How Long to Sell a House with No Chain

We all look for the smoothest possible house sale. One with no delays, no complicated processes and a quick completion. To sell your house fast though is not always easy, and often, one of the biggest disruptors to the process is the property chain. Once a link in that chain is broken, your dream move can soon come grinding to a halt. But what if there is no chain though? How long will it take to sell a home with no chain? Is it going to be that smooth, fast sale you hoped for?

In this edition of our blog, we look at why and see what else you could do to speed up the sale if you’ve got a specific timeframe in mind.

What does selling a house with no chain mean?

If you sell a house with no chain, it simply means there are no other property transactions linked to yours. Your sale does not depend on others buying or selling a property.

In most property transactions, a chain exists linking buyers and sellers who will never have an interaction with each other. All it takes is for one of those links to break and the entire chain of property transactions can collapse.

Selling with no chain avoids this and whilst there still can be delays, often stemming from issues with the property, a no-chain sale can be beneficial to those who may want to buy your home as well as to you the seller.

What is the timeframe to sell a house with no chain?

We’ve given quite a wide-ranging timeframe for selling a house with no chain in the intro but on average, you could expect to see a no-chain sale complete in around 8 weeks. However, varying factors come into play that could see that process be worked through much faster, or much slower. Hence the 4 weeks -3 months we mentioned earlier.

To get things moving as fast as possible, the timeline below gives you an indication of what you should plan to do and when.

Prepare the house for sale: 1-2 days

You want your home to appeal to those who may wish to buy it, so you’ll need to spend time staging the property and making it look its best. Depending on what you deem necessary, you could spend as little or as long as you like on this part of the process. A simple tidy may be all it warrants but a fresh coat of paint might also be useful.

Get the house valued: 2-4 days

You want to ensure you get the best price possible for your home, but you need it to be representative of the current market and the area. Otherwise, it just won’t sell. Speak to a few estate agents and have them price up your home and then book in a surveyor for a final valuation. This way you’ll have an idea of whether the estate agents are trying to sell for an over-inflated price.

Complete any repairs and maintenance: 2-3 weeks

With an idea of the value you could get for your home, now would be the time to fix up the pesky leaks, cracked windows and missing roof tiles. In fact, anything that could be used as a bargaining chip by a buyer to get some money knocked off should be fixed up. That way you maximise the potential for getting the full value for your home.

Collate all the paperwork: 1-2 days

Selling a house with no chain still requires a fair degree of legal compliance so there is certainly no scrimping on the paperwork. Get all the property documents together, the EPC, the title deeds etc. You’ll need these when you complete so why not be prepared? Any potential buyer may want to see them too!

Choose an estate agent and advertise the home: 1-4 days

You will have met some estate agents during the initial valuations, and now, armed with an accurate price from a surveyor, you can assess which estate agent may have been the most realistic. Look at their fees though as some might charge lots for very little. You can sell your house for free with cash house buyers, which we’ll cover later, with estate agents though, it’s unlikely you’ll be fee-free. Expect to spend between £5,000 and £7,000 on estate agent fees to sell your home but be aware that much depends on the type of property, its value, and its location.

Accept an offer: 1-5 days

Once the estate agent has listed your home as for sale with no onward chain, you can expect to see the bookings to view it come in. Properties advertised as for sale with no onward chain are appealing to buyers as they know there is no risk of a transaction elsewhere hindering the sale of your home.

You could do this in as little as one day, but remember, accepting an offer is only the start! There is still a large part of the process to go through.

Hire a solicitor; 1-2 days

Upon accepting an offer, find a solicitor. This is essential! Whilst some of the legal work could be done by yourself, it is really best to leave it to the experts, so everything is completed correctly.

Conveyancing: 6 weeks

One of the slowest aspects of selling a house with no chain is the conveyancing. The buyer will organise the conveyancing searches, but your conveyancing solicitor will be involved as they handle any questions or queries the buying side may have.

