Housing
This is another area where the differences are quite enormous, and again there are good and bad things on each side of the Atlantic - or so we think.
Subjects in this section, which is updated every now and then, are:
Basements
Buying a House
Selling a House
Mailboxes
Basements
The basic difference is that most houses in the US have basements and most in the UK do not.
I’m not sure there is any more to say on this subject. We believe the US approach is by far the best as the extra space created is terrific. On our house hunting we have seen some very clever uses of the basement space. One comment would be that we have seen very few basements with a separate exit, whether by door or window, out of the house. For safety purposes this would be a good idea.
So, if you are moving to the UK, bear in mind that the basement you currently have, and perhaps take for granted, is unlikely to be found in the house you move to.
Apart from the differences implicit in the ‘Selling a House’ section, the big differences when buying a house are the role of the Buyer’s Agent and the offer / contract process.
In the UK there is no such beast as a Buyer’s Agent. There are agencies that, for a fee, will assist you in searching for a house, but the vast majority of buyers do not use them. In the US there is market pressure to use a Buyer’s Agent. Typically that person will represent your best interest in not only the search but through the offer process. For that service a fee of around 3.5% of the purchase price is standard. Usually that 3.5% will come out of the selling realtor’s cut. It is a tricky role to get my head round, especially as the same person can act in a dual role as both selling realtor, with responsibility to the seller, and as a Buyer’s Agent, with responsibility to the buyer. However they describe that, whatever safeguards can be documented on paper, I feel that neither party’s best interests can be fully represented within the dual role situation.
In the US if you want to make an offer on a house you must formalize it, in writing, and provide a deposit along with your offer. That offer is a binding contract if the seller accepts it. Done deal.
In the UK the initial offer is usually done verbally, often through the selling estate agent. Even if the seller accepts the offer that acceptance does not constrain either side - the seller can back out and sell to someone else or the buyer can back out and focus on a different property. At the offer stage there is no done deal. The house would be considered ’sold subject to contract’. Only at a later date, when both parties are happy, are ‘contracts exchanged’. At that point the buyer must place a deposit and the deal is effectively done.
Which process is better? We’re not sure. They are evenly balanced, each having good and bad points depending on individual circumstances for each deal.
In the US you list your house for sale with a realtor or sell it yourself (for sale by owner). In the UK you list your house with an estate agent or sell it yourself. In both countries there are other options, currently used by only a small percentage of sellers, such as selling through an online site. So far, the processes sound similar, but that’s where any similarity ends.
In the US the selling agent will take a commission of around 7% of the sale price. In the UK the estate agent will take a commission of around 1% of the sale price. A similarity in approach but a massive difference of 6% of the sale price. We think the UK wins hands down on this point.
In the US your house will, if sold through an agent, generally appear on a multi-listing service. Essentially, any realtor can show any property listed and claim a cut of the sale should they generate a deal. In the UK the estate agent will zealously guard the right to market and sell your house and will have nothing to do with other estate agents. If your house sells quickly then dealing with one agent has no drawbacks, but if it is hard to sell then perhaps a multi-agent approach will work better. We think this point is tied between the UK and US.
In the US, or so our experience has been, the showing of your house is left to an agent. When a showing is taking place you and your family should not be present. In the UK you may often show the house to prospective buyers yourself and may often be present even when the showing is done by the agent.
There is a massive difference in how you accept offers for your house but we’ve covered that under the ‘Buying a House’ section.
A big difference. So big that I wasn’t taking enough care when I nudged one with the car!
In the UK the post is delivered through your door. Not “to” your door, but through it. Houses have what are called letterboxes, which are essentially a hole in the front of your house. The post person walks up your driveway, delivers your mail through the letterbox, then walks back and onwards to the next house.
In the US a mailbox is essentially a container on a stick, fixed in the ground at the end of the driveway where it meets the road. The post person will drive their truck down the road and put your mail into your mailbox. You need to go to your mailbox, which may mean crossing over to the other side of the road, to collect your mail. Why do you need to cross the road? Well, in many areas, to enable the post service to deliver efficiently, all mailboxes are on the same side of road, irrespective of which side the houses are on.
So, no ‘containers on sticks’ in the UK. On the subject of mail delivery to houses, the UK service is the winner. But the differences don’t end there.
In the US you may place outgoing mail in your mailbox. The post person, while out delivering, will collect that mail. No such process exists in the UK. In the UK you need to take your letter to a public post box (and those exist in the US too). In this area the US service wins without competition.
So, those are the differences. I’m sure both sides can present arguments as to why their method is better, but I bet the UK postal service would love to move to the idea of mailboxes at the roadside - imagine the manpower savings that they could generate.
