House for sale: part exchange a pleasure

House for sale: part exchange a pleasure

'After two failed attempts to sell our first home we were disappointed. Having never been through the process before, we found it very stressful,' says Zahir Hussein. 'But a part-exchange deal worked really well. It meant we could plan our move more effectively. The whole process was smooth and straightforward.'

With his wife Salima and son Aadil, Zahir moved to a new house built by Linden Homes in Farnham in February after the sale problems delayed their original plans. They are some of the tens of thousands of buyers who in recent years have opted for part exchange - that is, trading in your old home to the seller of your new home in part payment.

'PX', as it is known in the property trade, allows greater financial and timescale certainty for sellers, especially in a dipping market like today's, where homes are taking an average of nine weeks just to find a buyer plus months more for paperwork to be finalised.

Developers are the biggest promoters of PX facilities, mostly to help shift homes priced between £200,000 and £400,000. They believe it tempts buyers into moving more rapidly, because in theory it can avoid delays incurred by registering with estate agents, arranging viewings for prospective buyers, and negotiating over offers. But while it can clearly be helpful for sellers like the Husseins, there is a hitch - those opting for PX must accept less than the market value for their old home in return for the certainty of being.....continued below

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able to get it off their hands. So the question is: how do you make sure you're not being ripped off?

A lot of slickly worded vagueness surrounds property PX, whether it is done through a housebuilder to allow you to buy one of its new homes, or whether you involve a third-party PX firm to take your property off your hands, allowing you the freedom to act as a cash buyer of your new home.

For example, a spokeswoman for Barratt Homes - which has PX'd no fewer than 35,000 properties since 1971 - says that a valuation is undertaken and then Barratt 'makes a fair offer on the purchaser's home' - without any explanation of how a valuer is chosen or whether the offer will be the same as, or less than, the valuation figure.

Bellway, another builder, is equally unclear. 'Three independent estate agents carry out valuations of the customer's home. A price is then agreed,' it says, without spelling out whether the price is the average of the three valuations, the 'middle' valuation, or something completely different.

So what tips do the experts have on how you should approach a PX deal? John Parker of PXS, one of Britain's largest part exchange consultancies, offers the following advice.

·Choose a reputable firmIf you buy a new-build home and want a part exchange deal, you have to accept the PX firm that is working in alliance with the house builder. If it's a reputable builder, it should be a reputable exchange company. 'But if you go it alone and pick your own company, select one that is national and does not hassle you too much when you make initial inquiries,' says Parker. 'Hassling is unprofessional.'