If you are considering selling your property, you may have wondered what are the best ways to do so. This article will examine 3 different methods – private property buyers, auction houses and estate agents.
1 – Selling Your Property Through An Auction House:
Auctions are a great way to sell your property if you want to get an instant sale with a quick turn-around time. This selling process is more common than ever. And if you’re thinking to go down this route, you should get familiar with some rules that are set by the UK government.
Did you know that there is a law that states if someone wants to sell through auction, permission from local authorities must be first obtained? Also, if your property sells more than £150,000, a building inspection must take place in your property – which will take 10% of the final sale price as a cost.
From the sounds of it, opting to sell your property through auction is appealing. Especially for property owners who are looking for a speedy sale and assurance that the buyer won’t bail at the last minute. The general rule is that once the buyer bids the final price, they have to put down a 10% deposit, and give the rest of 90% within the month.
The fact that buyers are under one roof can also play a significant factor when it comes to increasing the price of your property. It might help as they are all wanting to get a good deal and desperate to not miss out on your property.
What if my property isn’t appealing enough for bids? Don’t worry too much about this. Most auction buyers are on the look-out for their next property project or have been in the property industry for many years to be known as an expert.
There are two things that you need to know when placing your property on auction. The first is a price you set – and this has to be realistic. The second is that your property should know interest.
2 – Selling Your Property Through Estate Agents:
Estate agents can be costly if they charge for their services through commission rates. But they also offer reliability, experience and the ability for market research.
The most common reason to hire estate agents to sell your property is to live the burden of selling it yourself. But this, of course, comes at a price. An estate agent can match your property with the right buyer much quicker than if you were to do this by yourself.
Firstly, they know the best marketing techniques as they are already in the property industry – selling and buying homes from people for many years. This also means that they are likely to have a database of potential buyers, especially if they have sold many properties before.
They can list your property on different platforms and they have a reputation to maintain. They don’t want to ruin the experience for you. They will deliver a professional negotiation with potential buyers and keep you in the loop during the entire process. If they don’t deliver in a professional manner, it can negatively impact their own brand and google review reputation.
All in all, choosing an estate agent can be seen as a safe option but it would be costly. Since the time frame of selling your property is unclear, it isn’t like an auction – where you can set a deadline of when you sell the property. This leaves many properties on the market for months and even years.
The ratio between an initial offer and signing the contract is quite high. And this is often referred to as ‘broken property chains’. There could be many reasons that relate to this.
Some being things like:
- Having indecisive buyers or time-wasters
- Not having mortgage covered to buy the property
- Being in difficult times
- Being too attached to the property
- Or even difficulty in finding another home to move to.
All these factors aren’t in the estate agent’s control, which means that you’re left starting from the beginning of a buyer pulls out.
There are also other costs that come into play. Such as, finding out whether you have to pay for the ‘sold’ banner on the house, what legal fees are covered, and the commission structure.
If you’re thinking to use an estate agent, definitely discuss what’s involved and what hasn’t been involved should anything go wrong – as it can be expensive?
3 – Selling Your Property to Private Property Buyers
There’s no middleman involved with this method of sale, which means that the price is more negotiable. But there are other factors to take into account before deciding on this route. Such as, not being able to access regional information or having time constraints imposed.
So many things are involved when selling a property. Such as:
- You have to figure out your finances
- Decide what you’ll do if you sell and move out
- Choose a way to sell your property
- Get an energy performance certificate
- Decide how much you can sell your property
- Prepare your property for sale
- Hire a conveyancing solicitor
- Accept an offer
- Negotiate a contract
- And so much more until you can be rest assured that you’ve made a sale.
In recent years, selling through private property buyers or companies that can offer quick house sales in exchange for cash.
We’re not one to be biased at all, I mean… we did outline the pros and cons for the previous two methods. But choosing to use a company (like ours) to sell your property to, can come with many benefits.
Firstly, we put the best interest of our clients at the forefront. This means that we find out what is your property estimate, if you have any loans or mortgages that need paying, and what your situation is. Based on these, companies like ours can give you a quick house offer. It is entirely up to the property owner to decide whether they would like to pursue the offer or negotiate.
Once this happens, everything up until the sale is managed by the company. All legal fees are covered, there are no hassle or stress during any point of the sale and you’re kept updated throughout the process.
So you’re literally passing on the burden of selling to these companies. However, it’s always good to make sure the policies that in place and what the contract states when using their services. Also, because it’s a private property buying company – you probably won’t know who you’ve sold the property to. But if these things don’t bother you much and you’re looking for a quick sell, then this method is definitely suitable.
Conclusion
We’ll conclude with this: not one shoe fits all. And it’s the same for property owners looking to sell. There are many reasons for selling, such as:
- Paying off debts
- Downsizing
- Making an investment
- Inheriting from a loved one
- Those who are going through a divorce, and so on.
We would suggest thinking about the top 3 priorities you have when it comes to selling your property. And that way, you can decide on the best route. Do you want a quick sale? Are you open to risking bailouts and paying a hefty price if someone cancels on an agreement? Or do you want to control the process by hiring a professional property company to source the buyers for you?
Find out more by getting in touch with us.