Posts Tagged ‘sell your house fast’

House prices fall again

July 14th, 2009

We blogged earlier the report from Nationwide that they recorded a 0.9% increase in house prices for June (you can read the post here http://www.repaymortgage.co.uk/blog/2009/07/03/house-prices-rise-again-in-june/ ).  But the Halifax have now published their data stating a FALL of 0.5% in June 2009.

Clearly there is a discrepancy in figures, but it is the trend that is key here.  Even though the Nationwide reported an increase, it was at a lower rate than May 2009.  So taking account that we are in the midst of the peak time of the year for house buying we could well see further falls in prices as the buying season slows down toward the last quarter of the year. 

As a property buyer then maybe you should be negotiating a discount on asking price reflecting the weak market.  As a property seller, unless you really do need to sell,  maybe you should take your property off the market until such time a it recovers – at the very least it will save you the cost of HIP fees.  If you really need to sell fast then you could also consider a cash property buyer, this way you can avoid HIP costs (as your property is off market) although you will get a lower price for the fast sale.

Overall its still a tough market for house sellers, hopefully the market will start to recover in spring 2010.

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Posted in Fast House Sales, Property Buyers, UK House Prices

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Selling Property in London

July 3rd, 2009

The London property market is hugely diverse, ranging from some of the world’s most expensive properties down to low cost (relatively) ex-council flats in tower blocks (these can be purchased for considerably less than £100,000 but the stigma and high services costs usually put buyers off).

Properties in demand the most are those with good access to public transport, and in particular undergound and overgound rail lines with frequent services into the City or West End.  Such properties are sought after by buy-to-let investors as they are relatively easy to rent whatever the prevailing market conditions.

Of course there are many factors affecting supply and demand, such as crime rates, local services, schools, etc, but these often go with the type of property and the people who wish to live their.  For example if you have young children then buying property near good schools is a key factor.  If you are young and single you want access to good night life, and so on. 

When it comes to selling you need to know your target market, then  focus on selling to these.  Don’t just rely on the local estate agent, especially when properties are difficult to sell.  One option is to sell property in London to a specialist investor, these people (or companies) will buy your flat or house within weeks, possibly days. The key to selling any property fast is marketing, the more people who know that your property is for sale (and at a realistic price) then quicker you will find a buyer.

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Posted in Fast House Sales, London Property

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How to sell your house fast

July 1st, 2009

It is a tough property market at the moment but some people make it tougher for themselves.  The very first step to achieving a fast house sale is knowing what your property is worth.  A good Estate Agent will be able to give you a valuation but you need to make it clear to them …. what price do you suggest marketing the property for, what price do they think they can actually sell for, and finally what price a RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) will most likely value the property.

Knowing these 3 figures is key:

The price an Estate Agent will market your house for is the “asking price” and it is always negotiable in the eyes of the buyer, especially in a market where prices are falling.  Don’t place hopes on achieving this price, especially if you want a fast house sale.

The price the Estate Agent thinks you will achieve.  This is after negotiation with a prospective buyer, the price that you receive an offer to purchase.  Again beware, the Estate Agent will often talk up this price to one they they “hope to find a buyer for”, it is by no means certain.  For a fast sale you are very unlikely to achieve this price.

The third figure is the RICS valuation, this is the most important figure as it is what the buyer’s mortgage will be based on.  The RICS valuation is accepted as the open market value of your property at the current time.  If you sell for the RICS valuation in the current market it can be considered a fair deal for both buyer and seller.

Now back to our headline, how to sell your house fast.  You need to understand where the market is heading, are prices static, increasing, or decreasing.  At the time of drafting this post prices seem to be stabilizing, or possibly falling slightly.  On this basis you need to price your property to sell by offering a discount to the current RICS valuation.  Pricing your property in this way will make you stand out from the crowd.  You will also need to market your property through as many channels as possible, do not rely on one Estate Agent, try multiple agents, you can also try to find a private property buyer through an online search.

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Posted in Fast House Sales

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The truth about house prices

June 29th, 2009

There have been so many different organisations publishing data on UK house prices I though it would be good to capture a snapshot of what everyone is saying and then see what can be collectively concluded from the various reports.  So here is a summary of headlines published in June 2009:

Housetrack – Reported that prices held steady in June, only 3% of postcodes saw prices fall.

Standard & Poor – Reported that house prices could continue falling into the forth quarter 2009.

Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) – Reported a 2% fall in lending for May 2009, but commented that this is partly due to a fall in the number of remortgages.

Nationwide – reported a 1.2% rise in house prices for May 2009.

Halifax – reported a 2.6% rise in house prices for May 2009.

Rightmove – reported a 0.4% fall in house asking prices for May 2009.

Land Registry – reported a 0.2% fall in house prices for May 2009. The Land Registry also state on their website that they provide “the most accurate independent house price index available”.

So, what can we conclude form all of this?  Firstly there are widely conflicting reports on what is happening with house prices, there a several reasons for this.  One is timing, e.g. are price changes recorded on purchase completion (Land Registry) or at some earlier point in the purchase process from advertiser asking price through to mortgage offered.  Another factor is data volatility, as there are lower volumes of transactions then data from some sources may be more prone to error. 

But perhaps the most interesting point is that we have moved from a point 6 months ago when everyone was reporting falls to today where we have mixed reports.  This could well suggest we are getting close to the bottom of the market,  although before getting too excited, beware of a possible ”second dip” in prices as we have yet to see the full effect of unemployment which is not expected until 2010.

Overall conclusion – we are getting near to the bottom of the market, when all of the data sources say prices are steady or increasing, we will be on the way up again … until the next  change in the property cycle, but hopefully not for a few years!  So if you need to sell your house fast then may be the market will soon turn in your favour.

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Posted in UK Economy, UK House Prices

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Rent to Own / Buy?

June 26th, 2009

So what is this about?  Well its an amazing concept to buy your first property, put simply you start out renting the property as the tenant, then at a later date you exercise your right to buy the property.  This has been going on in Australia and USA for some time and a whole industry has grown up based on this concept of “rent to own” or “rent to buy”.

The hardest part is finding a property available to purchase in this way.  Ideally you need a vendor who does not need to take their equity out of their house right away, but equally they need to move quickly and don’t want to leave their property empty waiting to find a buyer.  In other words, someone who wants to sell their house fast but are willing to wait for the equity. 

The advantages to the tenant-buyer are clear, but there are also advantages for the vendor.  For example the vendor can agree a price to sell in advance, they get a large rental deposit from the tenant, and they get a tenant who is going to look after the property as if it were their own – because in 2 years or so it will be their own property!  If you want to know more about how this works try http://www.simple2buy.co.uk/forum/ where you will find some experts on this new (to UK) concept of Rent to Own / Buy.  Update 20 July 2009 – you can now advertise for free the type of property you are looking to Rent then buy.

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Posted in Rent to Own / Buy

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