An empty property can put pressure on you to accept the next offer. A tenanted property keeps earning while you find the right buyer – and that buyer could even be your tenant with our help to make it possible.
Traditionally, many landlords wanting to sell have rushed out to get vacant possession, tidy the property up and put it on the open market in pursuit of the highest possible price.
But with landlords using Section 8 to sell potentially facing 12 months or more with an empty property after gaining vacant possession, and others looking for a faster alternative to waiting for possession proceedings, a growing number are deciding that squeezing every last pound from a property isn’t necessarily the same as achieving the best outcome.
That can remove months of uncertainty, the possibility of court delays and the risk that repairs, refurbishment or other unexpected costs start eating into the extra money you hoped vacant possession would produce.
While they make up a much smaller percentage of property buyers, Hamptons recently reported investors account for over 14% of all transactions in July – a key indicator that owner occupiers are more hesitant in the current market.
Many are looking for turnkey opportunities – keenly priced properties with established tenancies they can simply take over, so they collect rent from the start. Sellers who evict their tenants and speculate to accumulate may find they have made their properties less attractive to the most prolific buyers.
Perhaps though most importantly in a buyers’ market, a tenanted property can allow you to sell from a position of strength.
You’re not standing over an empty property watching another month’s costs disappear from your bank account while a buyer chips away at the price.
The property is still doing its job. Rent is still coming in and you can decide whether an offer is good enough. You’re not under the same pressure to sell quickly if the alternative is running empty property draining your cash flow for 12 months+
That choice strengthens your position as a seller.
Of course, as Rightmove and Zoopla have recently reported, sellers who do not want a sale to drag on for months or years must be realistic about the price and data from Hamptons saying 56% of investor offers were at least 10% below the asking price, support that message.
However, when you consider Zoopla recently reported that the average discount across all sales is 3.5%, the difference in price for a faster sale with significantly fewer costs and less risks is more like 6.5%
Offset that against the advantages of keeping tenants in place and collecting rent through the majority of the sales process as well as the costs you save – on redecorating, replacing worn fixtures and fittings, running empty property with council tax, insurance, utilities, security and mortgage payments coming out every month with no rent coming in – and it’s easy to see why so many landlords are choosing to relinquish some of the equity they have built up in their properties for a fast sale.
Anyone who invests in stocks and shares knows the danger of waiting for the “perfect moment” to sell. Once you’ve decided an investment no longer fits your plans, focusing on what it was once worth can keep you holding on long after you’ve decided you’d rather be out. And it can lead to much bigger losses down the line.
If an investment has increased several times over in value, the difference between extracting every last percentage point and having the money safely in the bank can become much less important.
We sell properties for 85 – 90% of their open market value. Where possible we sell without disturbing tenants and use the equity to attract chain free investors who can complete 56 days but, where necessary, we also use it to help tenants so that they are happy to surrender possession rather than be chased through the courts. We take our fee from it, pay the solicitors of your choice from our list of approved, independent panel solicitors and it covers all other costs like EPC certificates, listing materials etc so there are no other costs on top of that.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping sellers negotiating with buyers and tenants themselves to secure a faster sale and voluntary surrender. But that’s not all we do.
- We have a database of 30,000+ active buyers (in addition to the buyers we find advertising on Rightmove, Zoopla and through local agents) including owner occupiers, incoming landlords, private investors and conglomerate corporations
- We collect all the information buyers and their solicitors need before they can legally complete on a transfer of landlord so your solicitors don’t have to and nothing is left to chance before a sale is agreed
- We check compliance and correct any oversight before it becomes a problem
- We secure buyers and in doing so, we cut the rate of landlord sales that fail from 51% (according to Hamptons data) to less than 5%
- We have teams of experts at our disposal to react to any issue uncovered in the process and oversee every stage from listing to completion to ensure everyone involved completes their task efficiently and the process is moved to the next stage with minimum delay
In short, finding a buyer is just the start of what we do. A huge part of the value we offer seller is in what we do after a sale is agreed to make sure it complete efficiently and on time.
Take a property worth £250,000. Accepting £225,000 might initially feel like giving up £25,000 of hard-earned equity.
But £25,000 isn’t necessarily the true difference between the two options. Pursuing the full vacant-possession value can mean paying for possession, lost rent, council tax, insurance, utilities, preparing the property for sale, estate agency and legal fees. Over a sale taking 10 months or more, those costs can easily reach £15,000–£20,000.
Suddenly, the difference between what ultimately reaches your bank account can be much smaller than the difference between the two headline prices – and you’re comparing two very different levels of service, risk and involvement.
With Landlord Sales Agency, you agree the amount you’re happy to receive. We then use our experience, buyer network and different routes to market to achieve more, taking our costs from the difference. In return, we manage the tenants, buyers, compliance, solicitors and sales progression and solve the problems that might otherwise delay or derail the sale.
For landlords who have already done well from a property that may no longer be right for their portfolio, equity they can use can be worth considerably more than a little extra equity tied up in a property they no longer want.
That is particularly true if an older property is approaching a period when maintenance, energy-efficiency improvements or changing compliance requirements will demand further investment.
Doing nothing isn’t necessarily the cost-free option. The question is whether the next £10,000, £20,000 or £30,000 is best invested in that property – or whether the equity already sitting in it could work harder somewhere else.
That’s really what selling from a position of strength means: not being dependent on one buyer, one route to market or one outcome.
You have choices – and because the property is still generating rent, you have the time and income to choose the one that works best for you.
Don’t wait until an empty property, rising costs or a deadline takes those choices away. Contact Landlord Sales Agency while you’re still in a position to choose how, when and to whom you sell.