I often get asked, “How soon can I sell my house after I’ve bought it?”
Well, you can sell it straight away!
But there are obstacles if you are selling to a buyer, who needs a mortgage. That is because most mortgage companies go by the “six month rule”, that you’re not allowed to buy a property, on a mortgage, that has recently been sold, within six months.
A cash buyer could come forward, and that would be perfectly fine. Also, you must ensure that your solicitor, when you actually bought the house, has registered it on the land registry.
That is important.
In fact, I’ve just had a case this week, where we’ve had a guy that wanted to sell this property, for family reasons. He had just bought it in March 2020, we’re in April now.
The property value is about £170,000, that’s what he paid for it. He’s going to take a little bit less for it. But as I said to him, he’s going to really struggle to find a buyer, because invariably, the type of buyer will be a residential buyer using a mortgage.
It’s more than likely that it’s going to be a residential sale, rather than a cash sale. So, he has got a bit of a challenge there. Coupled with the challenge, he wants to move abroad.
That’s the top and bottom of it. But a lot depends on the price.
Say, if you’ve got an investment property, between £40,000 or £50,000, and you paid cash for it. Then the chances are that you could sell that straight away, pretty quickly, to both a cash buyer and a mortgage buyer.
And always do your research. Make sure that everything that you’ve done, as far as your paperwork’s concerned, has been submitted to the land registry, and speak to your solicitor.
And if you are limited to a buyer with a mortgage…
You might not be able to sell it straight away but you could actually start marketing the property, while you’re waiting for the six month period to come up.
Hope that helps. If you want to have a chat with me about this topic or another please feel free to contact me 0191 486 2386.
