Fast buy firm ready to rollout chain fixing service for agents

Quick buy firm UPSTIX is planning to rollout its chain break service across the market after a successful trial with estate agents.

The firm, backed by veteran proptech innovator Giles Mackay, has been working on a new ChainBreak tool with agents in recent months.

It combines the UPSTIX quick buy service with contributions from the other property vendors in the chain to make up the shortfall, meaning that all properties can sell at market value and the transaction can complete.

Requests for contributions are sent and monitored online using the UPSTIX platform.

The product has been trialled with agents this month and Phil Tennant, chief operating officer at UPSTIX, said it has been going well with deals in double figures.

Of the chains it has tried to fix since the beginning of August, Tennant said one in five are going through, others are being considered and it has already had an exchange.

He told Estate Agent Today: “We are hoping to do hundreds per month.

“It is clear that there is an appetite for what it offers, which is an institutional buyer instead of maybe an emotional buyer as well as a valuation based on loads of data.”
 

UPSTIX pledges to give sellers a cash offer within 48 hours after algorithms have determined a price using billions of data points across 30m UK properties. 

Homes are usually purchased at a discount of around 11% of market value and then the company hopes to sell them on at a profit.

Tennant added: “We know it is not for everyone, lots of people want to extract full value.

“Chainbreak spreads the pain of the discount and allows the rest of the chain to make up the shortfall.

“Proactive agents have done that forever but it is hard to do and this gives it a third-party look.”