Should You Sell an Inherited House to a House-Buying Company? (A Real Consultation)

Inheriting a house comes with a lot of work. You need to empty it, insure it, drive over to check on it, and work out how to sell it.

I've now done around 800 free consultations with home sellers, and I spoke recently with a retired couple in exactly that position. Derek and Sue (not their real names) had inherited his mother's three-bed BISF house on an estate on the edge of south London, and they'd already shortlisted a house-buying company to take it off their hands. I've changed some details to protect their privacy.

A house-buying company is usually a poor fit for an inherited house, because the discount of around 20% pays for speed, and no sale can complete until probate is granted anyway. For an unmortgageable property the company would simply resell at auction, so going to auction yourself keeps that 20% in the estate.

But the reasoning matters more than the verdict, because by the time this couple called me, the quick-sale route looked like the sensible, well-researched choice. By the end of the call they'd changed direction entirely. Here's how it played out.

And if you've inherited a property of your own and aren't sure which way to sell it, you can book a free consultation and I'll tell you what I'd do in your situation.

1. Derek and Sue's situation: a difficult inherited house to sell quickly

Here's where they were when they booked the call:

• A three-bed BISF house, inherited only weeks earlier.
  Derek's mother had just died. He's the sole beneficiary, probate has only just started, and their solicitor quoted up to twelve weeks for the grant to come through.
• Non-standard construction, with none of the repair work done.
  BISF houses are steel-framed, and without the structural repairs lenders look for, this one is effectively unmortgageable. That makes it cash buyers only, whichever way it sells. I've covered the construction type itself in our ultimate guide to BISF houses.
• Empty, still full of furniture, and costing money every month.
  They're paying the council tax and the insurance, the insurer has flagged that cover changes once it's been empty six months, and they hate the drive over to check on it.
• A corner plot with development potential, in theory.
  The rear garden is big enough to build on, but there's no independent access. A neighbour's garage and an old outbuilding are in the way, so any developer would be relying on the neighbour playing along.
• Restrictions on the title register they couldn't decode.
  Wording on the charges register that could mean nothing, or could matter to a developer.
• No deadline, and no need for the money.
  They're both retired with their finances sorted. Their words: the least stress, the least admin, and not being taken for a mug.
• No real idea of the value.
  Google and Zoopla had given them everything from around £210,000 to £400,000 as a valuation, which is no answer at all.

They'd done their homework too. They'd read up on vetting house-buying companies, shortlisted one of the big ones, and arrived with a checklist of membership badges to look for. Which is exactly where the plan needed unpicking...

2. The problem with buying speed during probate

A house-buying company sells one thing: a fast, certain exit, priced at roughly 20% of the property's value. During probate there is no fast exit though. The sale can't complete until the grant of probate comes through, so the discount pays for a speed you can't use.

Put real numbers on that. On a £300,000 working figure, a genuine company paying around 80% of value would cost them roughly £60,000.

And what would that £60,000 actually buy? With probate quoted at up to twelve weeks, the house would still be hanging over them all spring. The surveys, the legal work and the company's own process would all be queueing behind the same grant.

So they'd be paying the heaviest fee in property for a shortcut that, in their case, doesn't exist.

That dealt with the "when". The next question was what each route would actually cost them, starting with the one they'd shortlisted.

3. The routes I'd steer them away from

3.1. The house-buying company

For Derek and Sue, a genuine house-buying company means giving up around £60,000 on a £300,000 working figure, in exchange for a completion date that probate controls either way. And because the house is cash buyers only, the company's own exit would be an auction room.

I ran my own house-buying company for years and competed against nearly all the major players, so I know this model from the inside. These companies exist for a seller who absolutely needs to exchange in a few weeks. Derek and Sue aren't that seller, and probate means they couldn't be even if they wanted to.

The exit mechanics matter just as much here. A company's model is to buy at around 80% of value, resell at 100%, and move on quickly. On a BISF house with no repairs done, they're not going to do the structural work and sit through an agent sale for a year. So what would they do with it?

They'd put it straight into an auction. It's cash buyers only, it needs everything doing, and auction is the fastest honest market for exactly that stock. Which means their offer is really just "what will this make at auction", minus their 20%. Derek and Sue can just take the property to auction themselves, and keep the difference.

And one correction on the vetting checklist they'd arrived with, because this one catches a lot of people out:

Top tip: Don't treat NAPB membership or an ombudsman code as proof a house-buying company is safe. In practice, both organisations do very little, and most of the worst players in the sector carry both badges. This means membership of the NAPB and Property Ombudsman can give the illusion of safety, where there is none.

