The five stages of selling your home

WHETHER you are a landlord looking to liquidate your buy-to-let investment or a homeowner looking to sell your home, finding a buyer and getting the legal work done can take a frustratingly long time.

It is a step-by-step process that can take many months. One of the worst parts of house selling is not knowing how long you might be stuck at each step.

Independent research shows that, in the last 12 months, every estate agent in the UK has taken on average 67 days from the property coming on the market to be sold subject to contract and then 113 days to get to completion.

That’s nearly 26 weeks from the board going up.

Therefore, I will explain each stage of the house-selling procedure.

Stage 1 – Find your buyer

You need to instruct an estate agent who will discuss a pricing and marketing strategy to help you find a buyer.

Independent data states that, in the last three months, it has taken an average of 69 days for a Newbury home to agree to a sale.

Yet the Newbury property market is like a fly’s eye, split into many little micro markets.

Looking at that independent research, it was thought-provoking to see how the different price levels are currently performing when we consider the average number of days it takes to find a buyer for a property in Newbury.

The average time to find a buyer in Newbury for sales agreed in the last three months was: n Under £100k – 284 days n £100k to £200k – 71 days n £200k to £300k – 103 days

¸n £300k to £400k – 46 days n £400k to £500k – 71 days n £500,000 to £1m – 48 days

So, now you have secured a buyer. What is next?

Selling your property involves a variety of typical issues and the involvement of a wide and varied range of professionals.

That means huge differences exist in how long it takes from one property to another.

Stage 2 – Instruct solicitors (and mortgage)

As the home seller, your solicitor will prepare your home’s initial legal paperwork (with your help) and then send it to your buyer.

Stage 3 – Legal work and survey

Once your buyer’s solicitor receives the paperwork, they apply for local searches from the local authority/land registry (to ensure no roads or airports etc are being built in the back garden!).

These searches can take several weeks to be returned to the buyer’s solicitor and questions will be raised by the buyer’s solicitor to your solicitor. At the same time, the surveyor will check the property to ensure it is structurally sound and worth the purchase price.

Stage 4 – Exchange of contracts

Assuming all the mortgage, survey and legal work is without any issues, both buyer and seller sign contracts, and the solicitors then perform an ‘Exchange of Contracts’. When contracts are exchanged, the buyer pays a non-returnable deposit, and now both buyer and seller are legally tied in. Yet hold on – we aren’t there yet!

Stage 5 – Completion

Completion is when the money and keys are handed over. It usually happens a week to a fortnight after the exchange of contracts.

In Newbury, it currently takes 127 days from instructing solicitors to completion, so on average you are looking at a good five to six months from putting the for-sale board up to moving out.

If you are thinking of selling your home, or if you are a landlord wanting to sell your buy-to-let property and you want an informal, no-obligation chat, please drop me a message or give me a call.