Are you a Fife homeowner or landlord? Are you thinking of selling your home or property in early 2025?
Then, in this article, let me show you how long it will take, on average, to find a buyer for your Fife home and how long solicitors will take to get you moved.
Independent research from Denton House Research shows that in the last 12 months, looking at every UK estate agent’s 1,064,223 sales agreed and 816,299 exchanges and missives, on average, it has taken 73 days from the property coming on the market to become sold, up from 67 days for the 12 months ending in June 2024.
Then, it has taken 113 days from the sale being agreed to completion (completion is when the keys and monies are sorted), an improvement on the 117 days for the 12 months ending June 2024. The journey is a long one and not guaranteed as nationally, only 53.6% of UK homeowners who placed their homes on the market in 2023/4 have sold and moved (the remaining 46.7% coming off the market unsold).
Step 1 – Finding Your Buyer
The first step is to engage an estate agent (naturally, we’re here to assist) who will work with you to develop a pricing and marketing strategy tailored to attract the right buyer for your situation.
Recent independent data reveals that, over the last three months, a property in Fife has taken an average of 52 days to reach an agreed sale (Sold Subject To Conclusion of Missives). However, as I’ve discussed in my recent articles, the Fife property market is far from uniform; it’s more like a fly’s eye, with countless small, distinct micro-markets.
Reflecting on this independent research – which focuses exclusively on Fife – it’s fascinating to observe how these different price segments (or micro-markets) are currently performing when we look at the average time it takes to secure a buyer in the Fife area. The average time to find a buyer in the last 3 months in Fife for those properties that have agreed a sale on them is as follows…
- Under £100k – 45 days
- £100k to £200k – 38 days
- £200k to £300k – 57 days
- £300k to £400k – 71 days
- £400k to £500k – 75 days
- £500,000 to £1m – 143 days
- Over £1m – 138 days
Then, I analysed the same statistics and determined which price band had the highest ratio of properties sold (STCM).
- Under £100k – 359 sales agreed (SSTC) – 19.93% of the properties Sold STC in Fife in the last 3 months
- £100k to £200k – 704 sales agreed (SSTC) – 39.09% of the properties Sold STC in Fife in the last 3 months
- £200k to £300k – 429 sales agreed (SSTC) – 23.82% of the properties Sold STC in Fife in the last 3 months
- £300k to £400k – 191 sales agreed (SSTC) – 10.61% of the properties Sold STC in Fife in the last 3 months
- £400k to £500k – 58 sales agreed (SSTC) – 3.22% of the properties Sold STC in Fife in the last 3 months
- £500,000 to £1m – 51 sales agreed (SSTC) – 2.83% of the properties Sold STC in Fife in the last 3 months
- over £1m – 9 sales agreed (SSTC) – 0.50% of the properties Sold STC in Fife in the last 3 months
So, you’ve secured a buyer. What happens next?
Selling your property in Fife brings challenges and involves coordination with a diverse group of professionals. This can result in notable differences in the timeline for completing one Fife property sale compared to another.
Step 2 – Instruct Solicitors (and Mortgage Broker)
We can recommend top solicitors to assist with your Fife sale. As the seller, your solicitor will start preparing the initial legal documents for your property (with your input) and then forward them to your buyer’s solicitor.
Step 3 – Legal Work and Survey
After receiving the paperwork, your buyer’s solicitor will request local searches from the local authority or land registry to ensure no planned developments, like roads or airports, are impacting your property. These searches can take a few weeks to return, during which the buyer’s solicitor may raise questions with your solicitor. All residential properties in Scotland are required to have a valid home report. This is provided to potential buyers by the estate agent and is valid for 12 weeks. If it takes longer than this to find a buyer it is only required to get it refreshed once a written offer has been accepted. The valuation may be reduced if there has been a substantial amount of time to get an offer and is also dependent on what the accepted offer is. In some cases a mortgage lender will want to get an additional survey done, especially if the offer far exceeds the asking price.
Step 4 – Conclusion of Missives
Once the mortgage, survey, and legal work are cleared of any issues, both buyer and seller sign the contracts, leading to the “Conclusion of Missives” between solicitors. Now there is a legally binding contract, committing both parties to the sale. But wait—there’s still one step to go!
Step 5 – Completion
Completion is when the money and keys are transferred. Typically, this takes place one to two weeks after conclusion of missives (although, since the lockdown, completion can occur on the same day). At this point, the buyer’s solicitor sends the purchase funds to the seller’s solicitor, and once they are received, the keys are handed over to the buyer.
In Fife, it currently takes 52 days to find a buyer (Step 1) and 80 days from instructing solicitors (Step 2) to completion (Step 5)
In summary, you should anticipate waiting five to six months from the day the ‘For Sale’ board goes up to the day you move out.
If you’re considering selling your home in Fife, or you’re a Fife landlord looking to sell a buy-to-let property with tenants in situ, feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to have an informal, no-obligation conversation to help you secure a good price with minimal hassle. Contact us on: https://www.fifeproperties.co.uk/contact/
