Estate agents: TWO ways your sellers can still beat that stamp duty deadline

 

One of the hottest property topics of the past few months has been the stamp duty holiday, with estate agents working hard to help both buyers and sellers beat the deadline. 

If you’re an estate agent with clients selling a property in the £250,000-£500,000 price bracket, you could be forgiven for thinking they’ve left it too late to benefit, as the stamp duty holiday ends for this category on 30th June. 

However, we are happy to share the good news that, far from missing the boat, you have not one but two ways you can help your customers achieve a tax-free transaction on properties up to £500,000. 

Both of these methods are suitable for new customers looking for a quick sale to beat the deadline and for existing sellers who are beginning to get cold feet about the length of time their property sale could take. 

Timed Auctions

With a Timed Auction, your customer can choose the length of the auction, starting whenever they like and fixing the end time to ensure completion takes place before the stamp duty holiday deadline. This is normally 20 working days after the auction ends, comfortably allowing sellers to beat the 30th June deadline. We run Timed Auctions on our website every day of the year with bidding open 24/7. 

Our friendly auction experts can advise the best time for listing a property in our Timed Auctions to give it the most amount of marketing time without missing the deadline.

National Property Auction

You also have until Thursday 13th May to enter properties into our live-streamed Auction Event on Thursday 27th May. In our National Property Auctions, once the hammer falls, contracts are exchanged automatically and completion usually takes place 20 working days later, unless otherwise specified in the legal pack. This means your seller should be handing over the keys by Friday 11th June, even allowing for the bank holiday. 

We are happy to provide any guidance to help you advise your customers about which auction type is most suitable for their property and circumstances. 

Whichever method they choose, we can have their property featured on our website within just a few hours of the first conversation taking place and will market it to a nationwide network of committed buyers. 

Both methods are speedy enough to give your seller confidence that they will beat the deadline and have a fall-through rate of less than 1%, meaning they can relax and stop worrying about their buyer pulling out or trying to renegotiate the price. 

This should help to allay any fears your customers may have about missing the opportunity to capitalise on the stamp duty holiday. By selling by auction now, their buyers can save thousands of pounds on stamp duty, which may encourage them to stretch their budgets a little further, boosting the final sale price for the seller.  

With the average property sale on the open market taking more than 100 days, according to Zoopla, auction remains the most viable way to sell a property in the £250,000-£500,000 price bracket before stamp duty holiday ends.  And demand for auction properties has never been higher. Last month we raised more than £28.8 million for sellers – an 184% increase on March 2020 – and trebled the income we made for estate agents within our partner network comparing the months year on year. 

We sell hundreds of properties through these popular auction methods each month and are happy to guide your sellers through what is likely to be unfamiliar territory. Please get in touch today to discuss how we can help you get your sales through to completion before the deadline, so they don’t miss out on this great opportunity. 

 

Some of the main reason you might want to buy the freehold of your property .

 

 

 

1.       If you come to selling the property it could make the process smoother

2.       When you own a leasehold property it does come with conditions in a lot of circumstances, this can include no pets to be kept in the property, or very small alterations that don’t need council permission might need freeholder permission to alter.

3.       When selling if you have the freehold it can make the property more valuable and attractive.

4.       You can obtain a long lease as you won’t need to negotiate with the freeholder the leasehold extension prices.

5.       No yearly ground rent to pay.

6.       No need for a management company if you are the freeholder.

7.       Maintenance costs are decided by the freeholders.

8.       Service charges could be reduced.

These reasons backed by the legislation which can be enforced via a formal process at first-tier tribunal make purchasing the freehold of property an increasingly attractive option for home owners.

With a flat if you are the freeholder, you will need to set up a freehold company ,this is to manage the accounts  that include the costs of running the property under the freehold , you will need to make sure suitable buildings insurance is in place and make sure all communal areas are fully up kept.  This can be done by employing your own maintenance staff, using local companies or contracting with a management company to look after all the upkeep and schedule upgrades and repairs to the communal areas including things like the roof etc .All the costs of running the freehold will be passed on to the leaseholders by way of a service charge that is split between all the leaseholders under the freehold.

If you come to sell the property, the process can be made smoother as getting the management pack filled in for the solicitor will be easier and providing service charge and ground rent receipts will be easy. Also the property is more attractive for sale if the freehold is offered at the same time .

There are some important responsibilities that come with owning the freehold, but many consider that the advantages far outweigh any draw backs.

