AssuredSale: one way to help avoid property sale problems
This service is removing the post-verbal offer angst and almost guarantees your property deal will complete
Anti-gazumping and gazundering website AssuredSale has been around for nearly two-and-a-half years now and it boasts an astounding 99% completion rate.
Set up by Daniel Pass and Tim Price – whose family lost £2,000 in legal, mortgage and surveying costs when a seller pulled out – it has helped virtually all its customers complete their property deals without gazumping, gazundering, chain problems or non-committed buyers or sellers pulling out.
Ordinarily, only two-thirds (66%) of property transactions succeed. This means a full third are aborted after a verbal offer but before exchange, causing anguish, and costing time and money to the spurned party.
How AssuredSale works
Following a verbal agreement, AssuredSale holds a deposit from both parties, which indicates that everyone is genuinely committed to the deal. The deposits are only returned on successful completion. And if one side pulls out then, unless there are legitimate reasons, they forfeit their deposit to the other party.
In a recent survey by the company, 100% of its customers said it would use the service again or recommend it to friends or family. And 80% felt more secure for having done so.
What's new?
AssuredSale has made some changes to its service since I wrote about its potential in 2011, including adding premium services for higher fees. And more direct support to help the deal through has been introduced in place of its online deal tracking service. It also has more customer experience to report on.
Its customers are believers
Although AssuredSale is still small, it's already got a pile of testimonials and anecdotes.
The AssuredSale deposit gave one buyer the confidence to shop for wallpaper before completion and others have used the service to find genuine buyers after several walked away.
AssuredSale finds that those using its services are committed, and keen to complete. It also sees the “surprising trend” of people agreeing to a deal but pulling out before handing over the AssuredSale deposit, which indicates that the service might be getting rid of time wasters and saving expense further down the line.
The deposit
The deposit size is agreed between the parties, but the limit is £2,500 for properties worth up to £250,000 and £7,500 for properties worth up to £750,000. The largest deposit AssuredSale has taken so far was £50,000 for a London property, which is the maximum deposit for higher-value properties.
The deposit is held by Co-operative Bank.
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The price
AssuredSale now has three price bands. It is in the process of renewing its website, so information on it is a bit sketchy. I talked to Tim Price, co-founder, who explained what you get for each price.
What you get at the standard price
For the standard price of £200, you get the basic deposit protection service that commits the buyer and seller to the agreed verbal offer. You'll get a response within two hours to confirm deposits.
In addition, AssuredSale will assist the buyers and sellers to resolve their disputes, and it will recommend options and help solve issues (often jointly with the agent or solicitor). It will give independent advice and action to rescue a deal if things go wrong.
The company even talks to clients at 9pm at night, if it helps to reassure them.
The enhanced service
For the “Enhanced” price of £350, the buyer and seller get everything that's in the standard price, plus they are allowed to add specific clauses, such as committing to an exchange deadline, agreeing to end further property viewings, agreeing the inclusion or exclusion of items in the sale, and agreeing repairs before the sale.
The premium service
The “Premium” service costs just shy of £500. You get a personal one-to-one service, with AssuredSale preparing special terms or bespoke instructions, to save you the hassle of doing it.
For customers using the premium service, AssuredSale has added one-sided deposits where only the buyer pays a deposit to show commitment. It has also added a clause to have the deposit returned not to the buyer, but to someone else as a finder's fee. It has also removed clauses, so the buyers accept they can't use the valuation or lack of funding to back out of the deal.
In the premium price, AssuredSale will also negotiate directly with the agent, lender and conveyancer for you. The benefits, says Tim Price, are that you're removed from the direct line of fire, you have a better negotiating position and it's cheaper than using a solicitor.
For properties worth £750,000 or more, you must pay for the premium service.
The fees aren't cheap, but 81% of AssuredSale' customers believe the size of the deposit and the fee is about right, according to the company's survey. Despite the stress of moving, AssuredSale's customers seem to be sleeping soundly at night.
Would you use a service like AssuredSale? Let us know in the Comments box below.
More on buying and selling property:
The questions you must ask before you buy a house
Seven reasons mortgage lenders turn you down
How to beat Stamp Duty
Pros and cons of buying ex-local authority property
Buy now or hope to buy later: the big property gamble
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