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Environmentally conscious property owners are increasingly looking to own eco homes, which are known by several known other names such as green properties. There can be various complications involved with trying to find a buyer for this type of house, but the good news is that by following some simple guidance you should be able to get a competitive and swift offer.
- What is an eco home?
- Reasons why buyers like eco properties
- Drawbacks of owning an eco home
- Should you fix a problem eco home before selling?
- Paying Capital Gains Tax on the sale of your eco home
- Your four methods for selling an eco property
- Top queries about finding a buyer for an eco home
What is an eco home?
Eco homes, also referred to as green houses or by several other names, are residential properties that are constructed in ways that are designed to be friendly to the environment, such as requiring less electricity and are built through sustainable means using recycled materials where possible, with the overall goal of reducing their pollution and other impacts.
This type of property is "an environmentally low-impact home designed and built using materials and technology that reduces its carbon footprint and lowers its energy needs," according to a dedicated page on the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia.
Some of the common ways that properties can be made more eco-friendly are by improving the insulation so less energy is required to either keep the homes cool or warm, installing solar panels to help with generating electricity for the house and reduce the dependence on natural gas, coal and other fossil fuel sources of power that add to carbon dioxide emissions, installing airtight and high performance windows, and a number of other available strategies.
The growing demand for eco homes can be explained in part because of ongoing energy supply shortages throughout the UK and the very high cost of many peoples’ power bills. Living in a green home can typically significantly reduce the amount you pay in utilities each month.
But if you’re getting ready to sell your eco home you might find that some buyers are nevertheless dubious about the merits of these properties, despite their clear environmental benefits. This guide will walk you through what buyers may see as the pros and cons of owning your house, and give you advice on the best way to get a swift and competitive offer for it.
Reasons why buyers like eco properties
There are several reasons why someone looking to buy a home could focus on purchasing an eco property, and it can be to your benefit to know fully about these reasons. If you have to meet with potential buyers you can talk up these positive aspects and hopefully increase the prospects of having someone make a quick and fair offer for purchasing your home.
Among the top attractions of an eco home is the fact that it will be very energy efficient, using less power than typical houses or flats to keep the property at a comfortable temperature and for all the appliances to be operating, which helps in turn to lower your monthly energy bills.
Passivhaus is a particular type of eco home that the website Homebuilding & Renovating calls "the gold standard" of residential properties with low energy consumption, relying on "passive" natural sources of power like solar rather than obtaining electricity from sources that require carbon-heavy processes like coal mining.
This type of eco house gets its name from the German Passivhaus Institute that created the concept of a passive property in 1996, using ventilation, shades, natural sunlight and strict standards of insulation to reduce energy usage by over 90 percent compared to other homes.
In the UK, properties are rated for the energy efficiency on a system of grades from A to G, with A being the best performing energy efficient home and G-rated houses being the least efficient. Buyers can be assured that most eco homes will score a very high Energy Performance Certificate grade.
Another aspect of eco homes that can attract a certain type of buyer is the fact that it is more environmentally friendly than other properties because of its reduced energy consumption. This can, for some people, be the deciding factor in the category of house they want to purchase.
The reduced energy bills might also be a motivating element that prompts someone to make an offer on your property, particularly if they are moving from a current house or flat that is not energy efficient and has resulted in them paying very high utility bills every month.
Drawbacks of owning an eco home
As shown in the previous section, there are many features of an eco home that make it enticing for a potential buyer, such as the improved energy efficiency – and even solar panels and other features, like some green properties that have been built in southwest Norfolk and were recently profiled by the Eastern Daily Press.
But some people might also view eco homes as having some drawbacks, and this could make them more wary about making an offer on your property. Understanding what these concerns are can be helpful when trying to sell your home because you might be able to provide answers to any potential buyers’ concerns that could help to resolve their worries.
One factor that might turn potential buyers away is that eco homes can be more complicated than conventional houses or flats to operate – they would have to learn about how the various insulation systems, window shutters and other core elements of the property. For some people this can be too overwhelming a task and they could lose interest in your home as a result.
Another concern that some owners of eco properties have reported is that the airtight insulation throughout the home means that it traps sound indoors much more than a conventionally built house, which can be an annoyance if there’s already a lot of noise inside your property.
In order to maintain your home’s eco status you will also have to ensure that it continues to meet all applicable energy consumption requirements, such as having a high Energy Performance Certificate rating. This can be frustrating for some owners because it might mean having to keep certain devices powered off, or otherwise complicate what they can operate.
Should you fix a problem eco home before selling?
