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Anyone who owns a coastal property should be aware that potential buyers will likely have a long list of potential pros and cons when considering whether to make an offer on the home. If you’re trying to sell your freehold or leasehold house on the coast, this guide explains the process involved and offers tips on how to possibly get a competitive and speedy offer.
- Making the decision to sell your property on the coast
- Reasons why buyers might want your home by the coast
- Potential hurdles with trying to sell a property near the coast
- Preparing your house located on the coast for sale
- Paying Capital Gains Tax on the sale of your coastal home
- Options to find a buyer for your home near the coast
- Top questions about selling a property located by the coast
Making the decision to sell your property on the coast
Coastal properties are distinct from beach huts, as the latter are usually small single room buildings that have some basic furniture and are designed for daytime use, as they are rarely used for overnight accommodation. By contrast, a coastal home can be used year-round as your primary place of residence.
A house on the coast will typically have all the same features as a similar-sized home located in a city, suburb or other area, including a full kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, lounges and more. They almost always will be connected to electricity and running water, and the only major distinction between them and properties in other locations is their coastal view.
Your home on the coast might be freehold, in which case you will be the of the building itself as well as the land on which it was constructed. Alternatively, it could be a leasehold home, which means that you own the property for a set number of time – usually many years – in exchange for paying the freehold a ground rent that is typically charged on an annual basis.
Whichever type of coastal home you own, you may have any number of reasons for wanting to sell it, such as wanting to downsize to a smaller property, needing funds for a move overseas, and many other situations. Whatever your reason for wanting to sell your coastline home, this guide will show you how to boost your odds of selling for a quick and competitive offer.
Reasons why buyers might want your home by the coast
When you are getting ready to sell your leasehold or freehold coastal home, it can be helpful to understand all of the potential pros and cons that buyers might think about your property. Knowing these factors can help you with developing immediate answers for buyers about any concerns they might have, or playing up the positive aspects associated with the home.
To start with, there are some strong benefits that buyers might see about being the owner of a coastline home in the future that might make it easier to attract offers.
Dream home: Your potential for selling may be boosted by certain buyers that might consider a coastline house to be their dream property, regardless of the condition that the home might be in.
Great views: Part of what makes a coastal home a dream property for some people is what will also be of interest to most potential buyers – the excellent waterfront views. Be sure to promote this aspect of the home in photographs depending on the method you use for selling.
Resale value: Because there are fewer properties located along the coastline, demand for these homes can remain somewhat consistently high. As a result, some buyers might consider buying the property as a valuable investment that they can resell at a higher price later.
Potential hurdles with trying to sell a property near the coast
Just as there are several positive aspects associated with homes on the coast, you will find that some buyers are likely to have concerns about various other elements of the property.Being informed about all of these negative factors can be very useful when trying to sell your home, because you it will help you to quickly and directly respond to buyers’ doubts. The longer that you take to reply to a buyer’s questions, the more risk they lose interest in your property.Remote location: Although the rural setting and great sea views can be a major draw for buyers, coastal properties are generally in rather remote locations and can require long drives to get to essential services like supermarkets, which might discourage some buyers.Coastal erosion: Unfortunately, coastal erosion is a major threat for certain properties located by the water, with the risk growing the closer a home is situated to the coastline. One recent news report from geplus.co.uk detailed how coastline properties had to be demolished in Norfolk to prevent them falling into the sea, after bad storms shrunk the distance between decades-old properties and the water to just a few feet when they have been more than 20 feet apart before.Storm risk: Somewhat related to coastal erosion, the potential increased risk of damage from severe storms is greater for properties on the coastline, where storms can be stronger. Sea spray can cause corrosion at a coastal home, and high winds might damage the property.
Preparing your house located on the coast for sale
When you are getting ready to sell your home by the coast, there are a few steps that you can take to improve the look of your property and possibly help with getting a faster sale – as discussed in this article from The Advisory.
Buyers don’t like cluttered homes, so you should remove any clutter from each room in the property, and try to maximise the open space throughout the home. This will help to make your house appear larger on the inside, which can make buyers view it more favourably. Similarly, you should clean the interior because a messy home can be a dealbreaker for some buyers.
With the exterior of your property you can also pursue some low-cost or no-cost steps to improve its appearance and hopefully make buyers think the home is more valuable. This can include giving window ledges and the front door a fresh coat of paint, replacing any missing roof tiles, removing weeds from the garden and mowing the lawn, and similar actions.
