell it for a profit.
You’ll get a slightly below-market price, but you’ll achieve a prompt and effortless sale with little bureaucracy.
BetterMove provides free cash offers, doesn’t have estate agent or solicitors fees and guarantees the sale of any property.
They can give you a no-obligation quote in just 24 hours and purchase your property in as little as 2 days.
This type of sale is perfect for people in a rush, who don’t have time for unnecessary red tape.
It’s important to remember:
You won’t get the full market value of your property, but you’ll sell it very fast, and you won’t have to pay any legal fees, charges or commissions.
In fact, this is by far the fastest way to sell. A typical estate agent will take 6-9 months, whereas a fast home-selling company can do it in mere days.
You’re sacrificing a negotiable percentage of cash for an exponential increase in speed-of-sale and a major reduction of headaches and legal complications.
BetterMove promise they’ll go above and beyond your expectations, to ensure the sale of your property goes smoothly and without any issues.
In most cases, they will cover all of your legal fees and charges, and you won’t have to pay any commissions. You’ll also get a dedicated property expert, which means you’ll deal with the same person from start to finish.
BetterMove don’t seem to have hidden costs, but you should always double-check every document or contract you receive from a cash house buyer.
In the case of BetterMove’s, you’ll most likely be asked to sign a contract, which should transparently outline all the terms and conditions.
After you begin working with them, within 24 hours, your property will be shown to BetterMove’s contact database of potential buyers. And each interested buyer will be screened.
When they find the best qualified investor/buyer for your property, they’ll make him pay a ‘buyer commitment fee’ to minimise the risk of the deal falling through.
Remember, if this got confusing, you are the property seller in this situation. And you don’t have to pay any legal fees, charges, or commissions. But the investor, who’s buying the property from you, will have to pay a commitment fee.
Therefore, you can rest assured that, if everything goes as planned, the buyer of your property won’t back out last minute. And your property will be sold on time.
Yes, BetterMove is a member of NAPB.
The National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB) was specifically set up to protect homeowners looking to sell their houses for cash to a property buying company.
The NAPB continuously screens its members in order to see whether they’re maintaining the necessary business integrity, legality, professionalism, and customer service.
It’s mandatory for all NAPB members to also register with The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and abide by the TPO ‘Code Of Practice For Residential Buying Companies’.
However, being an NAPB member itself, is completely voluntary. Nobody forces these cash home buyers to become members, they do it of their own volition.
Therefore, by becoming an NAPB member, BetterMove showcases a clear intent to be held accountable if anything goes wrong.
Yes, BetterMove are also a member of TPO.
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) defends the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints of maladministration or a violation of rights.
It has been providing consumers and property agents with an alternative dispute resolution service since 1990.
TPO has a specific category for fast home sale companies, such as BetterMove.
These companies have to adhere to a strict ‘Code of Practice for Residential Buying Companies’.
BetterMove is regulated by TPO and strictly follows the above mentioned TPO code of conduct.
Yes, BetterMove have been registered with the ICO since July 2019.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulatory body set up to uphold information rights.
The ICO also governs all forms of data collection and advertising intelligence.
By being registered with the ICO, BetterMove has to protect its customers’ data at all times.
The ICO also has a free online checker where you can verify whether a company is registered with them or not.
Being registered with the ICO further reinforces the credibility of BetterMove and their eagerness to maintain the security of your data.
They are mostly GDPR compliant.
From our independent investigation, we discovered that bettermove.co.uk is fully GDPR compliant with the “safety of personal data collection forms”.
However, bettermove.co.uk doesn’t seem to ask for consent whenever you are submitting your personal details.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it doesn’t mean that they don’t keep your data secure. Sometimes companies try to make it as easy for the customer to send an enquiry. Therefore, take this with a large grain of salt.
Everything else Better Move does seems up to standard. They do not transmit data to inadequate countries and there are no other major risks of data breaches.
Since BetterMove have a different property selling system which utilises a database of potential buyers, they should connect you to a secure buyer who has cash on hand.
As mentioned in the section above, BetterMove have a procedure which screens every potential buyer for your property and makes them pay a commitment fee. Therefore, greatly reducing the risk of dealing with an unprofessional buyer who doesn’t have cash on hand.
In this market, very few fast home-buying companies transparently outline their property selling methodology. And even fewer actually have disposable cash on hand.
No, They haven’t traded for more than 5 years.
We normally use the ‘over/under 5 years trading time’ as a metric to gauge whether a company is an established entity with a lot of experience under their belt.
But this doesn’t mean that all newer house buying companies are bad or inexperienced. Yes, some of them are, but others aren’t.
You have to judge that based on a much wider set of criteria, like we do in each critical review.
In the case of BetterMove, they are the newcomer gaining traction because of the different approach to property selling, which aims to get you reasonable cash offers much more efficiently.
BetterMove offers a flexible solution to selling your property.
