It’s recently been reported that property sales in England and Wales are taking an average of more than four months to complete. Whilst speed has improved since the peak of the current market boom, it still takes significantly longer than the 2-3 month expected pre-Covid. Add the average 37 days it takes to find a buyer for your property and you’re looking at a total average sale time of around 6 months.
So, what can you do to improve your chances of a quick house sale? Danny Luke from house buying company Quick Move Now gives us his top tips.
Make sure you’re ready to sell
This doesn’t just mean ensuring your property looks its best, it also means digging out any paperwork relevant to the sale of your property and getting an Agreement in Principle from your mortgage lender. An Agreement in Principle is required to adequately assess your budget for your next property and getting your paperwork together at the start will speed up the conveyancing process, ensuring there are no unnecessary hold-ups.
Choose a proactive estate agent and conveyancer
Selling a property is about teamwork. You, your estate agent and your conveyancer all need to work together to get a sale through quickly.
A proactive estate agent will implement a strong marketing campaign that will ensure any potential buyers in the area are aware of your property. They will also follow up on every viewing, collating feedback that will shape the ongoing marketing and pricing strategy, and answering any queries potential buyers might have.
Once a sale is agreed, a good conveyancer will actively manage the sale through to completion. They will be responsive to any questions you may have and work to your desired timescales, proactively chasing the other parties for any outstanding paperwork that is holding up the sale.
Be responsive
Your relationship with your conveyancer should be reciprocal. In the same way that you would want them to be responsive to you, you must ensure that you respond to any correspondence from them in a timely manner if you’re looking for a quick sale. Any delays in responding to queries from your buyer, or providing any paperwork relating to the sale, will push your completion date back.
Be flexible
Selling a property is a game of spinning plates, especially if you’re part of a property chain. It’s important that you’re flexible and work with the other parties in the transaction to find a workable solution to any issues that arise. That also includes being flexible if the survey on your property shows up anything that causes concern for your buyer or their mortgage lender. Anything that shows up in a survey is likely to be an issue for future potential buyers of your home, so it often makes sense to negotiate with your current buyer than to jump ship and put your property back on the market. Unfortunately, around one in four property sales will fall through before completion. This is both costly and time consuming for all involved, so if you can keep your sale together it’s advisable that you do.
If you’re in a rush, consider other options
If you’re working to a tight deadline and need a quick sale, or want the guarantee that your property will sell on a certain date, you might want to consider your other options. Both property auction and a home buying company can offer quicker alternative to a sale on the open market. A successful sale from a property auction will need to complete within a month of the auction date. A cash home buying company should be able to complete the sale on a date of your choice, so is a great option if you want to tie your sale in with when your new home is ready.
