Typically it takes between 4 and 6 months to sell a property in the UK (that is from putting the property on the market to receiving the cash). As such property is considered to be a fairly low liquidity asset.

There are however property owners who have a desire or need to liquidate their properties considerably faster than that. Property traders help these people that need a quick house sale by arranging to buy their property fast! Sometimes in a little as a few days.

Typically people that need to sell fast are in one of the following positions:

• Unable to sell through an estate agent.
• Moving for a job.
• Broken chain and they don’t want to loose the property the are buying.
• To repay debts.
• To stop a repossession of their home.
• Urgent requirement for the capital (perhaps to fund their business).
• Other reasons.

A property trader will provide a quick way to liquidate the asset. The trader in turn will then sell on the property in a traditional manner for the open market value (OMV), which means that for the property trader to make a profit he will have to purchase the property below market value (BMV).

Typically a property trader will expect to pay between 15 and 25% below the market value for a property. Which will leave them between 5 and 15% profit after selling the property on - typically it costs the trader around 10% of the property value to buy, hold and sell the property.

A property trader can maximise their profit by minimising the time that a property is on their books, ideally never actually owning the property having sold it on immediately to an investor or developer that they have a relationship with.

This post is part of my property business opportunities series.

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