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2011 has seen little happen in the property market. Few sales and little overall movement have created an uneventful year. Sales are down on previous years and prices have continued to fall. So what will 2012 bring. Well most believe more of the same. There will awash be a reluctance to drop the house of the price you’re selling but ultimately, with such few buyers in the market vendors looking to make a quick house sale have little option.
Pricing your property at the right level (especially if you looking to make a quick house sale) is essential. During 2011 the pace of house sales slowed to a level not experienced in years and sold prices are in decline. With this in mind, it should come as a shock to most people that research has revealed that asking prices actually increased during the year.
In our experience it is very common for asking prices to not truly reflect a houses value but this research even shocked us. The difference in the movement of sold prices and asking prices could be either unrealistic expectations of the seller or over pricing by the agent in order to get the business. Either way, we believe it is essential that a seller knows the true value of their property (even if they intend to market it higher to begin with). You can find our guide to pricing your home here. Use this to understand what sale price to expect and market the property at the correct level to get the most interest.
Well not if 2011 is anything to go by.
If you are one of the people struggling to sell their property in 2011, trust me you’re not alone. 2011 was the worst year for property sales in 40 years and was nearly 50% lower (in terms of property turnover) than 2007. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel for anyone looking to sell their property. During next year (2012) the slump in sales is expected to continue.
So what are the options if you need to sell? In our experience, we have seen a large inbalance between the sellers expected price and how much buyers are currently expecting to pay. Put your self in the perspective of a buyer. You know that the property market is struggling and you know sellers are having a hard time making a sale, so in your mind you hold all the cards. Why would you pay over the odds?
If you are a seller an need to make a quick house sale give us a call and we will help you aim your property at the correct level in the market to target the right buyers, alternatively we can take the pain out of selling for you and buy your property from you.
We have recently been made aware that some quick house sale companies have started asking for money upfront from the seller. We don NOT do this. This seems to be a new practice and not one we’ve come across before. The advice we have given is that we would recommend checking the paperwork and asking where this money is going. We wouldn’t want to suggest that companies who use this method are unscrupulous but you don’t want to find yourself out of pocket.
In most cases (that we have heard about) the company asks for £2000 at the start of the process. This money is probably used to help finance the purchase and in most cases will be a legitimate request but be careful and make sure the paperwork states that this money have changed hands.
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As mentioned previously, property prices have reduced or remained stagnant throughout the majority of this year. One statistic that is not stagnant is the number of unsold properties on the market with an estate agent.
Seven out of ten properties placed on the market this year have remained unsold. We have covered many ways to increase your chances to make a quick house sale on the open market and you can find these tips by clicking here.
It is important to remember that many other properties on the market means more competition for you. The best advice we can offer in times like these is know the property worth and don’t over price yours. We have seen many occasions recently where the agent has valued the property £10,000 over the market value. This price is likely to put buyers off and will not get the viewings you need in order to sell your property.
At Quick house sale we have firsthand experience of some of the dangers of having a property left empty. Many people have no awareness of these issues so this post is to describe the issues we have personally had. The reason for highlighting this is that most people are not aware of the potential cost of an empty property.
During the winter before last we had a property in Huddersfield and the tenant moved out just before Christmas. This is a very difficult time to attract another tenant so the property was empty for a short period. A week before the new tenant was due to move in a workman visited to make sure everything was on order and the pipes has burst. This was a pipe in the bathroom so water had leaked through the floor and the ceiling had part fallen in down stairs. The total cost of repair was £4000.
Over the next winter we had another property empty so (learning from our mistake) we left the heating on low to avoid this issue. For the 3 months the property was empty the cost of heating was £450
The most recent issue we encountered is how attractive empty properties are to criminals. The price for scrap metal (especially copper) at the moment is the highest its ever been and many properties are broken into simply for the copper from the heating system and sometimes even for the wiring from the electricity system. The total cost of replacing this can be astronomical. Not only will you need full wiring, heating, plastering and flooring you will likely also have flood damage from the water that should be pumped into the heating system. The total cost of this could be as high as £30,000.
Many of our customers approach us with a property that is empty and many more people leave an empty house on the open market and wait for a buyer to come along. Our advice is simple, if you have an empty property get a quick house sale and give all the above risk to someone else.
One of the most common questions we are asked is how much will we pay for a property and how much under market value do we pay. The answer is generally the same, we will value the property and typically offer 25% under market value. This is a very common figure among Quick house sale companies and in my experience no one is currently paying more that this amount. The thing that sets us apart from the others is that we are honest and transparent throughout. Many companies will say that they will offer up to 90% of the market value for the property but in all cases (that I know of) this is not the case. They will either offer more at the start of negotiations and change the offer prior to completion or they will under value the property and offer 90% of their valuation.
We will not attempt any of the above tricks. We believe we offer a quality honest and transparent service and pride ourselves on the many recommendations our customers make. We will talk you through the value of your house and in many cases we will pay for an independent survey so you can see the true value. No tricks or re-negotiations. This guarantees a smooth transaction and a quick house sale without the worry of it falling through.
Statistics published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) indicate the remarkable uplift in the cost of deposits a first time buyer would need to make their first property purchase: from just £12,000 in 2007 to £26,000 today.
This uplift equates to 87% of their median salary in comparrison with 41% 4 years ago.
The CML described this problem as the “biggest challenge” first-time home buyers have to face.
Mortgage consultants have the belief that the lenders are requesting larger deposits because of the fear that borrowers will or may miss payments in the future, due to higher unemployment.
The CML said: “We do not expect there to be a significant increase in first-time buyer activity in 2011 or 2012. The reality for first-time buyers is that, although there is widespread sympathy for their plight, they are only one of a number of different types of consumer who are experiencing difficulties in challenging housing and mortgage market conditions.”
The majority of first time buyers under 30 now require support from their families in order to make their furst purchase
The reason this is relevant for anyone looking to sell their property is that if the value of your property would mean first time buyers are a proportion of your target market (properties under £100K in West Yorkshire) it could make selling difficult.
If you’re one of the hundreds pf thousands of property owners who have benefited from the all time low interest rates of 0.5% then now really is the time to take stock of your financial affairs. We at Quick house sale are regularly consulting with homeowners who managed to avoid repossession in 2008 – 2010 due to the massive reduction in their monthly mortgage payments that came about as a result of the Bank of England’s unprecedented reduction of the base rate down to just 0.5%.
Homeowners and property landlords who had been previously paying upto £2000 per month on a variable or tracker mortgage found their mortgage payments dropping by up to 2 thirds which allowed them to comfortable maintain a roof over their family’s heads or hold on to that buy-to-let property that was previously losing them money.
With CPI inflation now at 4%, double the government’s target, any people in the know are expecting an imminent increase in base rates and even Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England mentioned in his letter to the Chancellor, George Osborne that he expects rates to rise this year ‘in line with expectations’.
A small rise in interest rates to a still very low rate of 2.5% would make many homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments double and due to this increase in expenditure it stands to reason that many experts are expecting repossessions to increase substantially in 2011
Now would be a good time to honestly assess your finances, can you afford your outgoings if this were to happen? Is your buy to let still profitable at this level? If the answer to the questions is no and you could be facing repossession as a result, then call Quick house sale today for a free, no obligation offer on your home. As mortgage rates do begin to rise, we expect house prices to suffer and the offer you receive for your property will not be as high as it could be currently.