How do part exchange schemes work and is it right for me?

Unsure you want to use a part exchange scheme? Consider selling to LDN Properties.

Although part exchange schemes might be attractive to some homeowners, we understand they’re not for everyone and that’s why we offer a way to get quick and competitive offers to buy your house or flat. It’s easy to get a no-obligation, no-fee quote – simply click "Request Offer" or call 020 7183 3022 to chat with our team of friendly experts.

Selling to a cash home buyer rather than a part exchange scheme?

If you would like to sell your property quickly, get in touch with the experts at LDN Properties. We have been buying leasehold and freehold flats and houses for almost two decades, and we provide a no-stress, straightforward and hassle-free option for receiving competitive and speedy offers for selling all shapes and sizes of properties.

Start the process of selling to us by calling our friendly team, and within one hour of talking we should be able to provide you with an initial quote for buying your property. You’ll have at least a full week to think about the offer, so there is zero pressure for you to make a snap decision.

The next step is usually for one of our representatives to visit your house or flat and tour the inside and outside. Our representative’s visit is also a perfect chance for you to ask any queries that you may still have about selling.

We’ll be completely upfront with you about the factors that we rely on to make a valuation and purchase price offer for your home. We have a lengthy list of very happy customers who have benefited from the fast and fair offers that we make for buying many different types of homes. Some examples of properties that we have bought include dilapidated houses, flats with cladding, homes of multiple occupancy, houses with solar panels, properties where the owner has misplaced crucial paperwork such as the title deeds, homes built from atypical construction material including steel and concrete, property on noisy roads, and many other varied examples.

And the final step is for us to work with your solicitor to quickly complete all of the mandatory paperwork for buying your home. Our typical timeline for buying a property, including all parts of the process such as exchanging contracts and paying you the proceeds, is just a few weeks.

In addition to securing a quick sale, another advantage of selling via the simple steps outlined above is that LDN Properties will never charge you any fees. That’s because our belief is that owners are entitled to the total proceeds of whatever sale price we offer for buying their houses or flats.

Other ways to sell your home if you opt against a part exchange scheme

Beyond selling your house or flat to LDN Properties, there are a few other options available for how to find a buyer for your home if you decide against using a part exchange scheme. You could sell through an estate agent, sell at an auction, or attempt selling on your own.

Just as selling to a quick buyer can have its own strengths and weaknesses, there are also important pros and cons to consider with these three other options. They all differ in terms of how long they take, whether they charge fees, and other important factors. Selling on your own avoids fees, for example, but you’ll pay commission with an auctioneer or an estate agent.

Once you have reviewed all four of the possible ways to sell your home, it can be a good idea to write down your top aims with the sale of your house or flat, such as your goal selling price, how long you can wait to find a buyer, and whether you will accept paying any fees. Compare these details against all four strategies and you should find out which one matches your needs best.

Selling through an estate agent

A conventional way to sell a home is via an estate agent, who will do almost all the work needed to find a buyer. They will create a listing that features photographs of the interior and exterior of your property and describes its main features, and advertise this online, in local newspapers and in their office. Next, they’ll schedule viewings for people interested in your home to tour it, and then hear offers form buyers, trying to get on to the last step of exchanging contracts.

For putting in all of this work, the average estate agent will charge a seller anywhere from 1.15 percent to 1.40 percent of a property’s eventual sale price in commission. This charge will add to your net expenses because it will be immediately subtracted from the sale proceeds. If you are trying to minimise extra costs when selling your house or flat then you should look at some zero-fee options, including selling on your or own or selling to a no-fee quick home buyer.

If you are sure that you want to still use the services of an estate agent to sell your property, you could then inquire with individual businesses about whether they might be open to negotiating a reduced rate of commission – but do not count on this, as they do not have to agree to it.

It’s also often a slow option for selling a home and you should not be surprised if it takes more than a year to complete a sale, so if you want to find a buyer as fast as feasible then you should assess some of the other choices. For example, selling to a quick buyer can be a good selection because it should only take a few weeks from the start through to the exchange of contracts.

There’s also a potential problem with selling using the services of an estate agent in that a buyer can make a legitimate offer but then decide against purchasing your home and cancel the offer. This would add much more time to your selling process because you will then need to restart the search for a buyer. And there is nothing that you can do to penalise the person for withdrawing the offer, as penalties only apply if you have already exchanged contracts.

