One of the most frustrating and emotive things about moving house is that both buyer and seller can pull out of the deal at any time. There are normally perfectly reasonable explanations, but the retraction can cause a huge amount of distress to the other party, not to mention the incurred costs.

The legal process of selling and buying property

The legal process of transferring property from one owner to another in England is, let’s face it, protracted and fragile, and agreements are not binding until contracts are exchanged. Of course there are many and varied reasons why property transactions fail to complete, but the point is that it can take weeks, if not months, of anguish and stress before there is total commitment to the transaction. So why can’t there be certainty from, or soon after acceptance of the offer? It would make the whole house moving process so much more straightforward and would certainly help to ease our stress levels.

In Scotland the whole process is very different, where pre-offer investigations into a property are the norm, so that when the offer is accepted it is binding. This, however, means that buyers spend out a fair amount before certainty and because the bidding is normally blind they have no idea whether they will be successful or not.

Pre-contract deposits when selling property

What about a pre-contract deposit? Sadly, any Solicitor will tell you that they are not worth the salt and have to be refundable since they cannot be unconditional.

The Government did attempt to speed up the conveyancing process with the Home Information Pack, which in itself was not a bad idea, but its implementation was flawed as it emerged that buyers did not trust the vendor-commissioned surveys and their solicitors did not trust the local searches. It also reined back a free flow of stock to the market due to the up-front costs.

What is the answer, therefore? Whatever it is it won’t be simple and certainly won’t be decisive. A middle ground is to ensure that the possibility of the parties pulling out are minimised through speed of transaction. Transparency about a property is key to this. Making pre-offer information available via the Agents should be strongly encouraged, as should perhaps a scheme for buyers’ contributions to vendor-commissioned surveys, not only acting as a form of deposit, but also freeing the surveyor to act in an unbiased fashion for all parties who contribute. Maybe RICS should be considering this? The Government could also invest in more Council staff and technology to cut the waiting time for searches from several weeks to several days, rather than concentrating on purchase- assistance schemes (controversial!).

Put simply, a pre-offer preparation of the survey and draft contract, combined with speedy local search results could and should cut the whole process to 10 working days. The likelihood of either party withdrawing would then be cut dramatically and a fast exchange of contracts would provide certainty. We can dream, but surely it can’t be that hard!

Ask any estate agent about the current state of the housing market and you are likely to be greeted with a scowl!  At the start of this year, agents (and their vendor clients), hoped for signs of the long awaited recovery and although there have been one or two encouraging economic indicators, the reality is that the market is only just starting to get fully get underway.

So why have things been so sluggish? The answer lies partly in the continuing financial recession and lack of available mortgage funding but there is also something else that has had an impact and that is the weather. Blaming the weather might sound like a weak excuse but I am convinced that it does have a bearing on both buyer and seller behaviour.

When the weather is cold, wet or even snowy, it is human nature to adopt a ‘hunker down and stay in’ mentality. The opposite however is also true. Sunshine is the perfect antidote, particularly with a touch of warmth, when we all feel that much more positive and walk with a spring in our step.

After the long and miserable winter, we started to see a pick-up in viewings and new properties being put on to the market at the end of February and beginning of March with many agents thinking; ‘Great, here we go’, only for the recent protracted cold snap leading to everything going back into hibernation again. The same thing happened during the wet spell last summer.

After the delayed start to spring, gardens are at long last coming to life making them more photo friendly and we expect the improved weather will lead to more houses being put on to the market. A wider choice will encourage more buyers to search for a new home and with many of those extra buyers being prospective sellers as well, it should end up being a self-perpetuating exercise.

Although sadly we cannot control the weather, there are things that sellers can do to make their homes more attractive at this time of year. The proverbial ‘spring clean’ is a great start as is a thorough de-clutter and whilst buyers do not necessary expect to see a show house, it should appear smart and tidy. Good lighting, flowers and a touch of room fragrance all help whilst in the garden, lawns need to be mowed and instant colour can be provided by tubs of spring bulbs.

For a house to stand out, particularly as it is almost certainly going to be first seen on the internet, good photography is absolutely essential. Pick an agent that uses professional photography as a matter of course and one that ensures that winter shots are replaced by more flattering spring/early summer pictures.

There is a market out there and with a touch of warm sunshine, we should see it blossom again!

At some stage in our lives we will all move house and the complexities of the process will either glide smoothly to a happy conclusion, or cause stress and anxiety. The single main cause of any stressful move comes when a chain is involved: a who is moving to b, who is moving to c and so on. Because of the number of simultaneous transactions involved, the finances to arrange, the surveys to satisfy, the glitches in title, covenant or contract and the completion dates that need to tie in, there is the much greater chance that the whole pile will collapse and all parties will have to start again.

In any market avoiding a chain is the ideal. The simplest transaction of willing buyer and willing seller is just what the doctor ordered, but the seller will always need a property to move to and the buyer will often rely on a property to sell.

