Whether you are a St Helens landlord looking to liquidate your buy-to-let investment or a St Helens homeowner looking to sell your home, finding a buyer and then getting the legal work done can take a frustratingly long time. It is a step-by-step process that can take many months.
One of the worst parts of house selling is not knowing how long you might be stuck at each step. Independent research shows that, in the last 12 months, every estate agent in the UK has taken on average, 67 days from the property coming on the market to be sold subject to contract (STC) and then 113 days to get to completion. That’s nearly 26 weeks from the board going up.
The journey is a long one and not guaranteed. Nationally, only 52.8% of UK homeowners who placed their homes on the market in 2023 sold and moved. Therefore, I will explain each stage of the house-selling procedure in St Helens in this article.
Stage 1 – Find Your Buyer
You need to instruct an estate agent (of course, we can help you with that) who will discuss a pricing and marketing strategy to help you find a buyer who fits your circumstances.
Independent data states that, in the last three months, it has taken an average of 56 days for a St Helens home to agree to a sale (i.e., sold STC)
Yet, as I have stated in my other recent articles, the St Helens property market is like a fly’s eye, split into many little micro markets.
Looking at that independent research (which only focused on St Helens), it was thought-provoking to see how the different price levels (i.e. those different micro markets) are currently performing when we consider the average number of days it takes to find a buyer for a property in St Helens.
Average time to find a buyer in St Helens for sales agreed (SSTC) in the last 3 months (St Helens centre plus a 2-mile radius).
- Under £100k – 52 days
- £100k to £200k – 58 days
- £200k to £300k – 49 days
- £300k to £400k – 96 days
- £400k to £500k – 35 days
- Over £500k – 148 days
Then, I looked at the same data and calculated which price band had the highest proportion of properties sold (stc).
- Under £100k – 82 sales agreed (SSTC) – 21.13% of the properties Sold STC in St Helens in the last 3 months
- £100k to £200k – 214 sales agreed (SSTC) – 55.15% of the properties Sold STC in St Helens in the last 3 months
- £200k to £300k – 67 sales agreed (SSTC) – 17.27% of the properties Sold STC in St Helens in the last 3 months
- £300k to £400k – 18 sales agreed (SSTC) – 4.64% of the properties Sold STC in St Helens in the last 3 months
- £400k to £500k – 1 sales agreed (SSTC) – 0.26% of the properties Sold STC in St Helens in the last 3 months
- Over £500k – 6 sales agreed (SSTC) – 1.55% of the properties Sold STC in St Helens in the last 3 months
So, now you have secured a buyer. What is next?
Selling your property in St Helens involves a variety of typical issues and the involvement of a wide and varied range of professionals.
That means huge differences exist in how long it takes from one St Helens property to another.
Stage 2 – Instruct Solicitors (and Mortgage)
Again, we can suggest the best solicitors to sell your St Helens home. As the home seller, your solicitor will prepare your home’s initial legal paperwork (with your help) and then send it to your buyer.
Stage 3 – Legal Work and Survey
Once your buyer’s solicitor receives the paperwork, they apply for local searches from the local authority/land registry (to ensure no roads or airports, etc., are being built in the back garden!). These searches can take several weeks to be returned to the buyer’s solicitor from the local authority/land registry, from which questions will be raised by the buyer’s solicitor to your solicitor. At the same time, the surveyor will check the property to ensure it is structurally sound and worth the purchase price.
Stage 4 – Exchange of Contracts
Assuming all the mortgage, survey, and legal work is without any issues, both buyer and seller sign contracts, and the solicitors then perform an “Exchange of Contracts”. When contracts are exchanged, the buyer pays a non-returnable deposit, and now both buyer and seller are legally tied in. YET, hold on—we aren’t there yet!
Stage 5 – Completion
Completion is when the money and keys are handed over. It usually happens a week to a fortnight after the exchange of contracts (yet since lockdown, it can happen at the same time as the exchange of contracts). In essence, the buyer’s solicitor sends the purchase money to the seller’s solicitor, and once that money arrives, the keys will be given to the buyer.
In St Helens, it currently takes 122 days from instructing solicitors (Stage 2) to completion (Stage 5)
… compared to 113 days nationally.
To conclude, you are looking at a good five to six months from putting the for-sale board up to moving out.
If you are thinking of selling your St Helens home or if you are a St Helens landlord wanting to sell your buy-to-let property (with tenants in) and you want an informal, no-obligation chat to ensure you get a decent price with minimal fuss, drop our team a message or pick up the phone.
Stats from Land Registry, Home, TwentyEA, ONS & Denton House Research
