How to sell a house with structural issues

Pros and cons with your options for selling a home with structural issues

If you have decided to proceed with the sale of your property “as is” without correcting whatever structural issue it has, you will then need to choose from the four typical methods to find a buyer. These are selling to a quick home buyer, selling with an estate agent, selling at a property auction or attempting to sell the house or flat without any assistance.

You will discover that there are specific advantages and disadvantages with all four of the choices in terms of important factors such as whether they charge fees, how long they take, and other issues. For example, you will have to pay potentially costly commission when selling at an auction or with an estate agent, but you’ll pay no fees when selling to a quick home buyer.

Below you’ll find out the main highlights of all your selling methods, and it can be useful to compare the details about all four against your top aims with the sale, such as the price that you would like to get for your property, whether or not you are open to paying any fees, and how fast you want to sell. This should help with showing you the best option for your particular needs.

Selling to a quick home buyer

Quick home buyers can be a good choice for selling a property that has structural issues that you do not fix before selling. That is because these companies are well known for making competitive and fast offers to buy almost any home regardless of whether or not it has any structural problems, and no matter the property’s age, condition, location, shape, size or type.

LDN Properties, for examples, has bought and made offers for many homes with structural issues throughout the UK since launching in 2003, including flats with a leaking roof, houses that have storm damage, properties with subsidence, homes with elevated levels of radon, flats with faulty wiring, houses that have a damp problem, properties with dry rot, homes that have been flooded, and more.

You can also get a very fast sale with this option because the process should only take a few short weeks, and that includes exchanging contracts and you receiving the full sale proceeds. If you are trying to sell your home as fast as possible then this can be a suitable choice.

A further advantage of selling this way is that the honest quick home buyers will not charge you any commission when purchasing your property. That can make a quick buyer a good selection for those owners that want to reduce their overall expenses when selling their home.

Selling with an estate agent

If you are thinking about selling your home using the series of an estate agent then you should ask individual companies about whether they have managed to sell a home with structural issues like yours in the past. There are many estate agents that will never have sold such a property, and this suggests they could struggle to get buyers interested in your home.

Another drawback of selling via this method is that it can take a very long time, as it might be more than a full year before you are able to find a buyer. Even then, someone could make an offer but later change their mind and cancel it, causing the sale to fall apart. This would require you to start over with seeking a buyer, delaying the selling timeline even further. And you can’t penalise the person with scrapping the offer if you have not yet exchanged contracts.

Remember you will also have to pay the estate agent commission if they manage to sell your home, and this will increase your costs because the fee will be subtracted from the eventual sale proceeds. Many estate agents charge commission within a range from 1.15 percent to 1.45 percent of a home’s final sale price, although the exact fee can be as low as 0.5 percent or as high as 3.5 percent or more, according to House Wow Services.

This fee pays for the work that an estate agent does in selling a property, starting with creating a listing that describes the home and features photographs of the interior and exterior. They’ll advertise this listing online and in their office and local newspapers to get buyers interested, then schedule viewings to give people tours of the house or flat. Finally, they will hear offers from prospective buyers and try to guide one of them to the exchange of contracts.

Selling at a property auction

Another way to sell a home is through an auction, where people will place bids of increasing value on the property, with the top bid at the end of the auction being named the winner and person buying the house or flat. But this can be a difficult option for selling a property that has significant structural issues that you either cannot or do not want to fix before selling.

You should inquire with individual auction houses about their current and prior successes with selling homes that have structural issues, particularly those with the same problem as your home. Avoid using the services of an auctioneer that has never managed to sell this type of property because it strongly implies that they will find it hard to sell your home as well.

Auctioneers do most of the work needed to sell a home; they will create a listing, advertise it, host the auction and oversee the competition of a successful sale. But in exchange for saving you from having to put in this effort, the auctioneer will charge you fees if your home sells.

Usually you can expect an estate agent to set this commission at about 2.5 percent of your property’s final sale price, although the exact rate may be above or below this amount. This will cause your costs to rise because the fee will be deducted from the eventual sale process.

Some auctioneers might be open to either reducing how much commission they charge you, or having the buyer pay a share of your expenses, so it can be worth asking about these options.

An auction can also be quite a slow way to sell your home with plenty of waiting involved, including many weeks or even months between when you opt for selling using this approach and when the auction is held. If your home manages to sell, the buyer then has an average of 28 days to finish their tasks needed to complete the sale, such as signing the legal documents.

Selling without any assistance

Perhaps the most stressful way to try selling your flat or house with structural problems is doing so on your own, because you will have to handle every step of the process. You will need to put together a listing, organise viewings, hear offers and try to get one to exchanging contracts.

This is a huge amount of work and it will take up a lot of your time, so you should only think about it if you have previously managed to sell a home that has structural issues, or if you have a suitably qualified friend or family member that can help with the sale at no charge. Regardless, it might take more than a year before you able to secure a buyer.

Not also that someone could make an honest offer on your home but then for whatever reason they decide to rescind it – and they can do this without any penalties so long as you have not yet exchanged contracts. This would prompt the sale to collapse and require that you start again with trying to find another buyer, likely adding much more time to the selling process.

The only clear benefit of selling without any help is that you would not need to pay commission to an estate agent or an auctioneer for finding a buyer for the property, which will help reduce your costs. But you could discover that any saving you make this way is cancelled out by the money that you would need to spend on the selling process, such as marketing your listing.

As an alternative, consider selling to a no-fee quick buyer like LDN Properties, because you would achieve the same goal of preventing having to pay any commission, but with the extra bonus of being able to complete the entire selling process within a few short weeks. It makes quick buyers a viable strategy for people wanting to sell speedily whilst also cutting their costs.

Seven questions and answers all about selling homes with structural issues

We’ve truly seen it all with buying homes of all types, including those with major structural issues. If you’re looking to sell, review these top questions about what’s involved:

Does your home have structural issues? We can make you an offer to buy it

We’ve bought houses and flats with structural issues many times, and we’re ready to chat with you about making a competitive and quick cash offer on your home through a very simple and zero-stress process. And you’ll never pay any fees if you sell to us.

If you’d like to chat with our team of friendly experts, you can reach us by calling 020 7183 3022 or by clicking on the "Request Offer" button below.