Research from property purchasing specialist, HBB Solutions, has revealed that the nation’s homebuyers can slash an average of £22,000 off the price they pay for a home by focussing their search on quick sale properties.
HBB Solutions analysed current property values across each region of England, as well as the average price accepted by sellers in need of a quick sale, to reveal just how much you could save, as well as providing some top tips on how to secure these discounted homes.
In a busy housing market where sales are taking an awfully long time to complete, there are some sellers who are willing to make sacrifices to try and guarantee a fast sale. In particular, they’re happy to put their property on the market at a discounted asking price for buyers who are able to complete the process as quickly as possible.
While the average price paid across England is currently £252,671, the average price for a home that has been listed a ‘quick sale’ property is £22,000 cheaper at £230,428, thus offering a potential saving of 8.8%.
The biggest savings are available in Yorkshire & Humber where the average price for a quick sale property is 14.8%, or roughly £24,000 below the regional average, while in the North East, the average quick sale could save buyers an average of 14.3%.
Great savings are also available in the West Midlands (10.2%), London (9.9%), and the North West (9.6%).
In order to take advantage of these savings, buyers have got to be able to move swiftly to secure a quick sale property, but there are a few things they can do to make themselves as attractive as possible.
First, it’s vital to have a mortgage approved in principle before submitting an offer. Not only does this mean your journey to getting the mortgage fully guaranteed is much shorter, but it shows the seller that you’re serious about moving quickly.
It’s also a massive benefit to be free of a chain. Chains are the bane of the quick seller’s life - they create delays, and uncertainty and frequently result in fall-throughs.
Finally, if it’s at all possible, cash buyers are like catnip to impatient sellers and will rocket a buyer to the top of their list, beating off any competitors who are still fumbling around trying to sort their mortgage paperwork.
All of this just leaves one question: how do you find quick sale properties?
First of all, buyers should not be afraid to ask local estate agents if they are representing a seller who is keen to sell quickly and, therefore, may have listed below market value or be willing to take a bigger hit when negotiating.
Secondly, most of the well-known property portals enable searches to be filtered by terms such as ‘quick sale’. Such properties are, of course, less common than your standard home but they’re worth searching for because the potential savings are significant.
Chris Hodgkinson, Managing Director of HBB Solutions, commented: “People often assume that sellers are interested in one thing only: getting as much money for their property as is humanly possible. But this isn’t always the case. For example, lots of people move home because of changing life circumstances, such as new jobs, bereavements or the start of, or breakdown of a relationship, and this means speed is of the essence.
"In these instances, a buyer in a strong position is often far more preferable to one with a bigger cheque book and sellers in need of a quick sale will return the favour in the form of some quite notable asking price reductions.
"Ensuring you’re in the strongest possible position as a buyer is the best way to secure such a property and so the very minimum you should have is a mortgage in principle before you hit the market in search of a home.”
