Selling Property Near a Motorway

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When you are looking to sell your leasehold or freehold property built near a motorway, it’s vital to know about the potential hurdles that might be involved with attracting offers from buyers. Reading this guide will give you insight into the best strategies for hopefully getting a competitive and speedy offer and being able to enjoy a stress-free selling process.

1. When are properties considered to be near motorways?
2. The drawbacks of owning a home by a motorway
3. Explanations why buyers may want a property close to a motorway
4. Preparing to sell your home by a motorway
5. Four methods to sell a property located near a motorway
6. Frequently asked queries about selling a home by a motorway

When are properties considered to be near motorways?

There are more than 2,300 miles of motorways throughout the UK connecting major cities, suburbs and more, with almost countless buses, cars, lorries and other vehicles traveling short and long distances. And across the country you can often find a wide variety of freehold or leasehold houses, flats and other residential properties built near to these motorways.
Some properties might have once been considered rural or otherwise remote homes and in subsequent years new motorways will have been constructed near them, whereas other flats or houses could have been built by developers deliberately close to existing motorways.
This guide aims to prepare you for being able to quickly sell your house or flat near a motorway for a competitive price. As the UK government’s website on selling property notes, the process can be stressful but does not need to be with the right amount of preparation.
Keep reading to learn about the pros and cons that potential buyers might associate with a home located by a motorway, as well as details on how to best get your property prepared for selling and also a look at the four most typical methods for attracting offers.
Whether you’re selling to buy your next dream home, selling to deal with an illness in the family, selling to stop repossession of your current property or far any other reason, you will find the tips that you need in this guide to identify the best way for you to attract a quick and fair offer from a buyer.

The drawbacks of owning a home by a motorway

Below you will find some of the most common disadvantages that prospective buyers might attribute to freehold or leasehold homes located near motorways. Some of these issues can make people think your home is less valuable than it really is, resulting in them making lower offers to buy it.
It’s important that you understand the possible cons associated with the location of your property, because it will help you to be more informed when buyers ask you about these issues. Although there is nothing you can do to change where your home is built, as you’ll see in the following examples there are steps you might want to consider to address some concerns:
Traffic noise: Perhaps the biggest problem that potential buyers might see with your house or flat is the fact that they might have to constantly hear noise from the many vehicles traveling along the motorway. You could consider pursuing some steps to mitigate the impact of traffic noise on your property, such as installing double glazed windows or other types of sound insulation, but that type of work could exceed how much money you want to spend on selling.
Fatal accidents: Unfortunately, car accidents and other fatalities can occur on motorways because of the high vehicle speeds involved, and some residents living near the M5 recently told The Sun that this can be even more of a disadvantage of their property’s location than noise. There’s not much that you will be able to do to address this issue with private buyers.
Pollution problems: In addition to the concerns that some buyers might have about noise from nearby traffic using the motorway at all hours of the day, they could also be worried about the air pollution coming from the cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles on the road. There are some steps that you could take to reduce the impact of vehicle air pollution on your home, such as planting trees, but you should be aware that this may be a dealbreaker for some people.
If you are considering selling your house or flat near a motorway, you can read a discussion on the Money Saving Expert about the topic.

Explanations why buyers may want a property close to a motorway

Whilst there are some notable negative aspects that buyers might associate with a house or flat situated near to a motorway, there are also some positive attributes of these properties.
Just as you should know the possible drawbacks of owning a home near a motorway, you should also be informed about the advantages of this type of property. This can help you when talking with potential buyers, because you can focus on the pros of your home, which could help with countering any concerns about noise or other issues that some buyers may have.
Better value: Some buyers could see properties located close to motorways as being better value for money, as they may believe that they could buy a larger house for less money than the same home would cost them in another location. That’s because some sellers might be convinced that there is a stigma with living so close to a motorway and reduce their asking price accordingly, which could nevertheless be beneficial by prompting more interest in your home.
Easy transport: The proximity of your flat or house to a busy motorway could be a huge benefit for a potential buyer that will need to use the motorway to commute to their job, or who will enjoy being so close to road connections with the rest of the UK. Even though being located near to a motorway might discourage other prospective buyers, as the next section of this guide explains, the proximity can be the primary reason why someone else will want your home.
Acceptable noise: You might find that there are some buyers who don’t have any problem with living close to the noise generated by vehicles on the motorway, for example if they have plenty of experience with buying or selling property near a junction or other noisy location. This type of buyer might be able to overlook the noise issue, and still be willing to make a competitive and speedy offer for purchasing your home.