Eco homes are generally free of some types of problems that might deter buyers, for example some people don’t like to buy properties that how low Energy Performance Certificate grades, and this won’t be a concern with your house. However, it’s possible that your home does another type of structural fault and you’ll have to assess whether to repair it before selling.
Common types of physical flaws that can make it harder to sell a property include a bad roof, subsidence, dry rot, a vermin infestation, the presence of Japanese knotweed in the garden, and other situations.
If you leave the home "as is" any sell without fixing the problem, this can lead to some buyers significantly reducing the price they’ll offer to buy your property. They will discount how much money they forecast having to spend to repair the issue if they own the home.
Investing time, money and effort into repairing any faults with your eco house can be one solution for avoiding the reduced buyer price offers, because it removes that problem entirely from their calculations. But many people simply won’t have the resources available to undertake what could be very lengthy and stressful home repair work before trying to find a buyer.
If you find yourself in this latter scenario, a great option open to you is getting in touch with a quick home buyer like LDN Properties. These companies have plenty of experience with making competitive offers to buy all types of freehold and leasehold properties, even those with major structural faults, and they can usually finalise the purchase of a home in a few short weeks.
Paying Capital Gains Tax on the sale of your eco home
Whenever someone sells a tangible and valuable asset, such as an eco home, artwork, a vehicle or similar items, they might have to pay the UK government a share of Capital Gains Tax. This is a levy charged as a percentage that can apply to the profit, also known as the gain, that you make from the sale of your house, depending how much you make.
If you find out that you are liable for paying this tax after the sale of your eco home, you should check with a financial professional to learn if there are any options for either lowering the amount of tax you owe or eliminating this requirement entirely, because it might be possible.
In the event that you end up selling your eco home at a loss compared to what you first paid for it, or you break even by selling it at a value close to the original purchase price, this tax often won’t apply. It is important to speak with a tax professional before making any important decisions relating to capital gains tax.
Your four methods for selling an eco property
When you are ready to sell your eco home, you’ll need to make a choice about which method for finding a buyer you would prefer to use. Typically, you can choose among selling to a quick property buyer, selling at an auction, selling with an estate agent or selling on your own.
There are certain pros associated with some of the methods, such as not having to pay any commission when you sell to a quick buyer. But a few of the alternative options also have some rather important cons, for example taking many months to sell or charging high fees.
To find the approach that best matches your particular situation, you should write down the top goals of your sale, such as how fast you would like to find a buyer, whether you can accept paying any fees, if you are willing to have many viewings where potential buyers come to tour the inside and outside of your home, and your ideal selling price offer from a buyer. Then compare this information against the details of the four approaches that are outlined below, and this should assist you in being able to identify the method that is the best match for your aims.
Selling to a quick property buyer
One way to sell your eco home is by contacting a quick home buying company, such as LDN Properties, which has the funds available upfront to buy all types of houses, flats, commercial property and might right away. Because they don’t have to wait months to get approved for a mortgage, they can usually complete every step for buying your home in just a few weeks.
These companies make swift and fair offers to buy almost any type of property imaginable, and it doesn’t matter what condition they’re in, how old they are, whether they have any structural damage or other problems, if they have an unavailable location, and many other factors.
By way of example, LDN Properties launched more than a decade ago and since then it has bought many homes across the UK, including offering on properties with septic tanks, prefabricated homes, flats with noisy neighbours, listed buildings, hotels and other commercial properties, retirement homes, flats that have cladding, houses with higher levels of radon than usual, properties located close to power lines, development land and more.
That can make them an ideal choice for selling a more niche property like an eco home, because you will be assured of receiving a considerate, competitive and speedy offer.
Reputable quick buyers can also help to limit your expenses with selling a green property, because they will not make you pay any commission. This means you are guaranteed to receive the entire sale proceeds, compared to having to pay often high fees when using other methods of selling a house, for example through an estate agent or property auctioneer.
Selling at an auction
Selling your eco home through an auction is another option, as outlined in an explanatory article by Homeowners Alliance, which represents property owners in the UK.
People will place bids on your property at ever-increasing value, but there’s no guarantee that of what the final price might be, or even if your home will sell. If you fail to attract any bids on your eco home then the property will be considered unsold, delaying the process even longer.
Even if you do get bids on your eco home at an auction, this can still take a very long time. There will be a wait of at least many weeks between when you decide to list your property for sale and the date on which the auction takes place. And then the winning high bidder will have about 28 days after the auction is complete to finish all of their required tasks to finalise the purchase, although some auctioneers might be willing to set a shorter deadline.
You will also have to pay an auctioneer commission, and this will increase your overall costs because the fee will be taken out of the sale proceeds immediately. Again, you may be able to negotiate a lower rate of commission with some auctioneers, but there is no guarantee that they will agree to this.
