Selling your house can be difficult.
Most people work with an estate agent to put their property on the open market.
They then wait and see what happens…
Others choose to go with an alternative way to sell their house.
Let’s look at what these are, how they work, and why people might choose them.
Conditions and limitations of working with estate agents
Selling your home with a traditional high street estate agent has its advantages and disadvantages.
There are several factors regarding how quickly you can sell your house with an estate agent.
Some of these you and the estate agent can control, such as:
- Your asking price
- How good (and accurate) your listing is
- How well-targeted and efficient your marketing is
- How well your home is staged
Other factors cannot be influenced, such as:
- National and local market conditions
- Seasonal fluctuations in the housing market
- Local infrastructure developments and urban planning changes
- Availability of financing options for buyers
And much more!
3 alternatives to traditional estate agents
There are ways to speed up your house sale – including things you can do and channels you use. The following list is focused on the latter.
1. Online estate agents
Online estate agents offer property selling services without a physical storefront. They provide online tools or platforms for listings, virtual tours, and communication.
Some online estate agents charge a one-off fee of anything between £300 and £1,500.
This makes them cheaper – on average – than traditional estate agents.
However, the quality and reach of their services may vary. They may also lack their offline counterparts’ interpersonal approach and local expertise.
2. Sell your house at auction
Property auctions are auction houses that take bids on pre-selected properties.
Viewings are arranged before the auction day and the auction house takes a percentage of the property’s sale.
They are particularly popular for selling second homes or inherited properties.
Other properties typically listed for auction need serious renovations or structural repairs or have legal implications (i.e., they have recently been repossessed).
However, anyone can sell their home at a property auction.
Selling via an auction takes an average of 10 weeks, which is significantly shorter than selling through a high-street agent.
Furthermore, due to the bidding process, there is potential to gain more money than expected.
However, there is no guarantee that your home will sell – if the hammer falls and there’s a bid, you’re in luck.
3. Use a cash house buyer
Whether an individual or a company, cash house buyers’ process is simple: they directly purchase your home using their own available funds.
This hassle-free selling method does not involve a chain. It is just a simple transaction between you and the buying party.
In other words, its primary benefit is its speed and efficiency. On average, there is no faster way to sell a house.
Typically, selling to a cash house buyer is cheaper than selling to an estate agent because there are fewer fees associated with the sale.
However, they do typically only pay between 75 – 85% of the property’s market value.
We Buy Any Home’s cash house buying service
At We Buy Any Home our custom purchase route to sale is our cash house buyer offering.
We buy your property ourselves for cash. So, we can guarantee to sell your home in any timeframe you want – even as little as 7 days.
And the process is fully managed by us, meaning our process is efficient and hassle-free.