However, if your property has an issue that some people might consider to be a major problem then you will have to consider whether to fix this issue first or try selling the home "as is" in its current state. Such problems might include selling a house with structural flaws, high levels of asbestos, a poor Energy Performance Certificate ranking, Japanese knotweed in the garden, and more.
If you have a so-called problem property, you will have to decide whether to invest the effort, time and money into fixing the issue. This will be a highly personal decision based on your own available resources and your goals with selling, such as how quickly you want to find a buyer.
The advantage of investing in work to fix a problem property is that it can make the home seem more valuable to buyers once the project is completed. Otherwise, some buyers will see the problem at your property and they will want to reduce their offer on your home by at least the amount of money that they anticipate it will cost them to fix the issue as the new owner. By resolving the problem before they make an offer, you will have prevented this scenario.
However, many people will simply not be able to spend the time or funds required to fix any problems with their property before selling. If that’s your case, then you can still get a competitive and speedy offer for your home by selling to a quick buyer like LDN Properties. These companies have extensive experience with paying fair prices for problem homes sold as is in their current condition, so consider this option when trying to sell your coastline property.
Paying Capital Gains Tax on the sale of your coastal home
An important issue that you’ll have to consider when sell your freehold or leasehold home by the coast is whether you might have to pay Capital Gains Tax on the eventual sale proceeds. Knowing your potential tax liability will help you in writing a budget for the sale of your property.
Capital Gains Tax (discussed in this Times article) is a levy that the UK government charges based on the gain, also known as the profit, that someone makes when they sell a valuable physical asset such as a home, car, artwork or other items.
You should consult with a financial professional because they may be able to help you identify ways that you can either reduce or eliminate your duty to pay this tax.
Options to find a buyer for your home near the coast
One of the final decisions that you will have to make as part of the home selling process is selecting which of four methods you’d like use for finding a buyer (read more in this Rightmove article).
Typically, your options are selling to a quick property buyer, using an estate agent, trying a property auction or selling without any help. There are clear advantages linked with all four of these methods, but some of the approaches also have some rather prominent disadvantages, such as requiring that you pay commission or taking over a year to find a buyer.
To help you find the selling option that works before your situation, you should write down your biggest priorities with finding a buyer, such as how long you are willing to wait, how much you can accept paying in fees, and your preferred sale place. Compare all of these details against the specifics of the four choices below and you’ll find the method that is the best match.
Selling to a quick property buyer
These companies are able to make fast and fair offers for almost any home no matter its age, condition, shape, size or type. LDN Properties, for example, launched in 2003 and since then has not only bought and considered many homes near the coast but also bed and breakfast properties, flats with leaks, listed buildings, mundic properties Wimpey No-Fines homes, houses that have solar panels, flats with noisy neighbours, properties with very short leases remaining, and many other examples.
They are known as quick buyers because these companies have the funds available to purchase properties immediately, without having to wait many weeks or months to first win approval for a mortgage to cover the cost of the transaction. This helps narrow the timeline of selling this way to just a few short weeks, and that includes exchanging contracts and paying the owner their proceeds, making this often the speediest way that you can sell a home.
Another pro of selling to a quick property buyer is that the honest companies will never require that you pay them any commission, which helps in reducing your selling expenses. By contrast, estate agents and auctioneers will charge fees that will add to your overall costs.
Should you agree to the initial offer, the quick buyer will then have one of their representatives visit your home so that they can assess the interior and exterior before making a final offer. This will be the only viewing that you need to host, compared to other methods of selling.
If you decide to accept the quick buyer’s final offer, they will then move quickly to work with your solicitor or other legal representative to quickly complete the purchase of your home.
Using an estate agent
When you sell through an estate agent, you won’t have to put in much effort because they will handle the work involved. This includes creating a listing that describes the property and features photographs of it, advertising the listing in their office, local newspapers and online, scheduling viewings for people to you’re the home, and fielding offers from buyers.
But estate agents expect to be paid for all of this work, and they usually charge commission based on your property’s final sale price. This will add to your costs with selling because the fee is taken immediately out of the sale proceeds.
In addition to the cost involved, selling this way can also take a long time, and you should be prepared for your home to be on the market for more than an entire year. If one of your main aims with selling is to secure a buyer as fast as possible, you should assess other options.
Also, some buyers might not have any experience with selling coastal properties, and they may only know how to attract interest in city centre homes. If that’s the case, then it’s possible that these companies might not know to attract much interest in your home from buyers.
