Sell My Bungalow Fast
If you’re looking to “sell my bungalow fast” then you’ll know that the fastest you can hope for is 2-3 months by a typical sale. So, to sell any faster than that you’ll need to go to fast bungalow sale specialists like us.
In this guide, we share the hard-earned knowledge we’ve gained over the years in the industry with you. In following, you will avoid pitfalls and maximise your sale speed and price when selling your bungalow.
In this guide you’ll learn:
- The Bungalow Problem
- How to Overcome the Bungalow Problem
- To Accelerate through a Sale
Frequently asked questions
If you want to sell your bungalow fast, the best way is to solve The Bungalow Problem. This describes how the bungalow is losing popularity in today’s housing market because of how it does not utilise space as well as its double-story cousins. In a country that is suffering from a housing crisis due to lack of space, this is becoming more significant than ever.
Yes, the bungalow does not maximise space optimally and this is a disadvantage, but, that means they have great potential. In our experience, obtaining planning permission for a second story without having to do the building work yourself is an incontestable source of value. Once you have planning permission you can sell your bungalow fast and for at least 10% more, easily paying for the fees in getting the permission.
Once you have a buyer, there is plenty you can do to accelerate to the sale. That includes actively completing the Welcome Pack, Memorandum of Sale, Personal Searches and House Valuation Survey. If your buyer is a cash buyer, they can skip the last 2 steps. If that is what you’re looking for then fill our form in now to get a quote to sell your bungalow fast.
contents
The Bungalow Problem
Solving The Bungalow Problem
Accelerating the Sale
The
Bungalow
Problem
To “Sell My Bungalow Fast”, you need to know why bungalows are no longer being built.
In this section you’ll learn:
- What The Bungalow Problem is
- Why other homes are being prioritised during the housing crisis
- A story of why one was torn down in the UK
What Is The Bungalow Problem?
It is by no accident that bungalows are not being built anywhere near as much anymore. To clarify, take a look at this graph showing how their building has changed since 1989.
Looking at the graph you’d think the semi-detached house is the enemy of the bungalow, and you’d be right.
But, why is that?
The bungalow offers you a spacious garden and no stairs with great access for disabled/elderly residents.
Certainly, that is true but, the main problem is space.
UK house prices are currently at record high levels, making it very difficult for first time buyers to own homes.
To clarify, experts such as Patrick Collinson have explained that the problem is the land costs. He describes how millionaire property moguls such as Fergus Wilson are purchasing farmland and making huge profits with planning permission. This is massively raising land costs and contributing to the problem.
What does that mean for you?
Firstly, the price of bungalows has always been more expensive per square meter than any other type of residence. This is due to them only taking up a single floor, making them less spacious than other residence types.
Secondly, differences between the space you get with a bungalow and semi-detached house have shot up with house prices.
This significantly narrows down the size and wealth of the family who can afford to buy a bungalow.
Destroying the Inherited Bungalow
For some people, the lack of space that the bungalow gives is too much to make it worth keeping.
The BBC published an article describing how architect Tim Baldwin tore down his great grandfather’s bungalow. It was located in a wealthy area in the UK and made way for a 7-bedroom house in its place.
I Need To Sell My Bungalow Fast, What Difference Does this Make To Me?
For you to “sell my bungalow fast”, you need to know what you can offer compared to the competition.
The average bungalow is 205 sq. ft smaller than the average semi-detached house.
Furthermore, the average bungalow was £43,000 more expensive in 2019 than the average semi-detached house.
To sum up, your buyer is getting less for more.
This may all sound quite demotivating, but there is a solution.
Solving the Bungalow Problem
It is not all doom and gloom when trying to sell a bungalow quickly. In this section we’ll lay out what you can do as the owner to massively increase how attractive your beautiful bungalow will be to your buyers.
By the end of this section you’ll know:
- How to overcome the bungalow problem and subsequently increase the value of your property
- Quick tricks you can use now to sell the bungalow quickly
How do I Overcome The Bungalow Problem so I Can Sell My Bungalow Fast?
If you’re thinking “I need to sell my bungalow fast” then you should turn its main disadvantage into an advantage.
