The past 15-17 months has been an interesting time in the Walsall property market without question. I can only speak for myself but many of my fellow professionals, clients and associates will attest to the feeling of being on a rollercoaster ride.

With 213,120 UK house buyers and 58,580 UK tenants moving home in September, the time has been manic for many people. This means that someWalsall homeownersare asking if they should be staying put? Or, should they wait for the best home to come onto the market before putting their home up for sale or find a buyer but be unable to find a property -it's all rather confusing.

Then we have someWalsall landlordswho are asking themselves if they should buy another property investment and some even wondering if they should sell and cash in on the boom.

Finally, with 95% mortgages back, first-time buyers are asking if they should look to take the plunge and buy their first home or wait.

In this article, I hope I can help you with the decisions you might want to make and to navigate this unusual post lockdown housing market. Let me start with some stats to show you what is happening at the moment in Walsall.

The average time it takes to sell a Walsall property in this housing market is 21 days.

Local examples are Tame Bridge at 21 days, Pleck at 28 days, Reedswood at 17 days and Leamore at 18 days.

Look back five years, it took 49 days on average to sell a Walsall home - the local property market is now certainly 'cooking on gas'!

The property market has certainly solidified a little over the last few weeks. The Stamp Duty holiday rush has seen its run and the pent-up post-Brexit and more importantly post-lockdown demand has receded and although I am still observing competing offers on most Walsall properties, I can certainly get a feeling of a small shift in the balance-of-power between the seller and buyer at this time.

Many people who had put their house hunting on hold as they went on their first holiday since 2019, be that glamping in Cornwall, going on a 'staycation' or opting to go abroad with all the potential issues that can entail!

That means between now and mid-December, depending on what type of property you are looking for, many buyers could well discover that there are fewer competitors for their next home than there might be.

The important thing is not to wait for the property to hit the portals (i.e. Rightmove, Zoopla, Boomin, On The Market etc). Yet research shows, nearly 5 out of 6 people who bought their home were not on the agents mailing list before they viewed the home they eventually bought. That's OK in a normal property market as you can wait until it hits Rightmove or Zoopla, yet these are unprecedented times and if you are not on an agent's mailing list - you will miss out on properties.

If you don't put yourself on the agent's mailing lists, you will end up losing out on the property of your dreams.

So, the question is should you put your Walsall home on the market first or wait for the right property to come along?

Roll the clock back a few years and it was standard practice for people to wait for their dream home to come onto the market, then put theirs on and hope that it would sell in time. This housing market is different and only those who are in a position to proceed - cash buyers or those sold subject to contract - will be considered as serious buyers.

Yet, nobody wants to be homeless if they do sell...

Estate agents are returning back to their old skills from the 1980s and 1990s by chain building. By starting at the bottom of the chain of the smaller house and building up a chain, waiting for everybody to find their next homes, nobody needs to be made homeless.

This is not an issue because the complete sales process is taking on average between 20 and 25 weeks and as long as everybody communicates with each other and everyone knows where they are in the process, then normally things go through, albeit slower. Can you believe it - estate agents really are earning their money with this!

So what Walsall homes are selling the fastest?

Terraced and Town Houses are selling in 17 days

Semi-Detached Houses are selling in 15 days

Detached Houses are selling in 27 days

Apartments are selling in 71 days

So, there you have it. The lessons I hope you have now learnt from this are to put yourself on agent's mailing lists, talk to agents about your requirements so you get the heads up first when a property is coming on to the market (don't just do everything over a computer screen) and once you have found a property, be a little bit more patient with how long it takes to build a chain and then get the property through to an exchange and completion so you get the keys to your forever home.

Whether you are a Walsall homeowner, Walsall landlord or first-time buyer and would like some advice and opinion on your circumstances in the current Walsall property market, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Phone: 01922 637672

Email: info@ashmorelettings.co.uk

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