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When you are attempting to sell a ground floor flat, it can be useful to discover the potential challenges that you might encounter with trying to find a buyer for the home. Below you will get to learn about the various pros and cons with selling a ground floor flat, and also get tips on the best options available to make getting a fast and competitive offer from a buyer more likely.
- What to know when trying to sell a ground floor flat
- Why some buyers might be hesitant to own a ground floor flat
- Explanations why people could want your ground floor flat
- Should you fix any issues with a ground floor flat before selling it?
- Four methods to find a buyer for your ground floor flat
- Top queries and answers about selling a ground floor flat
What to know when trying to sell a ground floor flat
Throughout the UK you can find ground floor flats, which as their name implies are individual leasehold properties that are on the ground floor of a building.
Often these flats have a front door that opens out on to a street, although that’s not a requirement and there are many other types, such as flats where the entrance is around the back of a building or down an alleyway. These flats may or may not have certain other features, including access to a private garden or one that is shared with other flat owners.
And a ground floor flat could be the only such unit in a building, for example if the higher floors are occupied by commercial premises. Or the flat might be one of many others in the building. The only common factor among the various types is that they are all on the ground floor.
As explained in more detail in later sections, this type of property has a number of pros and cons in the eyes of buyers. These can range from the benefit of convenience and accessibility compared to a top floor flat through to the drawback of increased security concerns and other problems, as Hunters says. Learning about these various issues can help when trying to sell.
You also have a number of options available for choosing how to find a buyer for the flat, with an option available for every type of seller, their budget and their main priorities with selling. Later on, you’ll be able to read about the ins and outs of all four of these selling methods.
Whatever your reason for wanting to sell your ground floor flat – and that can be anything from a desire to downsize to a smaller property through to dealing with a move overseas, coping with a divorce and other reasons – this guide provides important tips on how to navigate the process, including the best ways that you can increase your prospects of getting a fair and speedy offer.
Why some buyers might be hesitant to own a ground floor flat
When you are trying to sell your ground floor flat, it can be beneficial to learn about the reasons why certain people might view your property more negatively compared to other types of flats.
Although some of the problems listed below might be beyond your ability to fix, you should still learn about them so that you can anticipate questions from concerned buyers and increase your chances of reassuring them with your answers based on your experience as an owner.
Damp issues: Ground floor flats can be at greater risk of developing damp problems compared to those that are located on higher floors in a building, including rising damp where moisture rises through a property, penetrating damp that can enter through the walls of the flat, and damp from condensation that is the result of elevated humidity. Buyers may fear that suffering damp issues in the future may prove very costly and no longer want to own your flat as a result. From a legal perspective your lease will also help you understand exactly whose responsibility it is to make repairs.
Noise problems: One of the most common complaints that owners of ground floor flats have is the noise that they have to endure both from the street outside and their upstairs neighbours. If your ground floor flat opens out onto a busy road, this could create a lot of traffic noise that disturbs your peace and quiet indoors. And if you have noisy neighbours that cause the roof to vibrate or thud often, this can also be something that turns certain buyers off.
Safety concerns: Because the flat is at ground level, this can make it easier for burglars to break a window or door and access the unit compared to a flat on a higher floor, as the 99acres website notes. This worry about crime may be a dealbreaker for certain buyers, and if your home has bars on the window to prevent burglary attempts this may also be unsightly and make some people lose interest.
Explanations why people could want your ground floor flat
Whilst there are a number of factors that help to justify why someone may not want to own a ground floor flat, this specific type of property also has a number of welcome aspects.
Learning about these elements can also be useful when trying to sell your property because you can explain the advantages to buyers. And some of the benefits of owning a ground floor flat might even be enough to override certain concerns that some buyers might have.
Enjoying a garden: There are some ground floor flats that have access to a garden, whether that’s a private garden specific to just your unit or whether it’s a shared space with other flat owners in the building. For those potential homeowners who are looking for a home with green space, the presence of a garden attached to your ground floor flat could be what persuades them to make an offer.
