In This Guide
choosing an agent
Conveyancing
Holding viewings
Negotiation
Planning your sale
Prepare your home
Seller's Packs
1. A brief history
2. What they will contain
3. Key benefits
4. What the critics say
5. Winners and losers
Selling at auction
Selling in Scotland
Selling privately
Selling your home
Using estate agents
Seller's Packs
Key benefits
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Whilst critics of the scheme may well have some valid arguments, there is little doubt that the sellers pack will improve the homebuying process from some perspectives. As Nick Raynsford, the Housing Minister put it, the seller's pack can "help play a major part in making the home buying and selling process easier, more transparent, faster and more certain."
The main improvements have been outlined as follows:
The amount of time required between a vendor accepting an offer
on a property and the sale being completed will be drastically
reduced. Much of the groundwork that underpins the sale will already
have been done by the time a buyer views the property, meaning
much less work and much shorter timescales are required in order
to complete the process. The proposals include calls on the variety
of professionals and organisations that are involved in the sale
to support the changes with co-operation and the adoption of new
measures that will help to further streamline the process.
Estate agents have been called upon to help with the preparation of the packs and local authorities to introduce service targets to improve the turnaround time on local searches. Lenders meanwhile have been encouraged to increase the speed and efficiency of their mortgage offers, provide more rapid access to title deeds when requested by sellers and solicitors, and to introduce new a new, more accessible form of bridging finance.
The government, meanwhile is throwing its full support behind the legislative changes that are required to consign paper based conveyancing a thing of the past, so that we can make further technology driven efficiency gains from e-conveyancing.
87 per cent of accepted offers in the Bristol Pilot resulted in
a completed sale compared to 72 per cent under the current system.
The research showed no evidence of accepted offers falling through
due to the condition of the property or information arising after
terms had been agreed, whereas under the current system it is
estimated this leads to 12 per cent of accepted offers failing.
In the pilot, the price was renegotiated in only 4 per cent of
cases after the offer had been accepted.
Buyers will have the necessary information on a property right
from the beginning of their interest in it, allowing them to view
the home and make an immediately informed decision and offer on
a property. In the trials, six in ten buyers believed they benefited
by having early sight of important information in the transaction.
As things stand, a large proportion of transactions break down or are delayed at the last minute, because a survey reveals a questionable defect or problem, by which point both the buyer and seller have invested considerable time, energy and expense in the sale.
The changes should help the whole process become more transparent from start to finish and reduce the risk of last minute renegotiation, gazumping and gazundering.
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