"Ultimately the price won't be determined by us - the agents- or by you- the vendor/landlord - but by the purchaser/tenant. And if the purchaser/tenant is relying on finance, ultimately the price will be determined by the lender"Not always the words we want to hear but very much a true fact
Advice for vendors selling a freehold.
If you have a freehold property you would like to sell the following tips may assist in selling the freehold.
MARKETING PRICE. Obviously you will want to get the highest price for your property. This may not necessarily be the same figure however as the price with which to market the property at. If a property is marketed at a price that is too high there will be little interest from potential purchasers from even wanting to look at the property. In many cases marketing the property at a price that is attractive to buyers encourages lots of people to view the property. The more people who view the property the more likely offers made will match or ascend the asking price.
ACCESSIBILITY to the property for viewings - or in other words allowing the largest amount of access to the market of buyers. Properties where viewings can be done any time have a better chance of being sold. This is because when it comes to commercial property people normally do viewings during the daytimes and like to be flexible in their appointments. If we don't have a key to a property and need to arrange a time to do viewings, this can result in delays or even the applicant choosing not to view at all.
If there are any complications to do with selling the property, eg. 999 year leases, flying freeholds, repairing obligations if uppers have been sold off on long lease, details of options on land with planning, it is best if this INFORMATION is communicated to potential purchasers during the initial marketing process.
The reasons why someone is selling a freehold also affects how long it will take to sell. There are two basic reasons why someone might want to sell, and this can be divided into circumstances. When a vendor needs to sell, often because they NEED to raise a certain amount of money, the price they need is not often related to how much someone would be willing to pay for the property. Under this circumstance a sale might take a very long time to reach the amount needed by the vendor, if in fact a buyer is willing to pay the price needed at all. Alternatively when a vendor may WANT to sell because a property is surplus to requirements for example, a property is usually sold a lot quicker because the vendor can choose from the best offer received at any given time.
Advice for landlords renting out a property
A commercial property can normally be formally let to a tenant under two forms of agreement. A LICENCE agreement or a LEASE.
A licence is in many ways similar to renting a residential property and is a common agreement for start up businesses, usually with one month rent as deposit and one month rent in davce at the outset. The most common agreement to rent a commercial property is a Full Repair and Insuring Lease. As a rule of thumb, a licence is more flexible but less secure and a lease is more secure but less flexible.
Depending on the type of agreement your property is rented out on, you can normally expect the solicitors to take in the region of 6-8 weeks in which to complete the legal paperwork. In order to ensure a smooth running of the legal transaction it is highly advisable to agree all terms, however minor, before the solicitors are instructed.
Most rental transactions that fall through are for reasons other than the already agreed rental. The most common cause of disagreement in a rental transaction is the duration of the lease, frequency of rent reviews, whether there is a break clause and to which party it applies, whether there is a rent free period and if so for how long it is for and the repairing obligations on a full repair and insuring lease. It is very useful to clarify and AGREE these points as early on as possible, preferably on the marketing details themselves. It is standard for the incoming tenant to bear the landlords reasonable legal fees.
If you have any queries relating to selling or letting your commercial property please do not hesitate to call 020-8296-1273 for a no obligation chat.