3 things that have changed in the last 10 years for home-movers!

- Tue 21 Mar 2023

The average time people are residing in homes was lengthening year on year until the pandemic struck, which then triggered more people to re-evaluate their living situation and make a change. As the property market settles back to a more normal level of moving activity, there are still millions of homeowners that haven’t moved in the last decade and therefore may want to understand some of the more significant changes ahead of planning a move.

1. Moving will take you over 6 months (on average)! It is commonplace that when someone decided to move home, that it shouldn’t take too long and the reality is usually quite different, therefore plan ahead. The speed of the transaction will depend on the sale-ability of the property and speed at which a buyer can be found, although that is only a part of the process. Over the last couple of years delays in the conveyancing process have meant transactions have slowed, and at their worst to approximately 20 weeks from finding a buyer to completion. The good news is that conveyancing times are reducing and should return somewhere around the 14 week mark in 2023. It should be noted that leasehold transactions will tend to be a little longer. When you look at how you can speed up the timescales, there are various steps that can be taken such as; pricing your home competitively at the outset, which will inevitably secure a buyer more quickly but ultimately ensure you achieve the best price (read our optimum time to achieve the best price article), ensure you launch the property with the best marketing in place, don’t rush to get it launched online, and also get legally prepared by instructing a conveyancer at the point you market your home, not when a buyer is found.
2. Property marketing has evolved, don’t miss out! Gone are the days of sticking some photos on a set of property particulars and uploading them to a website being the best way to promote your home. Over the last decade the increased use, and expectation of tools such as immersive 3D tours, or perhaps slightly more impressive are the professionally created property videos, many of which include drone footage of the surrounding areas and promoting the position of your home, of course this can only work where drone operators are permitted to fly. With most estate agency websites, and more recently, the property portal sites now able to host and promote the use of tours and videos, these marketing tools are often expected from buyers. In addition, most estate agents will run active social media channels which are the perfect platform to promote these mediums and can reach a wider audience, quicker and more easily than just the home buying audience on property websites.
3. Administration and compliance has increased. This may seem to be a little irrelevant to most home movers, although you should be aware of it because it will mean more of your time and potentially have some financial implications too. The consumer protection regulations 2008 meant that both the homeowner as well as the estate agency can be liable should someone be misled or material information be excluded from the marketing of a property. This has resulted in a greater level of due diligence from estate agents in the pre-marketing phase to ensure this is addressed, therefore be prepared for more form filling and questions being asked prior to marketing your home. Without going into the fine detail, there is greater emphasis on anti-money laundering measures in all aspects of the property industry, including estate agents, to ensure the cleaning of dirty money isn’t done so through the sale and purchase of property. With all estate agents required to run checks on the identification of both vendors and purchasers, you will need to provide proof of Identification, which isn’t a major deal although you will also be required to do this for your conveyancer and your mortgage company, should you require a mortgage. There may well be costs for companies to run these checks, as well as the time to do so, which can be passed on to all home movers.

Warranties and guarantees have always been requested to pass on to buyers of a home by a sellers’ conveyancer, although it is more likely that you will want to dig these out ahead of marketing your home should you want them mentioned or promoted during the marketing phase of your move. Estate agents must have proof, and ideally hold copies of any documentation which you would like to be mentioned, whether in writing or verbally and therefore by getting ahead of the game and providing these at the outset, you are not holding back any features or benefits to your potential buyer.

As you can see, there are some changes in the whole moving process, which will mean that everyone in the process should be more informed moving forwards, although it will need to be considered earlier than at any time before.

Any move you are looking to make, should be considered as to how long it will take, which may impact your plans and ultimately may influence how you market your home, the pricing of your home or potentially whether you move altogether or not.

All 30 branches of Bradleys Estate Agents across Somerset, Devon and Cornwall will be able to provide further help or advice should you wish to discuss any of these topics in more detail or to arrange a free market appraisal of your home whether looking to sell or let.

3 things that have changed in the last 10 years for home-movers!

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