Yet another disadvantage of selling with an estate agent is that some could try a sneaky manoeuvre of quoting you a very promising sale price for your flat or house, only to secretly understand that buyers will only make offers at a much lower value. This is to convince you to sell using their business, so that they benefit from charging you fees if they sell your home.

You can avoid falling for this trick by taking some free, simple and quick steps, starting with browsing home sales websites such as Rightmove and Zoopla and noting the present and past sale prices of properties like yours. Then ask a number of estate agents to give you free, no-obligation sale price quotes for your property. Finally, calculate the average of all of these prices and this should produce a better rough estimate of your home’s potential sale price.

Selling at an auction

Auctioning a home works much the same way as auctioning any other valuable asset like artwork, cars and jewellery – people get the chance to place bids of increasing value on your property for a limited amount of time during the auction. When the auctioneer says “going, going, gone” and ends the auction, the top bid is the winner and person buying your home.

You could be asked to select between the traditional method and the modern method of auction. The traditional method involves the auctioneer creating a listing for your home then advertising it for weeks or months to get people interested in your property ahead of the auction, and once they host the auction prospective buyers will then have the opportunity to bid on it.

With the modern method, your listing will be active for a specific number of weeks or months, and people can place bids on the property 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until the listing expires – at which time the top value bid is the winner and will be purchasing the home. The around-the-clock ability to bid on your home is therefore the key distinction between the two options, although for many sellers choosing between them is a matter of personal preference.

If an auctioneer succeeds in selling your home, you will need to pay them commission for their work. This is often charged at 2.5 percent of a property’s auction sale price, and the fee will increase your costs because it will be deducted from the eventual sale proceeds. But the exact fee will depend on the auction house, and it could be less than 2.5 percent, as Marketplace Financial Solutions notes, or higher.

You could inquire with individual auctioneers about whether they are open to reducing the amount of commission that they will charge you should your home sell, because this is one way to reduce your expenses. Another is to ask them if they are open to having the winning top bidder on your house or flat pay a share of the costs that you owe the auctioneer. Just remember that auction houses are under no duty to offer you these outcomes.

Selling through an auction can be quite a slow process, with a wait of several weeks or longer between the day that you choose this method and the day that the auction takes place. If your home sells, the top bidder then has about a month to sign all of their required legal papers and complete the other steps needed to finalise the purchase, delaying the timeline further.

One way to potentially speed up the timeline for selling by auction is to ask the auctioneer if they are open to reducing the amount of time that the buyer has for handling all of the tasks that are required to do once the auction is over. But beware that even though some auctioneers could be open to doing this, others might give the buyer even more time for their tasks than a month.

Selling on your own

Another option for selling your property would be attempting to do so without any help from an auctioneer or estate agent. This puts the onus on you to do all the tasks required to find a buyer, starting with putting together a listing and advertising it, followed by organising viewings, then hearing offers from buyers and aiming to guide one through to the exchange of contracts.

You won’t be able to only work on the sale of your home in your spare time, and this can also be a selling method that creates a lot of stress. You might want to only think about choosing this approach if you have prior experience with selling properties, or if you have a similarly qualified friend or family member that is open to helping with the sale and not charge you anything.

This can also be far from the swiftest option for selling a home and it might take over a year before you receive a serious offer from a buyer. Even then, they could rescind the offer later on, prompting the sale to collapse, which they can do without any penalty if contracts are not yet exchanged. You’d then have to start again seeking a buyer, slowing your timeline further.

Selling on your own can also create other complications, such as trying to decide what price to ask for your property. But you can overcome this hurdle by asking a number of estate agents to give you no-obligation, free quotes for the price at which they think your home could sell. Then look at Rightmove, Zoopla and other property sales websites and write down the past and present sale prices of homes like yours in the area. Finally, calculate the average of all the prices and this should produce a good rough estimate of your home’s possible sale price.

One of the only clear pros of selling without any third-party help is that you will not have to pay any commission to an auctioneer or an estate agent on your home’s sale proceeds, which helps with reducing your expenses. But this saving could be wiped out by the funds that you would have to spend on promoting your listing and other tasks required to secure a buyer.

If you are committed to not paying fees on the sale of your house or flat but want a much speedier sale, you could look at selling to a zero-fee quick home buyer like LDN Properties. You would achieve the same goal of avoiding commission, whilst also getting an additional benefit of completing the sale of your property just weeks after you first contact the company.

Seven important questions about part exchange schemes

We’ve fielded many queries from homeowners about part exchange schemes, and these are seven of the most important questions and answers you should know about them: