The United Kingdom’s real estate market continues to impress observers with its resilience and vitality. As recently as a few years ago, the post-recession doldrums that gripped most of the nation appeared to be strangling the life out of both the commercial and residential markets. That illusion was quickly shattered, however, as sales rebounded in strikingly healthy ways, boosting valuations even above their previous historical highs, as well-known agents like that at www.Palmersnell.co.uk have noted.
This has been good news for estate agents and sellers throughout the country, albeit perhaps not so much for buyers. Today’s seller’s market, in fact, leaves many buyers feeling like they are competitors in a race, as home and commercial property offers are sometimes bettered even before those who make them receive provisional responses. There are, however, ways of opting out of the inherently competitive, agent-focused arena of traditional real estate.
Many buyers, for example, are forgoing agents completely and opting to seek their new properties at auctions instead. Providers of Independent news in the UK list a wide variety of real estate auctions every week, with each of these having different inventories and qualifications for hopeful bidders. These opportunities can land buyers far better deals than they would be likely to find if working with agents, although they do require a certain amount of self-direction and motivation from those who attend them.
One limiting factor is that discovering exactly what is available in this way can be more difficult than some would suppose. Auction dates and conditions are often first posted with only weeks to go, meaning that those who would attend them will have to schedule time to do the necessary tours and other research quickly.
A whole host of other services that are normally taken care of by agents, too, will have to be dealt with by bidders instead. That can mean investigating local conditions at a level that some hopeful buyers will not be familiar with, although help with this task is not hard to find, if desired. In fact, a growing number of consultants throughout the country position themselves as being able to provide exactly that kind of assistance to individual buyers.
Palmer Snell for Sale Office 