The auctioneer will ask you to select a reserve price, and this is the lowest value at which you are comfortable selling your green property. It is essential that you calculate a reserve price that should still produce a profit from the sale, even after the auctioneer has deducted their commission from the sale proceeds. Otherwise you risk ending up in the unwelcome situation of potentially selling your property at a loss, or at the least only just breaking even on the sale.
Selling with an estate agent
An estate agent will do the bulk of the work in trying to sell your eco home, such as creating a listing and advertising it, organising viewings and hearing offers from serious buyers.
But the schedule for selling this way is among the slowest of the four options, and you should not be surprised if you end up waiting more than an entire year before selling. If you’re trying to find a buyer in the fastest time possible then you might want to review the other options, in particular selling to a quick property buyer who can complete the purchase within weeks.
When you’re selling with an estate agent, there’s always the danger that even if you get a serious offer from a buyer, the sale could fall through if they change their mind. Unfortunately they are allowed to do this without any penalties right up until contracts are exchanged. If you end up in this situation, you will then have to restart the work of trying to find a buyer for your eco home, and this can add many more months to the overall timeline.
Another drawback of using this method to sell your home is that the typical estate agent will charge a homeowner commission as a percentage of the property’s final sale price, and this will be subtracted right away from the final sale proceeds. Should you wish to avoid having to pay any fees on the sale of your eco home, there are alternative options available that include selling without any third party help or selling to a quick home buyer.
Selling on your own
This is a very stressful way to sell your eco house because you will have to handle all of the work involved, from the initial development and marketing of a listing through to organising and leading viewings and finally fielding offers from buyers. It’s a massive amount of work and it will consume a lot of your time, so it’s only recommended for those experienced in selling homes.
The only obvious advantage of selling without any assistance is that you won’t have to pay a third party like an estate agent or auctioneer any commission, which could lower your costs. But this saving might be cancelled out by the money that you have to spend on advertising the listing for your home, as well as other expenses you may incur whilst trying to sell it.
On average, this is a very slow way to try selling any type of house or flat and you should not be surprised if you still haven’t received a serious offer from a buyer after more than a full year.
Instead, you could consider selling your property to a quick buyer like LDN Properties, because these companies will never charge you commission, so you’ll get to keep the full proceeds. But they have the added benefit of completing the purchase a property within just a few short weeks, so you not only get the perk of not paying any fees but you also get a much swifter sale.
Top queries and answers about selling an eco house
Homeowners thinking of selling their home quickly quite often have some questions for us, ranging from selling property at a junction through to selling a self-build house. Here are a few of the questions we’re asked when selling an eco home:
Your top questions when selling an eco house
Eco houses are also known as green homes, Passivhaus properties and other titles but they all share the common aspect of using environmentally friendly and innovative construction designs in order to significantly reduce the amount of energy that the home needs. Some of these properties can reduce energy usage by roughly 90 percent compared to conventional houses.
The huge potential reduction in electricity consumption is one of the main reasons why potential buyers are attracted to eco homes, because this in turn means significantly reducing their monthly energy bills at a time of very high power prices. Other buyers might be looking for the most environmentally friendly home possible, and eco homes fit that description.
Yes, they can present some challenges to owners in that they can be more difficult to maintain, requiring you to learn how the various eco-friendly aspects of the property work and ways to keep them in their ideal condition. If you have a noisy household already, you may find that the tight insulation at an eco home also amplifies sound indoors, which can be a nuisance.
It’s your decision and you should only pursue any major repair work if you have the resources available to do this work, which can take many months and therefore delay a sale by a long time. It’s perfectly fine to try selling your home as is without making any fixes, and you can still sell it for a competitive price if you contact a quick home buyer like LDN Properties.
You might not own any Capital Gains Tax if you sell the property at a loss compared to what you originally paid for it, or if the sale price is close to the amount at which you bought it. Should you be required to pay a share of Capital Gains Tax on the sale of your eco property, the amount will typically be assessed based on how much profit you might make from the proceeds. Make sure you liaise with a tax professional before making any decisions.
Look to a quick home buyer such as LDN Properties, because these companies are able to finalise the entire process of purchasing any type of home within a handful of weeks. That’s much speedier than the alternative options of selling on your own or using an estate agent or auctioneer to sell your property, because these methods can all take at least several months.
You will not have to pay any fees to a third party if you sell your eco house to a quick home buying company or you sell on your own without any help. But if you decide to use an auctioneer or estate agent for selling your property then you will have to pay them commission, and this fee will add to your costs because it’ll be taken out of the final sale proceeds.