They have 3 selling options, depending on how quickly you would like to sell. The quicker, the more time you’ll save, but you’ll evidently get a lower price.
So you have to choose between saving time or saving money.
Their fastest selling option will land you somewhere in the 75-85% of your property’s market value. And you’ll sell your property within 30 days. There are zero legal or solicitor fees, zero charges, and you don’t have to pay any commissions.
Still, if we compare them to a generic estate agents, the estate agent will have a myriad of legal fees which will indirectly reduce the market value of your property.
There’s a comparison table on the homepage of BetterMove.co.uk that illustrates the dissimilarities between the “old way” of the estate agents and BetterMove’s “new way”.
Getting 75-85% of the market value for your property when working with a fast home selling company is an excellent deal, considering how much time you save and how many headaches you avoid.
BetterMove will give you a quick, competitive cash offer which should be within the 75-85% range.
With other fast house buyers, you’ll be lucky to get 60-70% of the market value.
Inferring from this, BetterMove.co.uk is worth considering as an option, if you’re looking to sell fast or even if you’d like a slower sale for a better price.
You can explore all of their selling options and chose the best one for your particular circumstance.
According to the latest Statista research, the average number of days taken to sell property in UK from September 2018 to November 2020 is 65 days.
This includes selling properties via estate agents, actions, fast-sale companies and everything else under the sun.
Again, this graph represents every single method of selling a property, combined together.
And because of the vast number of fast home sale companies in the UK, this number is considerably lower than what it would’ve been if it only were estate agents and actions.
Remember, when it comes to speed of sale, nothing beats a quick home buying company:
Better Move can execute a cash sale within 14 days, however it can take up to 6 weeks depending on the property and the solution chosen by the client
Remember:
With a quick home-buying company, you’re sacrificing a negotiable percentage of cash for an exponential increase in speed-of-sale and a major reduction of headaches and legal complications.
That’s why you need to carefully consider your options.
Do you want a bit more money or do you want a significantly faster sale?
Supporting a charity is by no means proof that the home buying company in question is necessarily ‘good’.
In fact, dodgy home buying companies might purposefully support and/or pretend to support a charity just to win brownie points and credibility in the eyes of the customer.
We didn’t find any charitable initiatives which BetterMove supports.
Nevertheless, some companies prefer to donate privately or anonymously rather than stating it publicly.
Some of our vetted partners have told us in private that publicly stating their donations actually brings “bad karma” since such altruistic matters should never be a publicity stunt.
We do understand this type of worldview and we fully respect it.
Therefore, you shouldn’t judge a house buying company for not openly stating which charities and non-profits they support.
We didn’t find anything that raises suspicion during our thorough research of BetterMove.co.uk
Our investigators sifted through all of the data and legal records of BetterMove and everything was clean.
However, we’ll redact this paragraph at the first glimpse of dodgy practices.
We never stop researching and our unbending commitment to excellence doesn’t waver.
This paragraph is only valid up until the ‘Last Updated’ date of this review, which can be found at the top of this page.
As far as we are aware, BetterMove haven’t received any additional awards or prizes.
They haven’t won any competitions either.
There’s nothing more we could add.
To assess the overall user experience (UX) of BetterMove.co.uk, we first analysed their website for ease of use and intuitiveness.
They make it very easy to get a free quote/cash offer for your property within 24 hours or less.
Also, they have a 24/7 Whatsapp support number which you can message at any time.
We calculated their First Response Time (FTR) by messaging them at approximately 11 AM on a non-holiday weekday (on a Wednesday to be exact) and used a stopwatch to estimate how long it took them to respond.
BetterMove responded in only 21 sec.
A fast FTR is something we consider highly important, especially in this sector.
Because faster response time suggests that the home-selling company is better equipped to deal with customer queries.
And if they’re better equipped to deal with customer queries, then it means they’re investing their resources where it matters the most.
We also asked if they offer some sort of ‘Client Satisfaction Guarantee’, and if yes, what would that guarantee consist of.
They currently don’t offer a Client Satisfaction Guarantee but they’re happy to help resolve any issues and problems, within reason, as soon as possible.
Also, they did go out of their way and offered additional help and advice which warrants acknowledgement.
In this turbulent market, a fast home buying company should preferably have a formal complaints procedure on their website, where clients can express any disagreements, issues or just plain dissatisfaction with the overall service.
By having such a complaints procedure in place, the home buying company shows that they are willing to listen and if possible, rectify any problems that may arise.
BetterMove have an excellent complaints procedure which has a dedicated page on their website.
Furthermore, you can submit a complaint through The Property Ombudsman because BetterMove are a TPO member.
And every TPO member agrees to The Property Ombudsman Code Of Practice which allows customers to file complaints against TPO members, if needed.
Also BetterMove seem to be replying to the complaints and comments they’re receiving on review websites such as Trustpilot which is good to see. But they shouldn’t be receiving so many complaints in the first place.
