House Buyers vs Selling Agents Timeline

House Buyers vs Selling Agents Timeline Infographic

This Infographic is designed to highlight the differences between using house buyers like ourselves and a couple of other selling options such as selling your house through an estate agent and selling at auction. Not only do we highlight the pros and cons of using each method but also quite importantly for those who need to sell quickly, the different timescale that each selling method has.

Direct House Buyer is in the business of selling homes rapidly through our internet-based house buying service. Day to day we are asked by customers and home owners seeking quotations what are the relative merits of your service compared to other methods of selling a home? We decided that producing this infographic was an excellent way of presenting this information for people to read both now and in the future.

Let’s take a look at each selling method in more detail:

The Three House Selling Methods and the Timescale for Each

There are so many different methods to sell a house it’s impossible to review them all, we decided to focus on three of the most popular, these methods were:

  • Sale by an Internet House Buying company (companies like Direct House Buyer)  – typically between 7 and 14 days
  • Sale by a high street (retail) Estate Agent – anywhere between 1 week and 1 year+
  • Sale by a Property Auction – between 14 and 28 days after the auction date

For each of the three property sale methods we focused in two main areas – 1) timescales and 2) Pros and cons.

Our findings for each of the above are listed below.

Selling to House Buyers

House Buying Companies like ourselves offer a range of different selling options which vary dependent upon what the customer wants. Different to estate agents and auction houses, house buyers like ourselves often don’t act as a middle man but as a direct person that can buy the property. Even though house buyers often require a discount a lot of this is offset when compared to selling agents as there is no need to charge commission.

House Buyers Time Frame

Dependent on which offer the seller chooses the time frame can vary from as little as a week for an ordinary cash sale to a more unspecified time frame such as few months for an assisted sale where sellers can achieve close to the market value of their house.

Pros of Selling to House Buyers

  1. Fast sale – This is 99%+ of the time the fastest way to sell a property
  2. Emergency sale – Sell quickly for a number of reasons such as chain collapse, inheritance disposal, relocation, repossession threat and landlords retiring from property ownership
  3. Number of options – This method has a range of options open (depending on the company), assisted sale for example releases cash immediately but also waits longer to get the best price

Cons of Selling through a House Buying Company

  1. False valuations – Some companies value properties very low, to counter this sellers should obtain an independent valuation
  2. Lower price realisation – Estate agents will typically sell a property for a higher price
  3. Rogue traders – There is the risk of rogue traders, always undertake due diligence, seek references, read online reviews, etc.

House Buyers Summary

House buyers are a good method once you’ve exhausted the estate agent route and become impatient with how long it’s taking to sell your home. For sellers who require a fast sale they can at least specify a quick timescale and pull the trigger as to when they wish to complete. More information about how our house buyers service works can be found on our homepage.

Selling at an Auction

The decision to sell your house at auction has often been a last resort for those who have been unable to sell through a traditional estate agent. Unfortunately for sellers many buyers who attend a auction are looking for a bargain, not only that but the competition from other sellers is strong as the auction catalogue often includes repossessed property from banks who simply wish to recover some losses and have no emotional attachment.

Selling at Auction Time Frame

When selling at auction the buyer has to complete the purchase in 28 days so the good news for a seller is that if they do achieve a sale there is a guaranteed completion period. The bad news is that there is a limited amount of buyers who are able to complete within this short time frame where it would be impossible to get a mortgage approved in such a short space of time, so sellers need to have either an expensive short term loan or cash funds ready. Because of the shortage of this type of buyer they are only prepared to buy a house in this way if it’s truly a bargain compared to what the true market value of the property is.

Pros of Selling through a Property Auction

  1. Certainty – The process is certain, once the auction is complete the transaction is legally binding
  2. Quite fast – this method is typically much faster than Estate Agents, but not as fast as working with companies like Direct House Buyer!
  3. Reserve price protection – When selling through an auction, vendors can set a lower limit as to the lowest price they will accept

Cons of Selling at Auction

  1. Contractual tie-in – Once the contract is signed a property will be tied up for 4-6 weeks awaiting the auction process
  2. Fees – The fees are very high, typically 2.5% of sale proceeds as well as expenses such as marketing, room hire and admin fees being payable too
  3. No guarantee of sale – The property may not sell at auction and where this happens time will have been lost and fees are still payable
  4. Low price realised – Auctions will usually recover the lowest sales price of the three methods

Auction House In Summary

The auction house has traditionally been the only other route available other than an estate agent, however with the advent of internet house buyers many sellers are able to get a higher price when selling to a house buying company and at the same time they can still receive a similar time frame certainty as they can get from selling at auction.

Selling via an Estate Agent

Selling via the estate agent route is by far the most common way to sell a house. For many people across the UK it’s highly successful and depending on how much time you have on your hands and how popular your location is it’s a perfectly feasible way to achieve a good price for your home. However, unfortunately this method isn’t always successful for certain properties and those that are based in high competition locations or even sparse rural locations it can be almost impossible to sell a home via this route.

Estate Agents Time Frame

If a sellers property is in a great location where there are many available buyers such as the centre of London then it’s easily possible to achieve a very quick sale. However, for those based in less popular locations the time frame of actually achieving a sale can become longer dependant on the desirability of the area, in less desirable areas a property could be sitting on the market for longer than a year and unfortunately for sellers they don’t have any form of definitive time frame.

Pros of Selling through a High Street (retail) Estate Agent

  1. Accessibility – High street Estate Agents are (usually) accessible and easier to meet in person
  2. Knowledge of local market – Estate Agents will have access to the local market and will be working with properties all of the time, they may have “ready customers” wanting to buy
  3. Professional contacts – Often Estate Agents will have professional contacts, e.g. Solicitors, builders, decorators, etc. that may be helpful in sale of the property

Cons of Selling through an Estate Agent

  1. Chain – With this type of sale house chains are often an issue and contribute massively to lengthy timescales
  2. Contract tie-in – Typically agents will tie customers in for 12-weeks minimum(although this can vary and can be negotiated)
  3. High fees – Fees with this method are the highest of the three often, with the agent usually wanting a % of property sale, rather than actually billing for work done!
  4. Lazyness / casualness to price – Some agents don’t work hard on the sales price and obtain a price for the seller that is less than it could have been
  5. No guarantee of sale – A property may never be sold with this method, there are no guarantees!
  6. Too busy (one of many) – Agents have many customers and can leave customers thinking they are “one of many” and not a priority

Estate Agents In Summary

Other factors such as the condition of the property, and in the some circumstances the property may not even be mortgageable can effectively put a full stop on being able to sell to a normal house buyer in the traditional way. Other people who are in an area where there are many similar properties on the market all at the same time, for example in a block of flats may also find a lack of buyers.

Unfortunately for sellers once they are tied into an estate agent it can simply be a waiting game and if they are struggling to sell their home their frustration may give in to the estate agents suggestion of lowering the price only to eventually sell to an amount that including fees could be a similar amount to if they were to sell quickly to a house buying company.

Selling a House through Direct House Buyer?

Do you have a house you need to sell quickly? Then contact Direct House Buyer the house buying specialists. We have a range of options available for house owners to quickly sell your property whilst still obtaining a great price. Call us today on 0150 559 5000

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