When you consider the amount of money that’s at stake, and the generally poor reputation of the cash house buying industry, it makes sense for you to do as much research as you can before you commit to a company.
Our companion article, ‘Gold standards and red flags’ is a great place to start. This will walk you through the basics and help you eliminate the vast majority of the crooks and conmen. In most cases, this will be enough to help you find a genuine cash house buyer, but if you want to be extra sure, then you can dig a little deeper.
Table of Contents
In this article, we’ll show you how to use the publicly available information on the Companies House website to take a closer look at a company, how it is run and how they fund their house purchases.
It’s a little forensic, and it’s not for everyone, but you can learn a lot in a short space of time if you follow this guide. It could make the difference between selling fast and moving on, or getting caught up in a scam from a rogue trader.
Your next step
We’ve already checked out all of the best cash house buying companies in the UK, impartially measuring each one against our stringent standards. You can see the outcome in our reviews section, and you’re welcome to do your own research to confirm our opinions.
Alternatively, you can trust our judgment and let us recommend the best cash house buyer for you.
Simply click the cash offer calculator button below to get an initial estimate of the value of your home in a quick cash sale.
If think you can work with that price, we’ll connect you directly to the first-class services of a fully vetted home buyer we know you can trust.
Why is it important to find a registered company?
Any reputable cash house buyer should be a registered company in the UK. If they are not, then you should walk away. PSW research found that one in five cash house buyers are not registered companies and these should be avoided.
Being a registered company provides credibility because they have to list their directors, they have to show how long they have been trading and they also have to file formal accounts that show how the company is operated.
If a cash house buyer is not a registered company, you need to ask yourself why, and what it is that they are trying to hide. Lack of registration may mean that they are a sole trader, without the structure or support you need to process your sale promptly.
How to find a cash buyer on the Companies House website
Most registered companies will list their company registration number somewhere on their website. This is usually amongst the information at the bottom of the page, or it could be listed in the contact us section.
If you can’t see this on the website, you can try searching by the company name on the Companies House website. However, this does not always work, as many cash house buyers use fancy trading styles that are not the official company name. The company you know as Harry’s Happy House Buyers, may be formally known as Harold Hornblower Property Limited.
If you can’t find the company number on their website, and you can’t find them using a Companies House search, try getting in touch with them directly. If they are a genuine company, they should have no problem with giving you this information. If they refuse, then this is not a good sign and you should move on to the next on your list.
What you can learn from their listing
A listing on Companies House gives you a lot of very useful information, including:
- The address of their registered office – as with their company name, their registered office may not be their trading address. Nonetheless, this is where you can formally contact the company if you need to.
- The company type – most cash homebuyers will be a private limited company
- The date the company was incorporated – the longer a company has been established, the better. We use a five-year rule in our reviews.
- The nature of their business – you should look for ‘68100 – buying and selling of own real estate’ or something similar. If a company is listed as ‘68310 real estate agencies’ or any other description from section L of the Standard Industrial Classifications, then beware. They may not actually plan to buy your home for cash, but simply try to sell it on behind the scenes.
- The directors and other officers of the company – this tells you who is responsible for the company and how long they have held this office.
- Any charges listed against them – this can show certain ways of funding purchases. Government registered transactions are one way of proving a company actually buys homes. These charges also show you the funding vehicle they use. The more registered transactions they have, the more homes that they are successfully buying, so they must be doing something right.
We’ve done all this research for you
Our expert researchers have carefully analysed the Companies House listings of dozens of cash house buyers on your behalf, and you can read their findings in our independent reviews.
To find a genuine cash house buyer, simply click the cash offer calculator button below for your instant estimate of the value of your home in a quick cash sale.
If think you can work with that price, we’ll connect you directly with a company we know you can trust.
How to look at company accounts
Once you have established the basics, you can use the Companies House website to drill down even deeper to find a genuine cash house buyer by looking at their accounts.
You’ll find the accounts under the ‘filing history’ tab, with a full set of accounts, charges and filings available to view or download.
Unless you are a qualified accountant, this can be quite intimidating, with lots of different numbers and reports to try to understand. The good news is that it is simpler than it looks to identify the information you need to find a genuine cash house buyer.
Here are a few things to look out for in the full company accounts:
- Turnover (or revenue) – to find a genuine cash house buyer, you need to look for a company with significant turnover. The average price of a home in the UK is £289,707 (source: Land Registry, Nov 2024), so it only takes a few purchases per year to put a company into the million pounds plus bracket. If the turnover is much less than this, then chances are the company is not buying properties themselves, but acting as a middle-man for someone else. This means they are not a genuine cash house buyer and they should be avoided.
- Stocks – this is sometimes listed as fixed assets, and includes anything that the company owns. If they are a genuine cash house buyer, they should own at least some of the properties they have bought at the time of filing their accounts. If they have limited assets, they may not be a genuine cash house buyer
- Cash at bank – genuine cash house buyers needs cash to buy houses. Some of them use established lines of credit with banks and investors, but others hold their own cash in hand to buy your home with. This is the best possible situation for the fastest possible sale, as there will be no delays in arranging the funds. Look for ‘cash at bank’ in the accounts to see if they are buying with their own money and not someone else’s.
- Creditors – if they are borrowing to finance their house purchases, this is not necessarily a problem. At least they are still a genuine cash house buyer and not doing shady second sales behind the scenes. Creditors who have loaned them money will show up in their accounts, and the larger their ‘debt’ the more properties they are buying.
The only number you really need
If all this seems a little over the top, then don’t worry. You don’t have to be a financial whizz to find a genuine cash house buyer.
The only number you really need is how much your home is worth in a quick cash sale, and you can find that out right now by clicking the button below.
There’s no commitment to proceed at this stage, but it will help you to see where you stand.
If you like what you see, we can help you find a genuine cash house buyer that will work for you.