We Buy Any Property

Choosing a “we buy any property” company when selling your home

Selling your home is a major event, and one of the most important decisions that you’ll have to make is deciding which strategy you will use to find a buyer for it.

There are often four options available for selling a home, and they are choosing a “we buy any property” company – also known as a quick buyer – like LDN Properties, using the services of an estate agent, trying your luck with an auction or attempting to sell without any help.

This guide focuses mostly on the process of selling to a quick buyer, including the various steps involved, the advantages and disadvantages compared to other methods for finding a buyer, and details on what to expect if you ultimately decide to use on of the other three selling methods.

How does “we buy any property” work?

As a specialist “We Buy Any Property” business; your sale is not dependent on waiting for a buyer, instead we would make you an offer and work to your sale timetable.

Selling this way is hassle-free, no-stress and straightforward, starting when you get in touch with them – within the first hour of talking to the quick buyer they should be able to make an initial offer on your property, and you will have at least one week to consider it.

If you accept that tentative offer, a representative from the quick buying company will then visit the home to inspect the inside and outside, using this information to calculate a final offer on your flat or house. This is the only such viewing that you would need to have, compared to dozens or more viewings if you try to find a buyer using other approaches.

And the last stage, if you accept the final offer, is when the quick buyer works rapidly with your solicitor or other legal representative to sign all of the required legal documents and complete the other steps needed to finalise the sale. The entire process should only take a handful of weeks, and that covers the exchange of contracts and paying you the sale proceeds.

As an alternative, you may consider selling your house at auction or choosing to use an estate agent. You would then have the uncertainty of when your property will actually sell and how much for. Choosing a “We Buy any Property” company would virtually eliminate these risks and allow you to make future plans.

The “we buy any property” approach is suited to selling all types of property no matter what the condition – including complicated property such as selling an HMO.

Pros and cons with selling a home to a “we buy any property” company

All of the available options for how to sell a home have their unique advantages and disadvantages, including selling to a “we buy any property” company, as the website Home Selling Expert says.

So it’s helpful to learn about these factors before making a final choice on how to sell your property. Some of the benefits that you’ll experience when selling to a quick buyer include:

Speedy sale: As their name implies, quick buyers are able to complete the purchase of almost any home on a very fast timeline, usually taking just a few weeks from start to finish.

Competitive offer: Many quick buyers will give you a highly competitive offer for your property, and that’s true even if the home has significant physical damage or other problems.

No fees: Another great perk of selling to a legitimate quick buyer is that they won’t charge you any commission, which means that you can count on receiving the full sale proceeds.

Whilst some of the drawbacks that you might encounter can be:

Lower offer: There are some quick buyers that will make offers at your home below its market value, hoping to pressure you into accepting it in exchange for getting a fast sale.

Hidden charges: Although reputable quick buyers won’t charge sellers commission, other companies might require that you pay other fees that they don’t disclose upfront.

Potential scams: Unfortunately there are some disreputable quick buyers that may try to scam you, so only sell to companies like LDN Properties that are known to be honest.

Alternative options for how to sell your house or flat

If you’ve reviewed all the details about selling your home to a “we buy any property” company and have decided that you don’t want to use that option, you have other choices. You could sell with an estate agent, at an auction, or even try selling without any assistance.

Be aware that all three of these selections have their own benefits and drawbacks in terms of whether they will require that you pay fees, their typical timeline, and more.

Consider writing down your top aims with selling – including your ideal sale price, whether you can accept paying any commission, and how fast you want to sell – and then compare these factors against the specific details of the three strategies below. This should help you with identifying which of the three alternative methods is the best match for your situation.

Selling with an estate agent

Estate agents handle almost all aspects of selling your home, as the website Rello notes. They’ll create a listing that describes the property and includes photographs of it, then advertise this to get buyers interested. They also schedule viewings for people to tour your house or flat, and hear any offers on it.

For doing all of this work, the typical estate agent will charge commission within a range from 1.15 percent to 1.40 percent of your home’s final sale price. This fee will be taken out of the sale proceeds and therefore will increase your overall selling expenses. If you are trying to cut costs when selling then you could consider a no-fee option such as selling without any help.

Or you could try asking an estate agent to reduce the amount of commission that they will charge you, and some companies will have fees that are below the typical range. Just note that other estate agents might charge even higher than 1.40 percent in commission.

Selling through an estate agent can also be a slow process that takes many months or even more than an entire year to complete. And remember that someone can make an offer but then later change their mind and cancel it, making the sale collapse. You would then need to restart the search for a buyer, potentially extending your selling schedule much further.

Selling at an auction

An auctioneer is another selling choice that won’t require much work on your part because they will be responsible for putting together a listing and advertising it, organising and hosting the auction, and then overseeing the successful sale of your property if that happens.

Just know that you might not get any bids on your home, which means that it does not sell, You would then need to begin again with trying to find a buyer, delaying a sale even longer. Or you might get only one offer at the reserve price, which is the lowest value at which you agree that your home can sell at the auction. A bid at this price is a binding legal agreement to your house or flat that the bidder could sue to enforce in case you try to walk away from the sale.

That’s why it’s important you also take time to calculate a reserve price that should generate a profit from the sale, even after you subtract the commission that the auctioneer will charge. Many auctioneers will set a fee at 2.5 percent of your property’s sale price, and this commission will increase your selling expenses because it will be subtracted from the auction proceeds.

You might want to ask individual auctioneers if they are open to reducing the rate of commission that they will charge you, or having the buyer pay a share of your costs, because this can help to reduce your overall expenses when selling via this strategy. Just beware that other auctioneers might charge an even higher rate of commission than 2.5 percent.

Selling at an auction can take a long time, with lots of waiting involved, including many weeks or even months between when you choose to sell this way and when the auction takes place. If your home does sell, the winning bidder then usually has about 28 days to sign all of the required legal papers and finish the other steps needed to complete the purchase.

There are some auctioneers that might be open to reducing how much time they give the buyer to complete the tasks, so it’s always worth inquiring about this option. But note that certain auctioneers might give the buyer even more time than 28 days, make a sale even slower.

Selling without any assistance

Another way to sell your home is without any help, which means that you are responsible for taking care of the entire process. You will need to prepare a listing and advertise it, organise viewings to give anyone interested a tour of your house or flat, hear offers and aim to get a serious offer to the exchange of contracts.

Selling on your own will take up a lot of your time and it can also be quite stressful. For these reasons, you should only consider pursuing this method if you have prior experience with selling a property, or there is a suitably qualified friend or family member that is willing to assist you with the sale at no charge.

Even with such experience, it might take many months or even years to find a buyer. And someone can make an offer but then later rescind it, prompting the sale to collapse – and you can’t get any penalties from them if you have not yet exchanged contracts. This would also extend your selling schedule much further as you’d have to start over with seeking a buyer.

The only obvious benefit of selling this way is that you would not need to pay an estate agent or auctioneer any commission once you find a buyer, which reduces your expenses. But you might find that any saving you make as a result is cancelled out by the money that you would need to spend on advertising your listing and other tasks needed to find a buyer.

To find out if your property and situation are suited to our “we buy any property” service, call us on 020 7183 3022 for a chat with no-obligation.