How to avoid the stress of selling a property on the open market - 2021 [Updated for 2024]

It’s obvious from the TV adverts for the portals how stressful selling a home is.

The adverts for Zoopla and Purplebricks even make fun of it and “commissary” is a new word that entered the English language as a result. It’s that feeling you get when you realise you paid too much in commission for selling your home.

In fact, selling a property and moving home is ranked as one of the most stressful things people face in life, right up there with death, divorce, and redundancy.

An average Briton will move home five times during their lifetime and the stress of it will last more than three months, new research for energy company EON found.

First of all you have to decide on which agent you are going to use and the choice is over-whelming ranging from local High Street agents to online agent to DIY selling.

Once that decision has been made, then you have to get your property ready for the marketing photographs and viewings. This may mean de-cluttering and de-personalising, often re-decorating, undertaking repairs and maintenance, giving the garden a make-over, and generally making your property look its best.

Once the property is on the market, you have the joy of viewings. This means strangers coming to your property morning, noon, and night, looking around, commenting on everything, and asking the same questions over and over again. You may end up feeling like you cannot “live” in your house properly, due to having to keep it clean and immaculate, children’s toys tidied away, laundry put away, etc.

But the above is the easy part. If you get an offer for your property, you then have all the stress of getting the sale over the line to completion.

Until contracts have been exchanged, an offer is not legally binding. This means that the sale can fall through at any time right up to exchange.

The number of house sales falling through before completion in the UK has risen to 38.8% at the beginning of 2018 from 34.9% in the first quarter of 2017, latest research has found. That means that there is over a 1 in 3 chance that your sale could fall through!

But there is more stress than just worrying about this.

Buying and selling at the same time means two sets of estate agents and two sets of solicitors to deal with.

Issues come up with the paperwork that could derail the whole process. You mustn’t get too attached to the place you want to buy in case it all falls through. You are relying on other people in the chain not getting cold feet or having a change of circumstances that forces them to drop out.

The fact that so much of the process is out of your control makes it even more stressful.

In the U.K, it can typically take between 3 to 9 months to complete on the sale of a property - that’s a prolonged period of uncertainty and stress! If your sale falls through, return to “go” and start the cycle all over again with another set of viewings and negotiations.

It is precisely for all of those reasons above that people choose our professional property buying service and opt for a certain sale, within the timetable that you choose.

With our house buying service there are no viewings, no hassle, no stress and you won't pay estate agent fees.

Our service comes with complete certainty and therefore peace of mind.

There is no need to tidy your home up, or spend money on it. As professional property traders, we will not be living there, so this is irrelevant to us and we can see through clutter and any work that needs doing to bring the property up to standard.

Our offer will typically be around 85% of the market value of your home, although we can also “sweeten” the deal to make it work for you. One example was a client who was facing repossession due to mortgage arrears. We paid off her arrears for her, and this took away that stress, and then we followed up with buying her property, allowing her to move on to a new life with no debts.

As a family-run business with over 30 years experience, we pride ourselves on creating win/win solutions for our clients that allow them to sell their property quickly, with zero hassle, and make their next move in life.

Contact us today for an instant cash offer for your property.