Shared ownership stair casing what does it mean

 

 Shared ownership stair casing what does it mean

When you have lived in a shared ownership for a certain amount of time, you are eligible to buy further shares (this will all depend on your lease terms) you can gradually buy shares until you own the property outright this is why it is referred to as stair casing as you are gradually one stair at a time buying the remainder of the property. Also the bigger percentage you own in the home the less rent you pay until you own it out right. The more the property goes up in market value the more each share will cost unless you agreed a price with the freeholder at the beginning of the process.

https://www.sharetobuy.com/staircasing-calculator/

important notes
The minimum ‘equity’ to staircase depends ultimately on the lending criteria of mortgage providers prepared to offer staircasing remortgages. Our confirmation that you should or should not be able to staircase assumes that you could obtain a mortgage with such lenders. This mortgage calculator cannot be used as a guarantee of obtaining a mortgage and is simply confirming whether the amount of equity you possess could theoretically support staircasing to a higher share. In terms of credit history and credit score, you should note that for staircasing with the ‘minimum’ equity required to potentially obtain a remortgage, you may find that lenders are strict on credit score, compared to applicants with more sizable equity. Moreover, applicants with poor credit history are unlikely to be able to obtain a new mortgage.

Contacting your housing association
Customers looking to staircase should contact their housing association to advise them of their potential interest in purchasing further shares in their home. The housing association will then be able to provide information on the staircasing process (which is likely to involve a revaluation of your property).

Our monthly cost estimate
In estimating the likely monthly cost of any new mortgage, we have run the information you entered into the calculator via our live database of mortgages rates available in the market today, and used this data (e.g. deposit size) to find the lowest mortgage rate you might realistically be able to apply for. However, we must emphasise that this is no guarantee that in practice you would be able to apply for such a rate, nor is this a recommendation that the rate used would be the best product for you because you would have to take into account a range of items when choosing a mortgage, such as fees.

What are the benefits to Staircasing?

Most people aspire to own their own property and you made the step towards this when you bought your affordable home, even if you do not own outright.

Buying a greater proportion of your home has a number of benefits:

1. You reduce the amount of rent you are paying to Peabody.
2. If you decide to sell your home, the greater percentage you own the more profit you will make if the value of your home has increased. 
3. If you own your property outright (become a 100% owner) you can sell your property on the open market using an Estate Agent of your choice. 

If you are thinking about Staircasing, you should get in touch with an Independent Mortgage Advisor (IMA).

They will take time to understand your finances and help to calculate how much you can comfortably afford to Staircase, based on the anticipated value of your home.

 

 

 

 

Conveyancing: Common solicitors’ enquiries when buying a house!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conveyancing: Common solicitors’ enquiries when buying a house!

What enquiries are necessary?

As a buyer, once you instruct your solicitor, they will contact the sellers’ solicitor to exchange draft contracts and to raise enquiries. The exact nature of the queries raised can vary somewhat depending on the individual circumstances of the various parties involved in the transaction. But they are essential to ensure that the property to be purchased is saleable and mortgage able. Also, both you and your solicitor are satisfied with the terms of the sale before contracts are exchanged. 

Waiting on responses to the queries can be frustrating but is an unfortunate reality of the house-buying process. Without them, you could rush into buying a property only to discover later there was no planning permission or building control sign off, or that there were covenants attached to it which should have prevented it being sold in the first place. 

You would then be lumbered with a property that you cannot use and which you cannot sell without making a loss. It’s worth remembering if there is a delay in obtaining answers to the queries and reminding yourself that the process is there to protect all parties, including you.

Once they receive the draft contract, your conveyancing solicitor will read through the draft contract to identify any legal issues and to confirm that the information contained within it is accurate. 

The standard enquires to be raised include:

• Local authority search carried out with the borough council to check for planning permissions, building control sign-offs and rights of way
• Checking your mortgage offer to ensure that any specific requirements that the lender insists on are adhered to. (These could include a promise on your part to undertake specific maintenance works on the property within an agreed period)
• Checking for any other charges secured against the property such as secured loans
• Highlighting anything restricted by covenant in the deeds. (Such covenants can prevent you from developing the property or from a changing the land use)
• Reviewing current ownership of the property
• Checking for relevant gas safety checks and boiler maintenance
• Checking the environmental report for issues of contaminated land
• Checking when the property was last rewired and whether that is in line with current regulations
• Asking whether the property has ever suffered from flooding, subsidence, structural defects or drainage issues
• Checking whether any previous owners have ever been denied buildings insurance and if so, why.
• Checking for any additional insurance premiums in place due to environmental factors (These could include close proximity to a river which leads an increased chance of flooding)
• Checking trees near the property to assess the risk of structural damage and whether a tree preservation order is in place
• Checking that all drains at the property clear and accessible if repairs are required
• Checking who is responsible for drain maintenance and any associated costs
• Checking whether there is a septic tank associated property and if so, how many properties share it and what arrangements are in place for its maintenance and any repairs
• Confirming connection to the local water system

·         There may be other enquiries that you would like your solicitor to raise on your behalf, and these may be unique to your circumstances. If you have any questions regarding enquiries, future development, the local area or anything else you should speak to your conveyancing solicitor and if necessary they can raise a query.

·         As you can see, there are a lot of enquiries to raise, and all of them are important if you are to have confidence in the property you are buying. It is worth remembering that for most property sales, these queries are a matter of course and that multiple enquiries will be raised with single agencies so the list should not overawe you.