Hype of the Housing Market
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| Beneath the endless hype of the housing market, and all those reports showing prices always surging upwards, reality is a bit tougher in many areas - thousands of owners are stuck with homes which have been on the market for months with little hope of a sale. |
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| "Although there may be 'hotspots' in most areas, the market generally is pretty stagnant right now, with prices not really going up or down", says Richard Watters, managing director of property purchasing company, A Quick Sale. |
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| "What many people forget is that the volume of turnover in the housing market is well down on three years ago, partly because many first-time buyers are priced out of the market." |
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| "It can be a pretty sluggish market for properties with no particular features to set them apart from the rest." |
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| Owners who can't sell are proving keen customers for A Quick Sale, the company Watters launched in 2003 when he was trying to build a "buy to let" portfolio. |
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| While the personal portfolio has grown to 65 properties - mainly in North-Eastern centres including Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Bishop's Auckland and Sunderland - costing between £50,000 and £100,000 and intended to produce an annual yield of 8% - Watters is having to spend much more of his time on A Quick Sale. |
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| The company, which Watters offers as a local franchise across the UK, is "buying in" properties, usually for 80%-90% of open market value from owners who can have their money within 24 hours, if they wish, and if legal details can be wrapped up within that timescale. |
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| Most buyers actually want their money in three or four weeks. |
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| With many of the properties falling into the £100,000-150,000 price bracket, that means many of them are happily writing off £20,000-30,000 in their impatience to get their hands on cash. |
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| Is that sensible, or should they sit down in a darkened room until sanity returns? |
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| Says Watters: "For plenty of people, price is not the only - or the main - concern. We tell people at the start that they can almost certainly get more money on the open market, but some people readily sacrifice cash in return for speed and certainty. |