Preparing sell your home by a motorway

Taking time to properly prepare your house or flat near a motorway for sale is another essential step, as The Advisory website explains. A well-maintained property will appear much more valuable to potential buyers than one that has problems ranging from small issues to large-scale flaws.
For your property’s interior, you should make sure that clutter is removed from every room and that they are freshly cleaned, because this will make the rooms appear larger and make the home more inviting to anyone touring the property on a viewing. Clean up after any pets if you have them, and make sure they’re locked away from buyers during any viewings.
For your property’s exterior, there are some small-scale and relatively low cost or no cost actions you can take, which include giving window ledges a fresh coat of paint, replacing any broken windows or missing roof tiles, and mowing and weeding the lawn if you have one. This will create a strong first impression for buyers and could make the home seem more valuable. A poorly maintained home will be seen as worth less and attract reduced offers from buyers.
One factor to consider is whether to fix any larger-scale problems, such as any subsidence, dry rot, the presence of Japanese knotweed and a host of other negative issues. You will have to assess whether you have the willingness, money and time to address the flaw before selling.
Fixing the issue before trying to sell your property will have the benefit of eliminating a situation where a buyer will reduce their offer by the amount of money that they expect it will cost them to repair the flaw as the home’s next owner. But many property owners won’t be able to pursue such work before needing to find a buyer, and that’s also a perfectly acceptable outcome.
In the latter case, for example, you could contact LDN Properties or another quick home buying company that is skilled at making rapid and competitive offers to buy almost any type of leasehold or freehold house or flat, including those with major structural faults.

Four methods to sell a property located near a motorway

An important choice you’ll need to make is deciding on which approach to use for finding a buyer for your house or flat near a motorway. The four top methods are selling to a quick home buyer, selling with an estate agent, selling at a property auction or selling without any help.
As the specific details of the four approaches below show, there are benefits linked to some of the options, such as being able to complete the sale of your home within a handful of weeks when selling to a quick home buying company. And there are drawbacks with other methods, like the potentially costly fees you’ll have to pay if you sell through an estate agent.
It is relatively simple to find the approach that’s best for your unique needs, simply write down your main aims with selling – such as your goal sale price, the time you are willing to wait to find a buyer and whether you can accept paying any commission – and then compare this against the various methods, and you should find the ideal match for your specific situation.

Selling to a quick home buyer

Quick home buyers are also known as "we buy any property" companies because they can make competitive and swift offers to purchase almost any freehold or leasehold house, flat or other property regardless of its location, shape, condition, size, age or type.
The quick home buyer LDN Properties, for example, has more than 15 years of experience across the UK with buying not just homes near motorways but also lock-up garages, houses with high radon levels, properties with private equity release, walk-up flats without lifts, British Iron and Steel Federation houses, homes where the owner cannot find crucial documents like the title deeds, properties that have septic tanks, flats for which it’s impossible to get a mortgage, houses that do not have planning permission, plots of land, penthouse flats, properties with storm damage and other scenarios.
These companies are called quick buyers because they can usually finalise the purchase of most properties in just a few weeks, and that includes the time required for exchanging contracts and paying sellers the sale proceeds. They can move so speedily because they already have the funds to buy homes, so there’s no waiting for many weeks or even several months before they can get approved for a mortgage to pay for the purchase.

