Tim explains how long we would generally expect it to take for a property to sell and the factors which might effect this timescale.
Transcription
You asked me earlier about how long it takes generally to sell a house. It does depend on the house. But, if we were taking a general view, in today’s market, it shouldn’t take longer than four to six weeks, to have received an acceptable offer on a property. But the provisos there are that the price is right. It is absolutely crucial that the price is right.
That’s not to suggest, in any way, shape or form, houses are under-priced. But, quite often and historically, they’ve been over-priced, which has led to properties taking longer to sell. In my opinion, if a house takes up to three months to sell, from being listed, it’s going to take another two and a half to three months to convey towards completion, and five to six months is long enough of anyone’s life, to go through this process.
So, the way that we value property is to look at the market, look at the comparables, understand what’s going on, crucially understand also our clients’ needs, but advise them accordingly. It’s market-led advice. It’s advice in the best interests of our client, in terms of selling within a reasonable period of time.
Sometimes you sell quickly, sometimes you can sell within two or three days. That’s generally because there are very few of those types of houses, there are more people wanting to buy them. Which is great, it’s advantage seller, but a market doesn’t always do that.
But sometimes it can take a lot longer. Where you have more specialist properties, larger homes, more expensive homes, the pool of purchasers is naturally a little shallower, so there are less people who are in the market for that type of property, so it can take longer to sell.