Property survey: 1 week

The buyer will organise a survey to establish if everything is ok with the property and whilst it may only take a few hours to complete, it may take up to a week for the surveyor to write up their findings. Armed with survey results, the buyer can decide whether a formal offer should be made. Just be aware that should there be any structural issues with the property that cost significant sums to repair, The offer may come in a lot lower than you had hoped.

Contract and exchange: 6-12 weeks

Your solicitor will draw up the contract and this can take substantial time. Even though selling a house with no chain is typically fast, some aspects take just as long as if you were selling a home that’s part of a chain. Contracts need to be agreed by both parties before any exchange and occasionally, one side or the other may request a change to the draft. It is this that takes time. The more changes, the longer it takes. No changes, and you’ll get a contract fairly quickly.

Completion and transfer of deeds: 1 day

A day will have been agreed for the completion of the sale and thankfully, as there is no chain, the likelihood of a delay at this stage is minimal. Funds will be transferred, keys handed over and a few days after you’ve moved out, the transfer of deeds will be completed.

What could slow down the sale of a house with no chain?

With no chain to break, the sale of a house without a chain is typically a quicker route to sale but it can be slowed by various factors both in and out of your control.

The current market

If the property market is a little turbulent you could see your sale slow down. Should the market be moving at a slow pace, you could see a further 2-4 weeks added to your sale timeline.

Location

If where you live has become less desirable, perhaps due to crime, you could see the potential pool of buyers reduced and therefore see it take longer for your home to sell.

Property type

Different property types have their own level of demand. A detached house might be in less demand than a semi-detached house due to the difference in price for example.

Property condition

If you didn’t carry out any of the repairs we mentioned earlier or have let the house fall into a poor state, you could find offers hard to come by. It could be that you do get offers but they come in much lower than you’d like as the buyer considers how much they would need to spend on getting the house up to scratch.

Price

If your estate agent has tried to wow you with a high valuation, it might be a case of them over-promising and under-delivering. If the price is too high, people simply won’t make an offer.

Finances

The buyer may unfortunately have a sudden change in circumstances which means the house purchase is no longer affordable. This could see you go back to the start!

Should a sale be in progress, delays are possible too. If the survey flags up any problems or the contracts have a tricky sticking point, you could see several weeks added to the process. If the buyer has issues with getting their mortgage approved, this too could see weeks added to the sales timeline.

How can I sell a chain-free house quickly?

Even though the sales path is a little quicker for a chain-free home on the traditional market, there is an even faster way to get that sale over the line. Cash house buyers – you may remember we mentioned them earlier – are not connected to any chain at all, don’t need mortgage approval, do not worry about the location of the property or its type, and cover legal costs. In some cases, such as with Bettermove, a sale can be completed in a timeframe timeline suits you. This puts the selling process firmly in your hands and not those of the buyer.

The order of how the sale works is much the same as any other sale, it’s just that the emphasis is on speed.

Selling a chain free house to a cash house buyer

As a rough guide, our timeline below shows how fast the process of selling a chain-free house to a cash house buyer works.

• Offer: Made within the same day or the next day in many cases.
• Surveys and legalities: 1 week and all your legal paperwork is done! The amount of paperwork is greatly reduced as there are fewer requirements from the cash house buyer and no mortgage applications for them to complete.
• Contract exchange: Within just a couple of days, contracts can be exchanged.
• Completion: Funds transferred, keys handed over, property sold!

Now this sounds rapid, and it can be, but as we said above, you are in control and can build the sale around your timeline when you sell to a cash house buyer. If you need a month to get your affairs in order, or a week to get organised with your new job, it makes no difference. The offer remains and the contract is still binding.

If you are looking to sell your house with no onward chain, consider Bettermove. We operate with complete transparency and fluidity, ensuring a fast house sale that happens how and when you want it to. Contact our team today to get the process started.