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Sell Your House Fast If You Live In London (Fast House Sale Solutions)

Sell your house fast if you live in London - Fast house sale solutions

If you want to sell your house fast in London, this article is for you. An interesting fact about London property is it’s predicted that to meet the UK’s capital growing hunger for homes, London needs 56,400 new homes every year.

So how do you sell your house fast in London?

  1. Choose the right estate agent in London is key.
  2. Pick the right month to sell, get this wrong your house sale could stagnate!
  3. Create kerb-appeal for a good first impression.
  4. Fix up the interior.
  5. Price your house realistically.
  6. Reduce the listing price to 90% of market value to make it stand out.

London is the UK’s capital and has a population of nearly nine million. It has gross domestic product of £487 billion and is home to five premier league football teams, two/three international airports, and is a huge tourist draw due to its history and Royal Family amongst other great offerings. But despite these things, this doesn’t necessarily help you when you’re trying to sell your London home fast.

There are many reasons why you might want to sell your house in London fast, be it to avoid repossession, to relocate either within the UK or overseas for a new job. Or it might be you’re a family and expecting a new addition and need to up-size. Or it could be for a myriad of other reasons.

Whatever the reason you need to sell it doesn’t really matter, if you need to move or sell fast, something needs to happen. Let’s take a look at your options.

How do you sell your house fast in London – 7 solutions

There are a range of options to sell your house, which includes the following:

  1. Use a conventional estate agent.
  2. Use a cheaper online estate agent alternative.
  3. Sell at auction.
  4. Sell without using an estate agent.
  5. Postpone the sale and become a landlord – not a fast house sale option! But it is a fast-move option!
  6. Postpone the sale until the market picks up – not a fast house sale option!
  7. Use a property solutions company like bowfin.co.uk.

Now let’s take a look at each of the solutions and see how they fair when you’re looking to sell your London house fast!

1. Use a conventional London estate agent

The statistics referred to above in relation to the time it’s taking to sell houses and flats in London relate mainly to the conventional method of selling through an estate agent. However, although I’m not certain as to the origin of their numbers, it’s likely to also include the online agents too. See below.

That’s means if you’re looking for a quick sale, you’re probably not best suited to using an estate agent. But having said that, there are a few things you can do to help sell your house faster than normal by using an estate agent.

These include the following solutions to sell your house or flat quicker:

  • Carefully choose the right month to sell.
  • Prepare your house for viewings.
  • De-clutter, clean and make your home smell nice.
  • Update and repair your house.
  • Choose the right estate agent.
  • Be realistic with the price of your house.
  • Consider reducing the price to 90% of market value.

Give your house or flat every chance possible of appealing to whoever is looking to buy and to stand out from all the other properties on the market.

More Reading: How to sell your house quickly for a good price – plus 7 mistakes to avoid!

Choose the right month to sell your London property

But choosing the right month to sell is key to the house selling process. If you get the month wrong, your home may stay on the market for even longer. But you have to be careful, because if your sale stagnates, people begin to worry whether there’s something wrong with your property.

Choose the right month and you’re more likely to sell your house fast. At the right times in the year there are naturally more buyers looking to move. Choosing a month when there are more buyers gives you more opportunity to sell your London home fast.

More Reading: When is the best month to sell your house in the UK?

Kerb appeal and first impressions count

Giving the first right impressions by having kerb appeal and preparing your house for viewings and de-cluttering will all help.

As would updating, modernising and repairing your house or flat and then being realistic with your price to make your house really stand out.

Don’t let your efforts go to waste and choose the right estate agent to act on your behalf. The right estate agent is vitally important to a fast sale too.

More Reading: How to choose an estate agent – don’t choose before reading this first!

Be realistic with your listing price

If you’re dealing with a tough market, you want to be especially realistic with your listing price. Be ahead of a falling market and list your property at under what it’s worth. You may be thankful you did, as in a few month’s time this low price may look expensive.

A great trick if you can afford it is to reduce your asking price to 90% of the fair market value. This will make yours cheaper than any other similar home. It will make your property stand out and sell more quickly.

But always remember that valuation is only an opinion. What the estate agent values your house at vs what you value your home at may be different. Another estate agent may come along with a different value too.

But the true value of your home is what someone is willing to pay for it. If you’re getting no offers, you’re over priced. If you get offers at under the listing price you are over priced and should accept the lower price to get it sold.

More Reading: I can’t sell my house what are my options?

2. Use a cheaper online estate agent alternative

The only thing you’ll achieve by using an online estate agent is to perhaps save on estate agencies fees.

Online estate agents like Yopa, Purple Bricks and Tepilo are certainly cheaper than a ‘bricks and mortar‘ style estate agent on the high street. However, pretty much the same rules apply to this method of selling your London property as they do in the above section on using a conventional estate agent.

You’ll save on fees, but it won’t necessarily be any faster to sell your house. You’ll still need to prepare it for viewings and make sure your house has the right kerb appeal and good first impressions.

So unless you do most if not all of the above seven suggested solutions for a quick sale, you won’t benefit by using an online estate agent.

More Reading: How to sell a house fast in a slow market

3. Sell at auction

Selling at auction is certainly a fast way to sell your property. But there are some catches with selling at auction.

There is still the marketing time of between 4-6 weeks prior to the auction. Then once the hammer falls, you’ll receive your sale proceeds 28 days later. This is fast by any standard and certainly quicker than many of the average timescales noted above. But this speed of sale can come at a cost.

The cost of an auction sometimes includes upfront advertising and listing fees. Plus there’s the auction commission fee upon sale. But then there’s no guarantee your house will sell on the day either.