Trying a property auction
Another way to sell your home is at an auction, where you will choose a reserve price – the lowest value at which you agree to sell your home – and people will then be able to place bids of ever-increasing value to buy the property. Note that if you get no bids then the home is considered unsold and you’ll have to start over with finding a buyer, adding more delay.
You must choose a reserve price that will produce a profit from the sale even after you pay the auctioneer their fees, because otherwise you risk selling at a loss or only breaking even. And remember that even if you only get a single bid at the reserve price then your home is sold, and the buyer can sue to enforce the sale if you try to back out of it after the auction.
Auctioning a property can take a very long time, starting with a delay of many weeks or months between when you list the coastal home for sale and when the auction happens. And if your property does sell, the buyer then typically has 28 days to sign all of the relevant paperwork and complete all of their other required tasks in order to finalise the purchase of your home.
Some auctioneers might be open to setting a shorter deadline for the buyer to complete their tasks, so you should ask individual companies about whether this is possible.
You will also have to pay commission when selling your home through an auction, and this fee is usually charged as a percentage of the property’s final sale price. This will add to your total selling expenses, because the fee will be taken out of the sale proceeds immediately.
You can ask specific auctioneers if they might be open to either having the winning high bidder pay some of your costs, or alternatively charging you a reduced commission on the sale.
Selling without any help
Another way to sell a home by the coast is doing so without any assistance, which means you have to handle every aspect of the process. This can be a very time-consuming, expensive and stressful process that is only recommended if you have experience with selling properties, or you have a qualified friend or family member who is willing to help you for free.
Selling without any help is often the slowest of the four options, because it might be more than an entire year before you receive a serious offer from a buyer. And even if you get an offer, the buyer could withdraw it without facing any repercussions up until exchange of contracts.
This method of selling a property does have the benefit of not having to pay any commission to a third party like an estate agent or auctioneer. But this cost saving can be eliminated by the funds you’ll have to spend on creating and advertising a listing for the property.
If your top priority with selling is not having to pay any fees, you should instead consider selling to a quick property buyer like LDN Properties. These companies do not charge any commission, and they are also able to finalise the purchase of almost any property within a handful of weeks, rather than more than a year. That means you could not only get zero-fee sale, but you could also do so on a much speedier schedule compared to selling your home without any help.
Top queries and answers about selling property near the coast
Homeowners wanting to secure a quick home sale typically have questions for us, ranging from the how much repair work they should do before selling through to selling a home on a cliff or waterfront. Here are some of the top questions we’re asked about selling a property near the coast:
Your top questions when selling a property near the coast
A home on the coast means one just feet from the sea, and some of these might be freehold properties, where you outright own the home as well as the land on which it was built. Or the house could be leasehold, and in this situation you would own the property for a set number of years in exchanging for paying an annual ground rent to the home’s freeholder.
One of the main features of your home on the coast that could be enticing for buyers is the view of the sea and being surrounded by the natural landscape. The fact that coastal homes are in quieter, more remote locations can also be attractive to buyers. And other buyers might think that the home has strong potential for being resold at a higher price in the future.
Yes, and it’s important to understand these issues because they could be enough for some buyers to lose interest in your home. One major concern is coastal erosion, which is an ongoing natural problem and can cut many feet off the distance between your home and the sea. If this distance becomes too short then there’s the risk of your home falling into the sea.
If your property has structural damage or some other issue that a buyer may see as a problem that leads them to reduce their offer, you could consider spending time and money on fixing the issue in order to avoid this situation. But if you’re unable to do so and need to sell your home as is in its current condition, you can still get a fair offer by selling to quick property buyer.
You might not have to pay any Capital Gains Tax if you either make a loss on the sale compared to the original price you paid for the property, or break even by selling at close to the price you paid for it. Speak with a tax professional before making any decisions.
Possibly, if you decide to sell via an estate agent or property auction, because they charge commission for their work that will be deducted immediately from your sale proceeds, which will add to your costs. However, if you sell your property without any assistance or you sell it to a legitimate no-fee quick buyer like LDN Properties, you won’t have to pay any commission.
Your best option is typically getting in touch with a quick property buyer because these companies are usually able to complete the entire process of purchasing a home within just a handful of weeks, and that includes exchanging contracts and paying sellers the proceeds. Using an estate agent or property auction or selling on your own can all take many months.