A legitimate quick home buying company that does what it promises shouldn’t have a problem letting you speak to their past customers.
Of course they need to have the permission of the individual involved and provide some kind of proof that it is a genuine past client of theirs.
We strongly encourage all our readers to ask to speak to a past client.
In this section, we’ll discuss what the public thinks of BetterMove and what online reviews the company has received.
Keep in mind that online reviews can be easily faked.
It works both ways.
The company in charge might hire fake review writers to write positive reviews.
Or on the other hand, their competitors might hire fake review writers to write negative reviews and tarnish the said company’s reputation.
Also, social media followers can be artificially inflated.
That’s why we deem this section as purely anecdotal.
Nonetheless, we used trained researchers with a sceptical eye to go through BetterMove social media presence and online reviews. You can see the results below.
We also investigated their Domain Rating (DR) and Search traffic (ST) to see if there’s anything shady.
The Domain Rating is an internet metric that shows the strength of a website.
The longer a website has been online, generally the more other websites link back to it.
These are called backlinks. Backlinks are like a minor vote of confidence.
In simple terms, the more backlinks a website has, the higher their Domain Rating will be.
We scan a company’s backlink profile to see what other websites link back to it.
And we look for unusual, shady patterns or an artificially inflated domain rating.
We didn’t find anything even remotely suspicious with BetterMove. Therefore, they pass this test.
The Search Traffic is an internet metric that shows approximately how many unique visitors a given website has per month. And also shows what “words” that website is most known for, i.e. keywords.
We analyse the search traffic and keywords of each house buyer that we review.
We look for any spam or deliberate manipulation of Google’s algorithm.
More search traffic isn’t necessarily better. It all depends how that traffic is acquired. We can immediately sniff out any dodgy practices.
There was nothing that raised suspicion when analysing BetterMove. Hence they also past this test.
We didn’t find anything suspicious with BetterMove’s social media, TV and online presence, nor with their customer reviews.
We also didn’t find anything suspicious with their domain rating and backlink profile nor their unique monthly search traffic.
BetterMove are one of the few house buyers in the UK who receive the Property Sale Watchdog woof of approval. But as with every company we recommend, if you have time, it’s a good idea to also do your own due diligence.
BetterMove is like the new kid in college. They have a different property selling modality which makes use of a large database of potential property buyers. By promoting your property both internally to their own contacts and externally to the open market, they can help you sell efficiently.
We thoroughly examined their strengths and weaknesses, user experience (UX), customer service and overall online presence.
BetterMove are members of the NAPB and TPO, and they are registered with the ICO, but they aren’t approved by the CTSI.
They give reasonable cash offers and can buy your home in mere days.
They have a dedicated complaints procedure, which is clearly visible and easily accessible via their website.
If you’re looking to achieve a quick sale within 30 days or a slower sale but for a higher price, you should check out all of BetterMove’s selling options.
We will be continuously updating this review (as we do with all of our other content) and if BetterMove ever drops in service quality and performance we’ll make sure to adjust our critique and score accordingly.
We’ve independently investigated all the UK’s top fast home buyers with our cast-iron 18 point checklist.
And by using the free Safe Connect™ programme we’ll introduce you to our most recommended & strictly vetted home buyer.
The Safe Connect™ programme was created to ensure you not only get the best possible, genuine cash offer, but also to protect you in this unregulated market.
If you click the orange button below, we’ll automatically Safe Connect you to the best property buyer in the UK – as vetted by our team of investigators. And most importantly, you’ll see exactly why we objectively classified them as the best property buyer in the UK.
If you use the Safe Connect™ programme to connect with a cash home buyer, we’ll personally hold them accountable. We’ll ensure they go the extra mile and treat you like a VIP.
The Safe Connect™ programme is a free service. There are no additional fees or costs on your end.
Safe Connect™ ensures there will be no last-minute price drops and no nasty surprises. It’s quick, easy and it eliminates all headaches.
Our strictly vetted partner will know that you’re coming through Property Sale Watchdog and they won’t dare to mess you around.
BetterMove is just one of the many fast home-buying companies in the UK.
In order to make sure you choose the right one, it’s best if you compare them all.
Look at their strengths & weaknesses, their pros & cons and make an informed decision.
It’s essential to know you’re in safe hands, that’s why we’re here to help.
Use our company comparison table to find a reliable and trustworthy service, and decide whether expediting the sale of your property is the right thing for you.
This review is being constantly screened by our investigator team and will be corrected in line with the emergence of new evidence.
If a company contacts us with a genuine and verifiable piece of information which supports their cause, then we’ll immediately redact the review and point to the new information.
On the other hand, if we discover that a company which we’ve previously praised for a certain industry trait, starts to dabble in dodgy practices, we’ll also redact the review immediately.
We’ll point to our new findings and we’ll adjust the table metrics and scores accordingly.
For this reason, make sure to take notice of the ‘last updated’ date at the top of this page.
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