Which brings us to the chicken and the egg. Which comes first? If you are considering a move, do you wait for your perfect house to become available to buy before selling yours, or do you put yours on the market first in the hope that the perfect house will become available. In both cases you will have to rely on a great deal of luck to tie in both the sale and the purchase in the same time period and, of course, the dreaded chain is always lurking to scupper the whole deal.

In any market conditions this is always a quandary. Now especially, however, it is more so. It is not an easy market to see sales through, moving house is expensive so people want to get it right and there is still a big unknown in the larger picture.

There has been a general lack of quality property available, so the chances of your tying in an immediate onward purchase is slim. The reasons for the lack of supply are plenty, but the main one is that folks are holding back from putting their properties on the market until they see one that they want to move to – and so the catch 22 is born. If properties aren’t coming to the market, they won’t be seen as available and their potential buyers won’t put their properties on the market either. This isn’t a new climate, it has been going on for a long time and it has always restricted movement.

So what is the answer? If you are a truly motivate seller, put your house on the market before finding your next home and be prepared to break the chain by renting for the short term. This will free you from the stress of a fragile chain and put you in a perfect position to jump as soon as your perfect house becomes available to buy. Yes, it means a double move, yes it means an unsettled period, yes it means paying out in rent what you could be saving, but put these against a successful outcome, far less trauma and the significant extra costs of collapsing chains and you can start to see the reasoning. Some attempts at moving house go on for months or even years and chains are frequently to blame, while those who decide to break have already moved on and put the stress well and truly behind them.

The forecast for the 2013 UK housing market is that it will not be much different to 2012 in terms of property transaction levels and most commentators agree that that it is unlikely that we will see house prices recovering this coming year. Low interest rates are supporting a fragile market and while they remain low, prices will be hold up to some extent, but it certainly won’t be a bumper twelve months and indeed sellers will have to take a pragmatic approach in order to attract buyers.

Despite the gloom of low growth and increasing austerity, there is however, resilience in the local housing market and if you are considering a move this year it is wise to take heed of some sensible advice.

1. If you live in a good, uncompromised location, be happy because your property should sell. If it does not then there it is probably because something is wrong with either the price or the marketing strategy.
2. If your house is for instance affected by a busy road, overlooked by a close neighbour or has too small a garden, be realistic about the price.
3. Have a few agents out to appraise your property and don’t necessarily go with the highest estimated value.
4. Selling houses in this market is all about effort, so be prepared to put effort in yourself and choose an agent who you believe will give it everything.
5. Trust your agent. Most experienced ones have been have been through good times and bad, so understand the present conditions. Someone offering a truly personal service will guide you through the mire to achieve the best possible price for you.
6. It is never too early in the year to get going and putting your ducks in a row now can mean you hit the road running when you are ready to do so, so consider taking advice sooner rather than later.

Taking note of these points will provide you with the best chance of a strong and successful sale campaign, so good luck if you are going to take the plunge in 2013 and Happy New Year!

Beyond the baked bread, fresh coffee and gentle Mozart drifting in the background, there is a myriad of emotional, practical and sensitive issues that need to be tackled if you are to sell your house successfully. And here are just some of them:

Take advice from your estate agent

The best Agents are there to help, acting in the best interests of their clients rather than concentrating on their balance sheets, and you should accept the advice that they give you. Any business is as good as its reputation and referrals would soon dry up if an Agent kept getting it wrong, so trust what you are told and be prepared to act upon it.

Iron out property problems early on

You should know your property well enough to know where any problems lie, so share these with your Agent before you begin marketing, after all, everybody suffers if a last minute glitch emerges causing the collapse of a deal.  Areas to mention include restrictive covenants, rights of way, structural issues, boundary disputes and building regulations. Early knowledge and the chance to put things right will save heartache later on.

Step back emotionally

This is often easier said than done, especially if your home has years of happy memories, or you take great pride in what you have created there. Wherever your emotions lie, you have to detach yourself and treat the sale as that of a commodity. One man’s meat is another man’s gravy and a buyer may look at your property from a completely different perspective. I’ve often heard clients say that they want to sell their house to a family they like. Sadly, we don’t have that luxury anymore, so as long as the buyer can complete a purchase at an acceptable level, then that is the person to sell to.

Let the Agent do the Viewings

Agents are very good at showing people around houses because they are salespeople . Not in the sense of the hard sell, but more in knowing which buttons to press and when. Viewers also need to relax and take their time and it is very difficult to do so if the owner is there and the feeling is one of intrusion, so take the dog for a walk or pop to the shops. Try also to always insist that the negotiator dealing with your house is the one to show it, rather than viewing staff. They know it best and can talk turkey if it comes down to on-the-spot negotiations.

Accept market conditions

The property boom is over and we are in a fragile market. If you want to sell your house and move on you have to accept the economic conditions and position the marketing of your property accordingly. Buyers are buying and will continue to buy, but they are reluctant to pay what they consider to be over the odds. Take your Agent’s advice, find the right buyer at the right price for the prevailing conditions and move on. You will be able to negotiate just as hard on a purchase, and if you rent and wait for the right house to come up, you could be quids in.