House-buying drama prompts Shropshire couple to launch new business

A couple of Shropshire entrepreneurs are launching a new house buying and selling service - born out of what they called "one of the most frustrating experiences" they had ever endured.

Husband and wife team Russell Thomas and Felicity Bennett from Shrewsbury are behind Vestd Homes, which is due to go live at the end of August and aims to remove some of the hassle and time wasting which can be associated with house sales.

The aim of the new business is to connect buyers and sellers directly while offering the seller a fixed fee and removing the commission usually paid to estate agencies.

The cost will be £295 for anyone who signs up before launch, rising to £395 once the platform is fully operational.

Russell has been head of sales with a software firm for 18 months and said his own experiences of moving back to Shropshire from Solihull in late 2024 provided the seed of the idea for the new business.

He told the Shropshire Star: "We moved back to Shropshire to settle with our family and went through the process of finding and buying a home here.

"What followed was one of the most frustrating experiences we have had, not because of anything dramatic, but because of how ordinary it all was for the agents.

"Finding the right property meant a three-and-a-half-hour round trip for every viewing. Factor in full-time jobs and a young family and it was an incredibly stressful time.

"We arrived at one home to find the seller had been given the wrong time by an agent who had not bothered to show up and at another the agent spent the entire viewing talking about his holiday.

"He had not even walked around the property himself beforehand to notice water dripping from the ceiling."

Russell said the process went even further downhill after they managed to find the right property to buy but were initially told it would be up to four months before completion which then became nine months.

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He added: "The current owners were moving overseas, the agent had known all along and said nothing so what followed fell entirely on us.

"We were chasing the solicitors and surveyors for updates that never came unprompted and we kept asking ourselves the same question time and time again - ‘what exactly are they doing for their money?’"

As a result, they set about building Vestd Homes which aims to address the issue of sales falling through.

It is estimated that around one in four UK property sales collapse after an offer is accepted which Russell believes is due, in part, to the fact anyone can book a house viewing without any prior checks.

The new platform insists on all buyers verifying a government-issued ID document before they can request a viewing while sellers can request that potential buyers prove they have a mortgage in principle before a viewing request is accepted.

Vestd Homes acts as the middleman between the two parties to ensure data protection.

Russell added: "We are launching in Shropshire first, not as a strategy but because this is home and it is where the idea came from.

"The average estate agency fee in the UK is currently 1.42 per cent so, on a £300,000 Shropshire home, that is £4,260, paid regardless of how many viewings the agent attended or how many calls they made once the offer was accepted."