With the Stamp Duty holiday scheduled to end in March 2020, time is quickly running out to take advantage of the substantial discount when buying a new home. A common problem is, in order to buy a new home, you probably need to sell your current home, a process which is currently taking much longer than it should.
Here’s our resident property expert, Russell Quirk, to explain why:
“Buyers and sellers may nonchalantly believe that three and a half months is ample time to close a property deal, and normally they’d be right, but with sales up 50% in October 2020 compared to October 2019, lawyers, surveyors, et al are bursting at the seams with work and, frankly, they’re causing a significant bottleneck in the home moving sausage machine. There are days, not weeks, left until it will probably become too late to secure Sunak’s Stamp Duty gift in time.”
So, time is against us, but don’t despair. There are some alternative routes to a sale which are often much faster and more reliable than the traditional open market, helping get your sale over the line before it’s too late
Auction
Selling at auction can feel like a daunting task, but it’s actually very simple. It can also be a reliable way of selling your home quickly, so long as you’re open to the idea of your home selling for slightly less than the open market value.
The average home sells at auction for about 85% of its open market value. But there is always a chance you will get 100% of market value and sometimes even more (if a couple of potential buyers get into a bidding war).
You can agree with the auction house to set a reserve price of no less than 85% of market value, which means if this price isn’t met at auction, your home will not be sold. This helps mitigate the risk of your home selling for a fraction of its true value.
The homes which perform best at auction are those which need some work doing to them. Many auction buyers are looking for an investment opportunity – they want to buy a home at a good price, spend some money doing it up, and then sell it on the open market for a profit.
Auctions are a good way of finding a reliable buyer. Whereas on the open market you are vulnerable to fall-throughs and frustrating buyers, auctions demand that a10% deposit be given the moment the hammer falls, and that the remaining 90% be handed over and contracts signed within a month.
You can get all of the information you need from our guide to selling homes at auction.
Fast Sale Providers
There are companies out there, such as Yes Homebuyers, who will buy your home directly from you, saving you the trouble of having to find a buyer yourself.
This method of selling usually completes in around 30 days. The catch is (there is always a catch), these companies will only give you around 85% of your home’s open market value meaning you’ll be left with a similar amount you’re likely to gain at auction.
However, unlike auctions, fast sale companies usually enable sellers to set their own completion timeline. This means you can time the sale to perfectly align with the purchase of your new home, thus removing the risk of having to get out of your current home before you’ve got a new place to go.
Let -to-buy
If you want to buy a new home without having to sell your current home, you might want to think about let-to-buy.
Let-to-by is designed to enable you to rent out your current home while buying a new one. In essence, it requires you to have two mortgages at the same time. The mortgage on your current home is converted into a buy-to-let mortgage, thus allowing you to rent it out. Then you take another mortgage, a standard residential one, to buy your new home.
While taking out two simultaneous mortgages always requires careful consideration, as does the idea of becoming a private landlord, this is a great choice if you’re looking to move quickly and don’t think you’ll sell your house in time.
Remortgage
If you’re desperate to take advantage of the Stamp Duty holiday but aren’t willing to risk getting less money for your home than you feel you should, remortgaging is an option to consider.
Remortgaging is usually done in order to get a better mortgage rate and save money on your monthly repayments, but it can also be used as a way of borrowing more money. This is because remortgaging can free up some cash currently tied up in the equity of your home.
So, if you’ve lived in a home for a long time and it is now worth a lot more than it was when you bought it, remortgaging can provide you with the funds to invest in a second property – a new home.
We cannot stress enough how much consideration you should give before remortgaging your home. While some circumstances, some mortgages, and some homes will benefit greatly from remortgaging, there are also a vast number of situations where doing so would be very bad indeed.
You should seek the advice of mortgage providers and even a financial advisor if you’ve got one to ensure that, for you, remortgaging is the right way to go.
If you want any help or advice on selling your home quickly, our property expert, Russell Quirk, is here for you. Simply drop your question in the comments section below and he’ll get back to you before you know it.
