Answered plainly,
even the awkward ones.

A Buyer Folio is a commissioned research report on one specific English property, written for the buyer. It runs to ten sections and establishes what directly comparable properties have actually sold for, how much negotiating leverage the listing carries, what liabilities sit on the address in the public record, and a tactical offer bracket — open, aim and walk-away. It costs £349 including VAT on requests made by 15 October (£480 after that), and arrives within two working days of payment.

Portal estimates are automated valuation models. They return a single figure without naming the transactions behind it, without stating the matching rules applied, and without indicating how much evidence sat underneath — you cannot audit one, and you cannot take one into a negotiation. A Buyer Folio names every comparable transaction it used, states the matching rules it applied, and discloses where its evidence was thin. It also refuses to say what a property is worth — it reports only what directly comparable properties have achieved, which is a claim that can be defended in front of an estate agent.

Yes. A Buyer Folio reports what the registered evidence shows, in either direction. If the asking price sits inside the range that directly comparable sales support, the folio says so; if it sits below what directly comparable homes have achieved, it says that too. You still receive the full offer bracket — where to open, what to aim for and when to walk away — but the finding may be that the price is fair rather than inflated.

A single self-contained document you can read on a phone, print, or forward to a solicitor or mortgage broker. It includes the Glass Box Anchor, the full named comparables ledger, the Leverage Matrix score, the risk register, the cost-of-ownership picture, the tactical offer bracket, and the email scripts for putting each offer to the selling agent.

We only build a folio when the registers hold enough directly comparable sales to stand behind every number: at least five sales of the same type, tenure and new-build status, after widening geography and era as far as the method permits. Most folios rest on far more; the four published sample folios use 20 to 22 each. If your property cannot meet that, we refuse to publish the folio. You are never asked to pay for research we cannot complete.

No. It is neither. A Buyer Folio is not a RICS Red Book valuation, it is not a mortgage valuation, and it is not a building survey. It cannot assess structural condition, internal layout, decorative state or hidden defects, because it works from registered data rather than a site visit. Commission a qualified RICS surveyor for physical inspection; the Folio is designed to be used alongside one, earlier in the process.

No. SettleIQ is a property data and transaction intelligence platform. It does not provide financial, investment, mortgage or legal advice, and it is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Decisions about what to offer, what to borrow and what to sign remain entirely yours, taken with your own professional advisers.

The Identity Lock is the rule that decides which sales are allowed to inform your number. Sales are matched on property type, tenure and new-build status, then on three further structural dimensions covering construction era, size and — for houses — the land itself. A two-bed leasehold flat is compared only to sales that match it on every dimension; the lock is what stops a three-bed freehold terrace on the same street from contaminating the evidence. The exact banding rules are stated in full inside every folio.

The Glass Box Anchor is the cohort’s median price per square foot applied to your property’s floor area, cross-checked against the EPC register. It is called a Glass Box because the working is shown: the cohort is named, the matching dimensions are stated, the time-adjustment is disclosed, and the trim is declared. It is the baseline the entire offer bracket is built around.

The Leverage Matrix is a score from 0 to 10 that describes how firm the seller’s position actually is. It is built from four observable signals: market velocity in the local segment, price momentum, listing traction, and the reduction history of the listing itself. A high score means a firm seller — move deliberately, open close to the Aim, and argue on evidence rather than price. A low score means a soft position, which justifies opening further below the Aim.

Sixteen authoritative England public datasets: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, the EPC Register, the UK House Price Index, the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, the VOA Council Tax list, the ONS National Statistics Postcode Lookup, the Environment Agency NaFRA flood assessment, BGS and UKHSA radon classifications, Defra strategic noise mapping, MHCLG planning data covering conservation areas and Article 4 directions, the National Heritage List for England, the Indices of Multiple Deprivation, GIAS and Ofsted school records, DfT NaPTAN transport nodes, Ofcom Coverage API broadband availability, and OpenStreetMap. Every figure in a Folio names the dataset it came from.

Not when you submit the request. You send us the address and your details, and within one working day we confirm by email whether the registers hold enough directly comparable sales to stand behind every number. Only then do we email you a payment link. The price is £349 including UK VAT at 20% (£290.83 plus £58.17 VAT), the launch price on requests made by 15 October; it is £480 after that. The payment page shows the exact total before you confirm. Pay that, and the finished folio arrives within two working days as a private link, unique to you — share it freely with your solicitor, broker or surveyor. If the evidence turns out to be too thin to stand behind every number, we tell you at that stage and no payment link is ever sent.

One working day to confirm we can build it, then two working days from payment in the ordinary case. If the address has an unusual title, a missing EPC, or a cohort that requires manual adjudication, you will be told before the deadline rather than after it.

Yes, and it is often the better order of operations. A Folio commissioned before the viewing tells you which questions to ask on the day and what the listing is not saying. All that is required is the address and the asking price.

Yes. A Buyer Folio is written to be read alongside your advisers, and the private link can be forwarded to your mortgage broker, buying agent, solicitor or surveyor. Mortgage brokers and buying agents who want folios for their own clients can partner with SettleIQ directly through settleiq.co.uk/partner.

The Folio is yours regardless of outcome. Its purpose is to make sure that whatever you decide, you decided it against registered evidence rather than against a listing price.