Ease of access: Because ground floor flats are on the street level this makes them incredibly easy to access, without any concerns about having to use stairs of a lift in order to get to the front door. For the elderly, disabled or others with mobility issues, this can make your type of property much more enticing than a flat located on a higher floor – possibly even making the difference between someone wanting to buy your home or losing interest in it.
No leak worries: A ground floor flat can be preferable to some buyers because it eliminates the risk of the property suffering damage during heavy rainfall or a storm that can lead to a roof, which is a major risk for a top floor flat, as the My City Nest website explains. This could be a deciding factor for a buyer that is trying to decide between a ground or top floor flat.
Should you fix any issues with a ground floor flat before selling it?
You might own a ground floor flat in a converted building.
Four methods to find a buyer for your ground floor flat
When you are finally ready to start seeking a buyer for your ground floor flat, you will need to pick a method for how to do so. The four strategies are selling via an estate agent, selling with an auctioneer, selling on your own or selling to a quick home buying company like LDN Properties.
You will discover that there are clear advantages and disadvantages depending on which selling approach you select. For example, it might take more than an entire year before you are able to find a buyer when selling without any help or via an estate agent. But you can avoid paying commission and get a much speedier sale if you get in touch with a quick buyer.
It can be helpful to start by writing down your main aims with the sale of your flat, such as how long you are willing to wait before selling, whether you can accept paying any commission when selling, and your preferred property sale price. Then compare these factors against the specifics of the four options below to narrow the choices down to one that best matches your needs.
Selling via an estate agent
Estate agents handle almost all the tasks needed to sell your ground floor flat, starting with putting together a listing that describes the property and features photographs of it, which they’ll advertise online, in their office and in local newspapers. They will also sort viewings to give people tours of the flat, hear offers and hopefully get one through to exchanging contracts.
If the estate agent succeeds in selling your home this way, they will charge you commission and this is often with the range of 1.15 percent to 1.40 percent of the property’s final sale price. But the specific rate of commission will vary among estate agents, so always check it. This will increase your expenses because the fee is taken out of the sale proceeds right away.
You will find that selling this way can be a very slow process that may take over a year. Also, a buyer can make an honest offer but then change their mind and rescind it, causing the sale to collapse. They are allowed to do this without penalty so long as contracts have not yet been exchanged, and this will delay a sale further because you’ll have to start over seeking a buyer.
Selling with an auctioneer
An auctioneer is another method for selling your ground floor flat where there will not be much work for you to do, as they will handle creating and marketing a listing, hosting the auction and then overseeing the legal document signing and other steps to finalise a successful sale.
In exchange for doing all of this work, the average auctioneer will charge commission at 2.5 percent of your flat’s final sale price. This is deducted immediately from the sale proceeds and therefore will increase your costs. If you want to save money when selling, you may want to consider other methods such as contacting a zero-commission quick home buyer.
There are some auctioneers that might be willing to either reduce their rate of commission or have the buyer pay a share of your expenses, so ask about whether this might be possible. Just note that certain auctioneers will charge an even higher rate of commission than 2.5 percent.
You might have to wait a long time to sell your home this way as well, including several weeks or longer of waiting between when you decide to use this approach and when the auction takes place. Then, if your home sells, the top bidder has about a month to sign the required papers and finish their other tasks to complete the purchase, adding even more time to the schedule.
One possible way to speed up selling this way is to ask an auctioneer if they are open to setting a shorter deadline for the buyer to finish all of these tasks. But beware that some auctioneers might refuse this and possibly even give the buyer even more time than a month, which would extend your overall selling timeline even further – and that’s far from ideal for those flat owners who would like to find a buyer and complete the sale as quickly as is feasible.
Selling on your own
Yet another way that you might be able to sell your ground floor flat is doing so without any help from an auctioneer or an estate agent. This will require you to produce a listing, advertise it, organise viewings so that interested potential buyers can get to tour the inside and outside of the flat, hear any buyers’ offers and then take one of them through to the exchange of contracts.
This is a huge amount of work from beginning to end and one that will need a lot of your time and attention. For this reason, you should only consider this approach if you have previously managed to sell a ground floor flat or you have a suitably skilled family member or friend that may be willing to assist you with the selling process at no cost. If not, you run the risk of enduring a very stressful time that could take over a year before you find a buyer.