To clarify, we know that the main problem with a bungalow is that it is a single floor building.
Why don’t you just add another floor in that case?
It will increase your space, but, it also means forking out a huge construction bill and living on a building site.
These workers are happy to be on one but they get to go home at night, you wouldn’t.
Neither of those things are desirable for you if you need to sell your bungalow quickly.
However, if you have a few months to spare there is something powerful you can do. Get planning permission.
(If you don’t have time and are looking for tips to help sell your bungalow now, skip to the next section.)
That will cost at maximum a few thousand pounds to hire an architect and can improve your home’s price by over 10%. This is because bungalows offer fantastic potential to build upwards.
Once approved, you can sell your bungalow quickly to a buyer with the planning permission. They can then go ahead and go through all the hassle of building the project. After that, they will also benefit by increasing the house value. It’s a win-win situation.
How Do I Find a Reliable Architect to Plan The Extension?
Planning permission will help to “sell my bungalow fast”. But, your planning permission’s success will depend on how good your architect is, so, how do you find one?
The best way is personal recommendations. That is, if a friend or family member has used them before.
This is the most trustworthy way of knowing if a company is reliable or not.
If, like most people, you don’t know someone who has used an architect then the best place is houzz.co.uk.
When you first visit, below is what you’ll see.
If you click the hamburger in the top left a menu will appear.
When you scroll down in the menu you will see the Architects & Building Designers section.
If you click on that it will subsequently allow you to filter by your location.
For example, you could filter by Manchester and that will show all the listed Architects in your area.
Navigate through and see which ones you like. Do they have good reviews? Are they registered with the ARB? Have they won any awards? This will help you pick out the best ones for your job.
As soon as you find the architect for you, then you’re on your way to obtaining planning permission. In the meantime, there are definitely other things you can do to maximise your chances of selling your bungalow quickly.
What Else Can I Do to Sell My Bungalow Fast?
Not everyone has the time to go through planning permission. Even if you do, there are other things you can do to increase the chances to “sell my bungalow fast”.
So, let’s take a look at our bungalow table again.
There is still a disadvantage here that we can address – the house may need an update.
To clarify, many of the design trends that were popular when bungalows were built are no longer popular today.
For example, magnolia coloured walls have now been replaced by grey. It offers much more versatility when choosing furniture so you can match any more vibrant colours. Take a look at this scheme for example.
There is a combination of dark and light woods with blue and natural greens present. Even though magnolia is neutral, it wouldn’t bring together the different colours as well as the grey does.
In summary, A quick paint job can add a lot to making your home feeling more modern and needing less work.
For other ideas on how to sell your bungalow quickly, check out the preparing your property section in our guide here.
It includes how you can clean up repair sites, replace silicone and sell the lifestyle with your unique bungalow.
By following this advice you’ll quickly find yourself with a buyer that you need to accelerate through the sale with.
Accelerating The Sale
Excellent work on finding a buyer at the right price for your bungalow. That being said, you should only start celebrating when the money is in your account. Unfortunately, only 75% of sales go through after an offer is accepted.
In this section you’ll discover:
- Where the fastest solicitors can be found
- The points of the sale that can be sped up
- How to hold the buyers interest in completing
- contact@cashhouse.co.uk
What are the First Steps To Sell My Bungalow Fast After Finding a Buyer?
The average sale in the UK can take up to 12 weeks, but you can do it much faster.
As 30-day house sale specialists we know how difficult it can be to complete a sale.
And, completing your sale is very important if you want to sell your bungalow fast!
The good news is we also know how to do it quickly, and we’re here to share that knowledge with you.
Firstly, take your buyer’s number so you can talk to them directly.
This helps you skip the middle man and solve any problems that come up quickly.
Secondly, you need to find a master conveyancer – cheaper is definitely not always better for this. Tesco Value may be great for baked beans, but here it will get you nowhere quickly.
Where can I Find the Best Solicitors for Conveyancing?
A proactive solicitor/conveyancer can make or break your house sale.
Finding them can be difficult, but below are a few tried and tested ways that will work.
Firstly, it is important for you to know that solicitors and licensed conveyancers are different. Solicitors are trained lawyers and can deal with all parts of the law, making them more expensive.