I've broken down what these companies genuinely pay, and why they can't pay more, in how much house-buying companies really pay.

They suit people who value speed, certainty and convenience far more than price, and that is not most sellers. When someone books a call with me looking at house-buying companies, I end up suggesting a different route about 97% of the time. The fuller picture is in my guide to the pros and cons of cash house buyers.

3.2. A normal estate agent sale

The reason you put up with the pain of an estate agent sale is the extra money, and on an unmortgageable house most of that extra money isn't there. The mortgage buyers who normally push the price up are shut out before the listing goes live.

On an ordinary house, going through the open market can be "worth" the slowness, because you sell for more money in the end. Why? Because families, first-time buyers and mortgaged landlords all compete, and that competition is the premium.

But with an unmortgageable property, every route is selling to a small pool of cash buyers and developers. So the gap between an agent sale and an auction shrinks, but the agent route keeps all its baggage: renegotiations after the survey, investors who drift, and months of not knowing.

Sue had just watched a relative spend a year selling her own mother's house that way, and described it as hellish. That year of drift is precisely the stress they told me they'd pay to avoid, so I wouldn't send them into it for a premium this thin.

3.3. The modern method of auction

When they ring around agents for valuations, there's a good chance the modern method of auction gets pitched as the solution, but I'd say no to it. It comes with the downsides of a traditional auction (the lower price), but has no real benefits over it for a property like this.

I've explained more about why I almost never recommend modern auction here: My video verdict on the modern method of auction.

3.4. The last check: the family friend's son

A trusted friend's son had asked what they wanted for the house. With no idea of its value, that's a question to park for now, because a private deal struck blind can quietly hand away tens of thousands of pounds.

The test I gave them: imagine agreeing £280,000, believing it's fair, when the house is worth £350,000. That's a £70,000 hit.

Would you transfer that friend's son £70,000 out of your bank account today? Of course not. But selling with no idea on valuation risks doing exactly that.

The risk runs the other way too remember. If something serious turned up later, they'd feel awful. And if he got cold feet three months in, they'd have lost the time without the certainty they wanted.

And nothing stops him bidding on auction day if he's genuinely interested.

4. The plan: let the auction room set the price

Everything below runs while probate does. That's the quiet advantage of their position: the twelve-week wait that makes a quick-sale company pointless is exactly the time the groundwork needs.

1. Get ballpark values from the agents already selling houses like this one.
   Going into any valuation conversation with a £190,000 spread in your head is how you risk get "taken for a mug" (exactly what they wantedx to avoid. So get a clear idea on valuation first.
   
   On Rightmove, I suggested they search the region by name rather than using a radius around the postcode, because half a mile away can be a different market entirely. Switch to map view, tick the box to include properties sold subject to contract, and set the filters to three beds in the £200,000 to £400,000 band.
   
   Click through and look for the homes that also look non-standard, then note which agents have two or three of them. Ring those agents, ask for the valuer, describe the house exactly as it is, and ask what they'd expect it to fetch. Be direct about not wanting to be messed around. An hour on the phone and a couple of decent conversations with agents selling homes like theirs right now would close most of the valuation gap.
2. Choose a traditional auction house, and interrogate the valuation.
   In a lot of ways this is a classic auction property: cash buyers only, needs everything doing, and the repair work is the kind of project developers get genuinely excited about. The usual auction downside (a thin buyer pool) bites hardest on remote homes. A corner plot on a busy outer-London estate shouldn't have that problem.
   
   Be choosy about the auction house, though. Plenty now value like estate agents do, as a sales pitch to win your signature. Unfortunately, this is how many sellers end up signed up with an auction house, then chased to slash their reserve, and ultimately end up unsold on the day.
   
   Instead, you want the agent who'll tell you how much they really expect it to get, how likely it is to sell, and how their buyers would read the garden-and-access story. If their honest number is too low, auction isn't your route, and a good auctioneer will say so. I've set out the trade-offs in the pros and cons of selling at auction.
3. Decode the title register before you commit.
   Most wording on a charges register is boilerplate that sits on thousands of homes. Paste it into something like ChatGPT and ask what it means in plain English, as a first pass. (Disclaimer: not legal advice. But a good starting point.) Then please put anything that still looks odd to your solicitor, and raise it with the auction house too, because a restriction may matter more to a developer-buyer than to anyone else.
4. Clear it if you can face it, and don't board it up.
   With older properties in poor condition, our usual advice is just to get the property clean and clear. Don't start painting walls or replacing carpets yourself. It being clean and clear means buyers see the blank canvas and the job they're taking on. A clearance firm would be a few hundred pounds, and any bits you think could be worth a bit of money can be sold on Marketplace if you prefer.
   