Perhaps the only clear advantage of selling on your own is that you would not have to pay any commission to an auctioneer or an estate agent for securing a buyer, which lowers your costs. But you could find that this saving is cancelled out by the funds you will need to spend on advertising your listing and various other tasks involved with selling your flat.
As an alternative, think about selling your home to a quick buyer such as LDN Properties. These companies will help you keep your expenses low because they will not charge you commission when buying your property. And you will get the extra benefit of enjoying a much speedier sale because quick buyers can generally finalise the purchase of a home within a few short weeks.
Selling to a quick home buying company
Quick buyers are so-called because they have the funds upfront to purchase your home right away, typically taking just a few weeks to exchange contracts and pay you the proceeds. They can move so speedily because they don’t have to wait for many weeks or even months to initially get approved for a mortgage that would fund the transaction.
These companies are renowned also for making competitive offers to buy properties no matter their age, condition, location, shape, size or type. So, they won’t be discouraged by the fact your flat is on the ground floor, nor if it has some major problem such as widespread damp, and that means you don’t need to worry about investing in fixing the issue before selling your home.
And with honest quick buyers like LDN Properties you will never have to pay any commission with the sale of your flat, so you can count on getting the full sale proceeds. That’s in contrast to selling via an auction or estate agent because they will charge you commission if they are able to sell your flat and this will be deducted from the sale proceeds, adding to your costs.
For your extra peace of mind when selling this, check whether an individual quick buyer belongs to The Property Ombudsman (TPO). This independent organisation publishes policies to guard homeowners against fraud in the quick buying industry and all true TPO members, including LDN Properties, must follow these rules, which gives you extra protection.
The simplest way to check the membership status of a TPO member is by using the search function on its website here, where you can type in the name of a quick buyer and then see if they are genuinely registered with TPO. If they are, like LDN Properties, you’ll be shown their membership details. But if they are not registered then you will not get any search results and you should be wary about selling your flat to that company because this increases the chances that the business might be pursuing some type of scam.
Top queries and answers about selling a ground floor flat
LDN Properties launched about 20 years ago and has bought many ground flats throughout the UK. Below you can see our answers to frequent questions from sellers about these homes.
Your questions and answers about selling a ground floor flat
As their name implies, ground floor flats are those located at ground level of a building that may contain several other flats on the same level or higher floors. There are many different types of features that a ground floor may or may not have, for example some might have access to a private garden or garden shared with other flats, among various other aspects.
When you’re trying to sell your ground floor flat you could hear prospective buyers express a number of concerns about this type of property. Some of their worries might include fears about safety, because it can be easier for criminals to break into this unit compared to one on a higher floor. Another problem is that these flats can be more susceptible to damp problems.
There are several aspects of a ground floor flat that can make it more appealing to a potential buyer compared to other flats, and these include that the unit might have access to a private garden or one that is shared with other flats in the building. A ground floor flat is also instantly accessible without any concerns about having to take stairs of a lift to get to it.
The answer to this will depend on your specific circumstances, including the size of the problem, the cost and time involved to fix it, and whether you have any interest in resolving the issue before selling. There is no requirement to repair such problems and you can still get a fair and fast offer for your flat as is by contacting a zero-commission quick home buying company.
It varies based on which option you use for finding a buyer, with the speediest usually being selling to a quick home buying company such as LDN Properties because the process should only take a few short weeks. By contrast, selling your flat through an auctioneer, an estate agent or without any assistance can all take several months and sometimes even longer.
Not if you choose to sell your flat to a genuine zero-commission quick home buyer like LDN Properties or if you opt for selling without any help from a third party like an estate agent or an auctioneer. But if you choose either an auctioneer or estate agent to sell your flat, you will have to pay them commission if they sell your home and this will be taken out of the final proceeds.
You should ask individual quick buyers if they belong to an independent organisation called The Property Ombudsman (TPO), which writes rules to guard owners against fraud in the quick home buying industry, and all TPO members like LDN Properties must follow them. Never sell your flat to a company that cannot prove it is a TPO member, as it may be a scam business.
