Recently, we ran a nationwide property survey hoping to explore people’s perceptions of the fast property buying industry and the house selling process. With respondents all across the UK ranging from Scotland to the Home Counties and Greater London, we’ve had some remarkable results, as we have listed below:
When asked what the preferred method of selling a house was, the majority of respondents indicated that they would like to do it via a local estate agent. Many underlined this desire with the perceived notion that local estate agents’ ‘local knowledge of the area’ would help them sell their house.
It is not surprising that the most traditional method of selling a property is the most preferred. However, many comments suggested they were put off estate agents due to their amount of fees they would be paying them and the slowness of the housing market, something that has heightened in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. This slowness is a reason why fast property buyers such as Vivo came into the market to offer a fast alternative and an easier way to sell your home. The fast buying industry has had many hiccups; as newest industries would have. Some new businesses took advantage of vulnerable house sellers and an early period of no regulation which gave fast property buyers a bad name. Luckily, organisations such as the Property Ombudsman came into play to regulate the industry and protect consumers. Here are our top tips and advice for when you are thinking of selling your house to a fast property buyer.
Still, unfamiliarity breeds concern. It’s human nature to be suspicious about new things. Hopefully regulated fast property buyers will soon be seen as equals to estate agents. Sellers can make their choice as to how they would like to sell but at least they have several options as opposed to only one option in the past. If you want to find out more about the differences between selling your home to a fast property buyer and estate agents, check out our comparative article here.
The results of the survey revealed that 55% of the people asked estimated that the average time to sell a house is between 3-6 months. As a company that can buy your house in 7 days – we certainly found this interesting! Often it can take longer than this on the open market with problems arising from breakdowns in the selling chains. Plus, with the extra amount of time you have to wait to sell your home, the utility bills can really add up! Sadly, it often takes over 6 months to almost a year to sell your home on the open market. Hopefully, the manners in which to sell your home is ever expanding, so the traditional way may not be your only option from now on.
The survey also asked people what their most important factor was when they are selling a house. ‘Getting the highest price’ was ranked the most important while ‘Speed’ came second. We believe that herein lies the conflict what the stresses of selling a house as they often conflict with one another. The biggest issue with ‘the highest price’ is that a property is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Nobody has the correct answer for what a house is worth and how much it will sell for. This leads to a delay in the house selling process – where a person waiting for the ‘highest price’ will have to pay the monthly mortgage payment, council tax and utility bills which often will eat up their margins. The benefit of prioritising a guaranteed sale means that you can get a cash offer and sell your house fast. This reduces turnaround time and saves you money and stress, allowing you to start your next adventure.
Perhaps the biggest finding of the survey is that people found the prospect of selling a house to be the most stressful life event. Respondents were asked to rank five life events in order (1 being the most stressful) of ‘stressfulness’ in which selling a home was determined to be more stressful than having a baby, buying a home or starting a new job. As fast property buyers, we completely emphasise with your situation – this is the reason we started Vivo Property Buyers in the first place! To give sellers an alternative to the pitfalls of the open market which is often long, daunting and prone to breaking down. Moreover, your home is generally your biggest asset and renders a large emotional attachment, plus it is not something you will do regularly so it can be quite daunting. Hopefully, by selling your house fast to Vivo it will give you the peace of mind of a guaranteed sale combined with a huge amount of flexibility.
We aim to make selling a house an enjoyable, stress-free experience.
While not strictly related to the property industry, our survey also found out that men find the prospect of having a baby more stressful than women. Respondents were asked to rank the aforementioned six life events in order of how stressful they thought they were. Interestingly men ranked the prospect of having a baby as the most stressful while women position selling a house as the most stressful life event, with having a baby only third. We were surprised at this fact, especially as men ‘having’ a baby may be somewhat different to women! Perhaps this is an indication of the modern men’s growing role in raising a child…
We would like to thank everyone that took part in our survey and it was great to find out so many insights into the property industry. If you are looking to sell your home fast in a flexible, stress-free way, why don’t you get in touch with us and we can make you an offer in under an hour!
Vivo Property Buyers is the trading name for Potrell London Ltd, The Ashridge Business Centre 121 High Street, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, HP4 2DJ.
