How fast have you sold a house ?

[Entai]

Just sold my mum's house as she has passed away.

Called estate agents on 28th April to say I'd like to market it, they came round the next day to take photos and measure for up the floor plan.

They launched it on Tuesday 2nd May, had an open house on Saturday 6th, one viewer made daft offer 75k under asking, but then upped to 25k under asking on Monday 8th May, after being told I didn't accept his first offer, told again I would not accept anything under asking, which is set below market value anyway.

Monday Afternoon agents receive email from lady in Switzerland, (but has other properties in the area so knows it reasonably well) who had spoken to guy who did the Energy Performance certificate check, and she had seen the online presence, offered full asking price as cash buyer with no chain, and subject only to contract.

Agents doing all the due diligence on availability of funds, and seriousness of buyer, but looking good so far, and looking as though she is totally genuine, so its all going ahead with exchange preliminarily planned for end of month and completing middle June.

Well chuffed and can't believe how fast its all happened.

 

[Skillmister]

exchange preliminarily planned for end of month

Good luck, Bedford currently have an 18 working day turnaround time on local searches (on the assumption its same location as you)

That said, your timescale is extremely unlikely anyway.

 

[jellybeard999]

I put my house up for sale a few weeks ago. The estate agents came round on the Thursday, listed it on Friday, i had a viewing Saturday and received and offer and counter offer on Monday, which I accepted. The for sale sign hadn't even gone up... That was put up later in the week!

Fingers crossed, i hope to complete in the next week or two.

 

[Entai]

Good luck, Bedford currently have an 18 working day turnaround time on local searches (on the assumption its same location as you)

That said, your timescale is extremely unlikely anyway.

My solicitors already sorted all the searches and paperwork as most of it was also needed for probate after mum passed.

Buyer does not want any surveys or checks, plans on flattening existing and building new from scratch.

So many of the usual delays and necessities are not happening, shortens time scales dramatically.

Although was expecting it still to take longer than it seems that it will.

 

[Martynt74]

Whilst not selling, my mother in law was after a house on a particular street, asked all the local agencies to get in touch if they got a listing as she knew a few people had recently died on the estate so was just waiting.

Got a call on the Friday, viewed Saturday, offer accepted Saturday afternoon!

 

[mattyg]

My quickest was 1st to see will buy type.

It went on the market on midnight Friday. First viewing on the sunday with a full asking price on the monday morning.

4 weeks later cash in the bank.

 

[Brenn]

Sold our previous house 2 days after it went on the market, for sale sign hadn't even gone up.

 

[pepp77]

When my Nan passed we listed her house on a Tuesday morning and had an offer of asking before close of business that day. Still took 4 months to complete mind.

 

[branddaly]

Put the house on the market on the Friday, 6 viewings on the Saturday, second viewing on the Sunday, and accepted a full asking price offer on the Monday.
Actual sale took a while, also 4 months, due to Christmas and the buyers solicitor being rarer crap.
Think we were very lucky with timing, the market in Manchester has been nuts for the last couple of years, and the house was on the border of a very popular area.

 

[divuk83]

We sold ours in a day, didn't even have chance for the listing to go up online on the estate agents website or on right move. Our Estate agent had a decent sized list of people who wanted houses like ours and it sold to the first person that saw it in the morning. Shame the rest of the move process wasn't so easy or quick!

Dave

 

[GinG]

Put house on the market on a Friday, we had sold it on the Monday for full asking...so technically 1 working day!

 

[GinG]

We sold ours in a day, didn't even have chance for the listing to go up online on the estate agents website or on right move. Our Estate agent had a decent sized list of people who wanted houses like ours and it sold to the first person that saw it in the morning. Shame the rest of the move process wasn't so easy or quick!

Dave

Sounds a bit like our experience...the house sold very quickly but everything else was just so slow and stressful!

 

[rexehuk]

To be fair, If your house is selling instantly then it's probably been undervalued.

Estate agents price for quick sales to benefit them, not the seller.

We recently had ours valued... One guy from high street values at 240 max, assured us that was ceiling. Small independent with excellent reviews... 285.

 

[Entai]

I priced mum's place to sell fast, mainly as didn't want hassle of long drawn out affair.

To be fair there is no way it would be worth full market value for somewhere similar anyway, it has had no decoration done to it for over twenty years, and the central heating electrics etc would need ripping out and starting again as that is all in excess of 50 years old.

The things going for it on a positive though, are that it's on a reasonable sized plot (0.89 acre) in a great desirable location, with quite a bit of of mature woodland (all under a TPO though so no chance of developers doing anything with the land), but still I was happy with getting asking at £675k.

 

[Holst1981]

When my Nan passed we listed her house on a Tuesday morning and had an offer of asking before close of business that day. Still took 4 months to complete mind.

This sounds like my grandfather's old house.
Sold within days of listing it for the asking price.

Then waiting months for the solicitors and stuff.

 

[div0]

To be fair, If your house is selling instantly then it's probably been undervalued.

I don't believe this to be true. I know several examples of people who have rejected early offers (thinking exactly like you) only to then have no-one else come close. The longer the property is on the market, the more buyers think that they can get a good deal because it hasn't sold quickly.

I definitely wouldn't just accept the first offer (unless it was extraordinarily good), but at the same time, if I'd received a good offer within the first week I wouldn't look to hold out for more on the assumption that it must have been 'undervalued'.

 

[jellybeard999]

I don't believe this to be true. I know several examples of people who have rejected early offers (thinking exactly like you) only to then have no-one else come close. The longer the property is on the market, the more buyers think that they can get a good deal because it hasn't sold quickly.

I definitely wouldn't just accept the first offer (unless it was extraordinarily good), but at the same time, if I'd received a good offer within the first week I wouldn't look to hold out for more on the assumption that it must have been 'undervalued'.

This.

In my case, the buyer had a very specific set of circumstances and was on the estate agents books to be contacted if such a house came up for sale.

An early offer doesn't necessarily indicate that it's overpriced. One person could just really want the house.

I also had another early offer from a buy to let landlord significantly lower than my buyer.

 

[EddScott]

£675k.

Wow, last house I bought was £80K.

That was a quick buy and didn't even get to market. Relatives wanted to move, offered to me for £10K under asking. Rents at £450 pcm.

 

[SiD the Turtle]

I was happy with getting asking at £675k.

I'm not an expert but I guess this saved you an absolute bomb in income tax as the value hasn't increased since you inherited it, or if it has the increase is negligible?

 

[ants83]

House I bought the First buyer pulled out. Was re advertised on Friday 11am and was mine by 9pm on the same day.