   With that being said about clearances, some of the strangest sales we've ever done were "hoarder houses" we sold exactly as we bought them. The interest they got was remarkable. Why? Developers aren't asking "could I live here". They're sizing up a turnaround job, so sometimes the bigger the job, the more excited they are about the purchase.
   
   As for their idea about boarding the windows: I'd suggest not. In my experience it draws attention to the property rather than deflecting it, and it suggests something is seriously wrong inside.
5. Buy "peace of mind" and avoid the long motorway trips.
   A local cleaner popping in every couple of weeks to run the hoover round and report back that the property's still safe and secure costs very little, and replaces the long drive they're still going but dread. Cheap broadband and a few Wi-Fi cameras do a similar job from the sofa. Asking your neighbours to keep a look-out can help too.
   
   Remember to speak with your insurer about their requirements if you're leaving the property empty. Many are fine for the first six-months, then require weekly inspections after. Check with your insurer either way to avoid being caught out later on.
6. Reframe the running costs, and set the clock honestly.
   The council tax and insurance feel like money down the drain. But I'd argue they're the opposite: paying those costs mean they're buying the months needed to sell this properly. At around £500 a month, even six months costs about £3,000, against the roughly £60,000 the shortcut route would have cost!
   
   On timing, plan around the longer end of the probate quote, then add the auction house's own cycle of catalogue deadlines and sale dates. This is realistically a few months, not a few weeks. The useful part is that every step above happens during the wait, so none of it is wasted time.

One note on our own accelerated sale service, which exists for open-market sales that need the exposure, negotiation and completion run hard. A cash-buyers-only house like this one usually belongs in an auction room instead, so for Derek and Sue the plan above is the whole prescription.

5. The outcome, and the reasons to be optimistic

They booked the call to pick a house-buying company. They ended it binning that plan entirely, with an auction route, a valuation homework list, and the deadline pressure gone. Sue's words at the end: "We've changed direction on this just by talking to you."

And the evidence backs the change of direction:

• The bottom of their Google range looks unlikely.
  Checking live on the call, I couldn't find a comparable three-bed nearby under about £295,000, and a similar non-standard house showed as sold at around £315,000. Those aren't valuations, but they make the £210,000 end hard to believe.
• It's classic auction stock in a busy area.
  A project house on a corner plot, in a part of outer London with no shortage of developers. That's a room full of the right buyers bidding against each other, which is how you avoid accidentally selling for a super low price.
• Nothing forces their hand.
  No deadline, no need for the money, and running costs of a few hundred pounds a month against a £60,000 discount avoided. They can wait for the right sale from a position of strength.
• The fixes are all cheap and all run during probate.
  A few phone calls, a clearance firm, a cleaner, and a title register decoded. Nothing structural, nothing that costs tens of thousands.

If you've inherited a property and the quick-sale adverts are starting to look like the only door out, you can book a free consultation and I'll tell you what I'd do in your situation. Sometimes that's an auction, sometimes it's an agent, and occasionally (but rarely) it genuinely is a house-buying company. Either way, I'll help you put together a plan that makes sense for you.

Frequently asked questions

1

Can you sell an inherited house before probate is granted?

Where the estate needs a grant of probate, you can market the house, hold viewings and agree a sale, but completion has to wait for the grant. That's why paying a house-buying company's discount for speed rarely makes sense during probate. I cover the wider process in our guide to selling an inherited property.

2

How much do house-buying companies pay for inherited houses?

Genuine, well-funded house-buying companies pay around 80% of a property's value, inherited or not. On a £300,000 house that's roughly £60,000 given up for speed. If you haven't had probate granted yet, remember that's speed that can't actually be used. The full breakdown is in how much house-buying companies really pay.

3

Do "we buy any house" companies buy BISF and non-standard construction houses?

Some will, but an unrepaired BISF house is the opposite of the easy-to-resell stock their model wants, so expect a price built on what it would fetch at auction, minus their margin. Selling at auction yourself reaches the same buyers directly. I've shared my tips in selling a BISF house.

4

Is a traditional auction a good way to sell an inherited house?

A traditional auction suits an inherited house that's unmortgageable, needs major work, and is in a busy area with plenty of cash buyers and developers. For a mortgageable home in good order it can shrink the buyer pool instead, so check the fit first with the pros and cons of selling at auction.

5

Should you sell an inherited house to a friend or family member?

Agreeing a private price before you know the property's value risks quietly giving away tens of thousands of pounds, and souring the relationship if problems surface later. Get proper valuations first. If the property goes on the open market, nothing stops the friend offering to buy the property at more like a fair market price.