Ask for recommendations from friends who sold or bought houses recently. They don’t even need to be in your area.
Most people buy their house without ever having seen their conveyancer.
If this is fruitless you can ask your estate agent or mortgage provider for recommendations. But, these will likely give a large firm that is pricey for you.
In our experience the best value solicitors come from a search online for “conveyancers in my area”.
Most people call the one with the best reviews and go straight ahead with them.
However, that is not always the best strategy for you. The reason is that they are likely top because they focus on reviews.
Their competitors could still be better than them, that’s why you should organise a little test before you go ahead.
Choose 3 conveyancers and arrange a discussion. See how they react to this request – if they are slow at this point then that should be a warning sign of what is to come later on.
Try and figure out how committed they are to customers by asking:
- Have they joined the Conveyancing Quality Scheme?
- Do they have any excellence awards?
- How experienced is their business?
- Who will be handling your sale?
You will likely find one firm that stands out above the others, they are the ones you should instruct.
I have a Conveyancer, What Can I do Now to Sell My Bungalow Fast?
There are a few things that a conveyancer needs before they can go ahead and exchange contracts. These are:
- Welcome pack
- Memorandum of Sale
- Personal searches
- House valuation survey
1) Welcome Pack
Be proactive and request this from your conveyancer as soon as the offer is accepted.
It will ask you to provide ID and fill out documents that are required for the conveyancers to start processing the sale.
Questions in the documents will include things like what is the property being used for? Have any structural changes been made since you owning it?
Your buyer will need to complete one of these as well – send them a message to request it from their lender too.
They will be asked questions like where did you get your deposit? What do you intend to use the property for?
2) Memorandum of Sale
This document describes the value of your sale and the purchaser information. It is produced by the estate agent.
Ask your agent to send it over to your conveyancer as soon as you have their e-mail.
Speed them up by always instructing them to “please tell me when it’s done”.
Another good question is “when will it be sent?”. They can then set their own deadline and are therefore more likely to stick to it.
3) Personal Searches
Land searches are needed to highlight any future issues like gas pipeline locations and road plans.
Asking the buyer’s solicitor to start these early is absolutely vital as they can take up to 6 weeks to complete.
The benefit of using a cash buyer is that they can skip these searches and just complete them later.
They simply use an insurance policy to protect them against any issues that arise that could drop the house price later. We know this as it is how we purchase our properties.
4) Valuation Survey
Valuations are usually done by a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Once again, ask your buyer to organise this early as generating the report can take weeks.
This is because the surveyor will have to write up any flaws in the house structure/interior. They must also compare your bungalow to comparable sales in the area recently.
Make sure you are available to meet the surveyor on the day. It can be helpful to research any comparable sales in the area recently to show them, making sure they do not down-value your home. This could be fatal – resulting in your buyer’s mortgage being denied.
This is another step that your cash buyers can skip but mortgaged buyers must go through.
Any Other Tips for How I can Sell My Bungalow Fast?
There is certainly more you can do, over and above what you have read already.
Be Active in Managing Your Sale
Always know what you are waiting for – if you don’t at any point then things could be moving faster.
Not only will that keep you informed, but it also shows your enthusiasm to your solicitor. This will likely make them work faster for you.
Tell your conveyancers how you expect them to work for you at the beginning. Ask for weekly updates and to be informed as soon as possible when problems arise. This will help you solve them early.
You should also keep regular contact with the buyer directly. If you have their details then you can contact them faster than your conveyancer.
Don't Forget the Estate Agent
Your sale going through is when your agent gets paid. That means they have a massive stake in your sale and will be willing to help speed things up.
Use them to your advantage – a proactive agent can be a powerful tool to complete. They can contact the buyer or their conveyancer on your behalf and even offer to show surveyors around if you aren’t available.
We hope you found this content useful and would appreciate any feedback you have. Our best wishes for the success and speed of your sale.
About The author
This article was written by Dr Sermed Mezher MbChB (Hons) MRes, experienced property investor, published author in Global Paediatric Health and The Journal of Medical Ethics, and medical doctor.
Sermed has a special interest in educating people on how to improve their situation. He believes that physical and financial health are intimately linked.
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