Where It All Started

Hi, my name is Stephen. I am the founder of How To Sell A House

My job is to look after this website as well as offer local residents free independent and unbiased advice. Over the years I have helped lots of people buy and sell property and if there is one thing I have learnt - it's all about the preparation.

The Problem With Today's Property Market. 

There is a lot wrong with the way we buy and sell property in England and Wales. The biggest problem being so many homes go on the market before they have been properly checked and prepared, this is leading to 1 in 3 sales falling through and 9 out of 10 experiencing late stage delays or price renegotiations.

To give you some idea of how bad it is, in other countries such as America and even Scotland the fall through rates are as low as 1 in 20.

Most homeowners believe it's their estate agent's job to tell them everything they need to know before selling. Unfortunately, the reality is often very different and I only know this because I used to be one for many years....

My Life As An Estate Agent.  I left school with no qualifications to speak of and got my first job in estate agency back in 1991. It was with one of the biggest companies in the UK boasting one of the "best training programmes in the industry".

Simply put, I was taught to get properties onto the market as quickly as possible and get as many referrals for the their in house conveyancing / mortgage services as possible. The sooner a property was listed, the sooner the company could earn its commission and the sooner I could earn mine. Within 2 weeks I was out valuing properties and hitting sales targets.

Sometimes that meant telling people what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear.

Sadly, it resulted in as many as one in three sales falling through, while nine out of ten transactions experienced delays, last-minute issues or price renegotiations.

I hated it, but it was simply accepted as part of the job.

During my time, I worked for some of the largest corporate estate agencies as well as some of the most respected independent firms and whilst my sales pitch might have changed, the underlying ethos was the same. So, I then went on to set up my own independent estate agency and within 8 months it was one of the best locally, sadly as much as I tried to do things differently I found by being "too" honest, home owners just instructed the agent who told them what they wanted to hear.

One day two lovely chaps came along and made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I sold the business and that was that. 

Years later and things haven't changed. The UK remains one of the hardest places in the world to sell property, and those statistics are just as relevant today as they were when I left estate agency behind.

It's one of the reasons I never went back.

It's An Outdated & Broken System.

For Estate Agents: They can invest months of their time and thousands of pounds marketing someone's property to get a sale.

Once the sale has been agreed they can then spend a further six to twelve months trying to get it to complete only to find the buyer or seller withdraws and they are left utterly penniless for all their efforts.

For Homeowners: They can be persuaded to go on the market before they' are ready and end up losing thousands of pounds through incorrect pricing, poor advice and / or, worse still, not selling at all.

For Buyers: It can sometimes feel as though agents are more interested in who they are using for their mortgages and conveyancing rather than receiving any real help to find their new home.

And please don't think for a minute it is all down to the estate agents. A lazy solicitor, mortgage advisor or surveyor can also hold your sale / purchase up and cause you no end of problems

The Bottom Line: Whichever way you look at it, buying and selling in England & Wales can be a very difficult and frustrating process. Whilst the government is looking at reforms, they may well take years to implement and may not even serve to help the process in any meaningful way which is why we are here.

What Can We Do?

Our online "Smart Guides" are a great start. Whether you are a buyer or seller they are designed to walk you through the process and do things in the right order. They also have links off to lots of local people who can help.

Our Advice Line is available to answer your questions and vent your frustrations. Feel free to send us a message or give us a call, we have a genuine passion for helping people buy and sell property the right way. Over the years we've dealt with almost every house-selling scenario imaginable—and probably a few that you couldn't make up.

Sadly, we can't promise to have all the answers, but there's a good chance we've seen your situation before—and if we haven't, we probably know someone who has.

How Are We Funded?

We decided from the outset, we didn't want to charge for our help and advice, we believe every buyer and seller should be entitled to free and unbiased advice so they can navigate the Uk property market with confidence.

If You Like What We're Doing You Can Make A Donation?

If you find our advice helpful and believe we might have added value to your home or saved you from making an expensive mistake, you can make an anonymous donation to help keep this website available for future homeowners.

It's as simple as that!

Selling property is much easier when you know How.... With that in mind, we wish you every success with the sale of your home.