Date Published 04 September 2018
Whether you are a landlord in Worthing looking to liquidate your buy to let investment or a homeowner looking to sell your home, finding a buyer and selling your property can take an annoyingly long time. It is a step-by-step process that can take months and months. In fact, one of the worst parts of the house selling process is the not knowing how long you might be stuck at each step. At the moment, looking at every estate agent in Worthing, independent research shows it is taking on average 53 days from the property coming on the market for it to be sold subject to contract.
But trust me, that is just the start of a long journey on the house selling/buying process. The journey is a long one and therefore, in this article, I want to take you through the standard route for each step of the house selling procedure in Worthing.
STEP 1 – FIND A BUYER
You need to instruct an estate agent (of course we can help you with that) who will talk through a marketing and pricing strategy to enable you to find a buyer that fits your circumstances. 53 days might be the average in Worthing, yet as I have said many times, the Worthing property market is like a fly's eye, split up into lots of little micro markets.
Looking at that independent research, which only focused on Worthing, it was interesting to see how the different price bands, i.e. different micro markets, are currently performing when it comes down to the average number of days it takes to find a buyer for a property in Worthing.
I thought it would be interesting to see which price band had the highest proportion of properties sold (STC), again, fascinating!
So, now you have a buyer - what next?
There are a variety of distinctive issues at play when selling your property in Worthing, together with the involvement of a wide and varied range of professionals who get involved in that process. That means there is are enormous differences in how long it takes from one property to another. Moving forward to the next steps, these are the average lengths of time it takes for each step to give you some idea of what to expect.
STEP 2 - INSTRUCT SOLICITORS AND ARRANGE MORTGAGE
Again, something we can help you with, but it will take a good few weeks for your buyer to apply and have their mortgage offer and for your solicitors to prepare the legal paper work to send to the buyer.
STEP 3 – LEGAL WORK AND SURVEY
Once you buyer's solicitor receives the paperwork from your solicitor, then your buyer's solicitor applies for local searches from the local authority (to ensure no motorways etc., are going to be built in the back garden!). These Searches can take a number of weeks to be returned to the buyer solicitors from the council, from which questions will be raised by the buyer's solicitor to your solicitor (trust me – you don't see a tenth of the work that goes on behind closed doors to get the sale through to completion). Meanwhile, the surveyor will check the property to ensure it is worth the money and structurally sound. Overall, this step can take between 3 and 6 weeks (sometimes longer!).
STEP 4 – EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS
Assuming the mortgage, survey and legal work comes back okay, both the buyer and seller sign contracts, the solicitors then perform 'Exchange of Contracts'. When contracts are exchanged, this is the first time both buyer and seller are legally bound. Before then, they can walk away and you are probably 4 or 5 months down the line from having put up the for sale board – this isn't a quick process! But hold on, we aren't there yet!
STEP 5 – COMPLETION
Usually one to two weeks after exchange of contracts, the buyer solicitor sends the purchase money to the seller's solicitor and once that arrives the keys will be given to the buyer - phew!
To conclude, all in all, you are looking at a good four, five even six months from putting the for-sale board up to moving out.
If you are thinking of selling your home in Worthing or if you are a Worthing landlord hoping to sell your buy to let property (with tenants in), either way, if you want a chat to ensure you get the right price with minimal fuss send me a message or pick up the phone.
All the best
Matt
01903 608080
07739 964668
matt@matthewanthony.co.uk