Whether your property sells at auction depends on the level of interest and the reserve you set.

If you set the reserve too high, your house may not sell at all. This would leave you back in the same position.

But then if you set the reserve too low, you may end up with less money than you wanted for the sale of your house. It may have been a quick sale, but at a cost to your pocket.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing, as you may be in a position where you need to sell fast and you’re prepared to take a hit. But the choice is yours to make.

4. Sell without using an estate agent

It is possible to sell your house or flat without using an estate agent. But whilst this will save you on estate agency fees, this solution won’t necessarily help you to sell your house fast.

You will also need to follow the same guidelines noted above in selling your house using a conventional estate agent and an online estate agent.

More Reading: How can I sell my house without an estate agent?

One of the disadvantages of selling your house without an estate agent is you will have to do all the marketing viewings yourself.

But also, it won’t be without costs. You’ll still need to advertising your property, although there are free online selling methods like Gumtree and similar.

5. Postpone the sale and become a City of London landlord

I know this article is about how to sell your house fast in London, but things change and you may be able to rethink your move. You may find you don’t have to sell your house fast, but let it fast instead.

There are obvious implications of becoming a landlord, and it’s not for everyone. But there are many landlords who become the accidental landlord and were glad they did.

There are legal ramifications and tax implications of becoming a landlord and letting your home. But if you’re not able to sell but need to move now, renting is something consider.

More Reading: What are the tax implications of buying a house before selling?

6. Postpone the sale until the market picks up

I’m afraid that this solution really isn’t about a fast house sale, but it’s worth throwing into the mix anyway. You may be able to postpone your move, obviously depending on your need to sell fast of course.

But if you’re able to have a re-think, then perhaps you could postpone your house sale until either a better month or when the housing market picks up in London.

The other possible solution, and of course this depends on the house or flat you already live in, is to make better use of your home. Perhaps you may be able to extend, if it’s a space issue or re-vamp your home, which may inspire you to fall in love with your home once more.

However, if staying is really not an option and you really do need to sell your house of flat quickly then perhaps we can help.

7. Use a property solutions company like bowfin.co.uk

If for whatever reason none of the above solutions are viable for you, then you may wish to contact us for a fast sale.

If your reason for needing to sell quickly is because you’re behind on your mortgage payments, or perhaps you’re in the situation where the repossession process has begun or is quite far down the track, you may need to use our services.

Or this may not be the case and you’ve been trying to sell your house and can’t for some time. Perhaps your house has been on the market for months already with an estate agent and you’re simply fed up.

Whatever the reason why the above solutions don’t work for you, please contact us or comment below with your question, we are happy to help either online or on the phone.

What is the average time to sell a house in London?

Fast house sale London - What is the average time to sell a house in London

According to home.co.uk, the average time to sell a house in London in August 2019 is anything from 167 days for a semi-detached house through to 239 days if you own a a detached property.

So if you own a detach London property, that’s nearly eight months before you can move on, and that’s the average.

If you own a 5-bedroom house in London, the average number of days on the market is reported as 250 days in August 2019. That’s an increase of 17% from the same month in 2018.

But the biggest increase in average days on the market for a London property is 24% for a 1 bedroom property. Meaning if you own a 1 bed property in London, you’ll be waiting on average 234 days, or 7.8 month, before it’s sold.

This is particularly agonising if you’re looking to sell your house fast!

Number of properties on the market in London

Number of properties on the market in London

Another interesting fact about the London property market from home.co.uk is that out of 55,311 properties for sale in August 2019, 39,593 were flats for sale. This means there’s a lot of choice for flat or apartment buyers, making the flat-market a buyers market in London.

However, in August 2018 there were a total of 67,012 houses on the market, with 46,942 flats for sale in London.

Out of the 55,311 properties for sale in August 2019, the largest number of properties for sale in this total were 2 bedroom homes, with a total of 20,598. For the same month in 2018, this number was 25,252.

For more information about other areas within London and average time on the market, jump to the bottom of this article.

But whether you own a flat in London or a house and you want to sell it quickly in a challenging market, what are your options?

More average time on the market statistics for areas in London

Time on the market for Westminster, London

Home.co.uk reported that in August 2019 the average number of days to sell a property in the City of Westminster fell by 13% for detached properties. The fall went from 384 days in August 2018 to 333 days in August 2019. Despite this fall, 333 days is still over 11 months to sell!

However, in the same City of Westminster area, if you own a flat the average number of days to sell increased to 316 days from 256 days, which is a 23% increase.

Time on the market Charing Cross, London

Since 2018 the property market in Charing Cross has improved. Detached houses in August 2018 were taking on average 384 days to sell, whereas in August 2019 this has fallen 56% to 170 days.

However, in a similar way to Westminster, flats owners are having to wait longer on average to sell. From August 2018 to 2019 the number of days has gone up from 276 days to 344 days (11 1/2 months), representing a 25% increase.

I hope this article has helped on sell house fast London

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Sell Your House Fast If You Live In London (Fast House Sale Solutions)

Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been investing in property since purchasing his first commercial property in the 1990's for his own Chartered Accountancy business. But his first property investment project was to turn an old dilapidated restaurant into a large 5-bed home, which he purchased for £117,500 and sold for £450,000 (to see an "after" photo of the house before it was sold see here: About). Russell owns a number of investment properties, which includes houses, flats and HMO's. More recently he has turned his creative side to investing in property using lease options. His largest lease option deal to date was to acquire 12 properties worth over £2 million for just £12, which means he paid just £1 to acquire each property!

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