Selling with an estate agent

Another way to sell a home is by contacting an estate agent, but beware they will charge you commission if they are able to find a buyer for your home. Typically the fee is a percentage of whatever price you’re able to get for your property, and this will increase your selling expenses because it will be taken out of the proceeds right away.
Unfortunately, some estate agents might quote you a high selling price for your home even if they understand that buyers will only make offers at a lower value. Their reason for doing this is so that you sell using their services and they can profit from the commission they’ll charge you.
To avoid this, start by asking multiple estate agents for free quotes about the price at which they think your home will sell. Next, you should look up the current and past selling prices of properties like yours that are located near motorways and listed on home sale websites such as Rightmove or Zoopla. Finally, calculate the average of all these values and it’ll be a better estimate of your home’s possible sale price.
But estate agents do have some benefits, such as the fact they will handle most of the work require for selling your home. This includes creating a listing that describes the property’s main features and includes photographs of the exterior and interior, and then they will advertise this listing online, in local newspapers and in their office. Then they will organise and lead viewings to take potential buyers on tours of your home, and they’ll hear any serious offers.
This process will typically take many months at least and could take more than a full year, so it’s not ideal for those homeowners that are looking to sell their property as fast as possible. Instead, you should look to more rapid methods of selling your flat or house, such as contacting LDN Properties or another quick buyer that can complete the purchase in a few short weeks.
Also, a buyer could make an offer and then take it back without any penalty up to before the time when contracts are exchanged. Should this happen, you’ll have to start over with trying to attract interest in your property, which can add much more time to the overall schedule.

Selling at a property auction

Or you could try your luck with a property auction, where you’ll choose a reserve price – this is the lowest value at which you agree to sell your home – and then people will be able to place bids at ever-increasing prices on the house or flat. The highest value bid at the time the auction is brought to an end is the winner of the auction and the buyer of your home.
But there’s no promise that your home will even receive any bids, and in that situation your property will go unsold and you’ll have to begin again with trying to find a buyer. This could significantly lengthen the time that it will take to successfully sell your property.
If your flat or house does sell, the auctioneer will then charge you commission that will be deducted immediately from the sale proceeds, which will add to your total expenses. This fee is often charged as a percentage of the final property sale price, but it could be even higher, making this not the best approach for those homeowners who are trying to keep their costs down.
You might be able to persuade an auctioneer to either lower their rate of commission or make the winning high bidder pay some of your auction costs, so ask about this potential.
This isn’t the fastest method for selling your home near a motorway because it involves some delays, including a wait of many weeks or months from when you decide to sell the property and when the auction happens. If your home does sell at the auction, the buyer will then generally have 28 days to sign all of the required legal papers and take all the other necessary steps to finalise the purchase of your property, adding further delay to the timeline.
Some auctioneers could be willing to set a shorter deadline for the buyer to finish these tasks, so it’s worth inquiring about this with individual auction houses. But you should also be prepared for other auctioneers to give the winning top bidder even more time than 28 days.

Selling without any help

Finally, you could sell without any assistance, which puts the burden on you to handle every step from the initial development and advertising of a listing through to scheduling and guiding viewings and eventually hearing offers from buyers, hopefully taking one to completion.
It’s a very stressful process and one that will take up a lot of your time, so only pursue this if you have managed to sell a home near a motorway before or have a suitably qualified family member or friend that is willing to help you for free. If not, you could be looking at more than a full year before you get a genuine offer from a buyer, and possibly even longer.
The only clear pro of selling this way is that you won’t have to pay anyone commission when you find a buyer, which helps with lowering your overall costs. That can be an attractive outcome for those homeowners who prioritise reducing their expenses when selling.
But you can get the exact same beneficial result, yet with zero stress and a much speedier sale, if you instead contact LDN Properties or another quick home buying company. Not only will they purchase your house or flat without charging you any commission, but they should also be able to finalise the process of buying your home in just a handful of weeks – and that covers the time it takes for the final steps of exchanging contracts and paying you the full sale proceeds.

Top queries and answers about selling property near a motorway

Property owners thinking of selling quickly can have a few questions that need answering, ranging from selling a house on a noisy road through to selling property near an airport. Here are some of the top questions we’re asked when selling property near to a motorway: