1. Look at Your Finances
The first thing to look at if you are considering selling your property is if you can afford to move. Are you still in your existing mortgage term? If you are, you may face early repayment charges or there may be fees involved to port your mortgage to a new property.
If you are looking to move to a more expensive property, you will need to find out how much you can borrow and if you have an adequate deposit for the new property.
There are other costs associated with moving too, such as stamp duty charges, solicitors fees and if you need to hire a moving company.
2. Make Small Home Improvements
If you have any small home improvements you wanted to make, now could be the time to do it. If the improvements will cost a large amount of money or are very time-consuming, it may be worth speaking to an estate agent first for their opinion to see if it is worth the expenditure.
Spend some time tidying up your garden and painting over any scuffs on the wall around your home. If your kitchen is looking tired, even a lick of paint and updating hardware, such as doors and handles, can be a much cheaper option to making the space feel like new again.
3. Have Your Property Valued
You may have an idea of what your home might be worth already, especially if similar homes in your area have recently sold. Speak to a local estate agent about a home valuation and how they can work with you to get the best possible price for your home.
It may be more or less than you anticipated, but this figure does not mean that your home will be guaranteed to sell for that amount of money.
4. Set an Asking Price
Depending on whether you have had one estate agent to value your home or several, ultimately the final decision comes down to you. You may decide to market your property as “offers in excess of” or “offers over”, but this is just a guide and buyers may still offer you less than your asking price.
5. Instruct an Estate Agent
Once you have had your home valued and you are happy with the price that you would like to market your property at, it’s time to instruct an estate agent. The process known as “instructing” involves signing a contract that lays out the terms and conditions of the sale and the estate agent's responsibilities.
6. Clean Up Clutter for Photographs
A clean and tidy home looks far more attractive in photographs than ones that are filled with clutter. Here are our top tips:
- Consider renting storage space for unwanted items
- Declutter the master bedroom and make it a sanctuary
- Ensure that any toiletries or cleaning supplies are put away in a bathroom or kitchen cupboard
- Tidy up piles of letters that tend to accumulate. You won’t want to take these with you when you move, so if you’re thorough now, it’ll make your life easier later!
We always recommend having professional photographs taken, prospective buyers aren’t going to be wowed if photographs of your home are bad quality or gloomy.
7. Time for Viewings
Once your home looks its best, it's time to arrange showings with prospective buyers. You'll need to schedule appointments with agents who represent the buyer (not just anyone who might be interested in looking at the property).
You'll also need an open mind — some buyers may want to make major changes before they buy your home (which could increase your final sale price).
8. Hire a Solicitor
This is one of the most important things you need to do when selling your home. It’s not just about buying and selling the property; it’s also about other legalities involved in the process such as checking the title deeds, searching for any problems with the property and negotiating with the buyer's solicitor.
A good solicitor can also advise you on how much to ask for your house, which area might be more favourable for buyers and whether or not there are any planning issues that could affect potential buyers.
9. Time to Reassess if Property is not Selling
If your property has been on the market for a while and hasn’t sold, it is time to look at why that might be. If you have had plenty of viewings, chat with your estate agent about what feedback prospective buyers were giving and why they decided not to make an offer.
It may be that the property has been valued too high, and by dropping the price slightly then it might encourage more viewings. Or perhaps the photographs need to be changed to make the property seem more appealing.
10. Receive Offers
As soon as offers are made, you will be notified by your chosen estate agent. If you receive multiple offers, your estate agent will look into various buyer situations and advise if there are any factors to take into consideration when evaluating their offer.
Usually, the safest buyers are:
- First-time buyers - they are chain free but usually require a much larger mortgage from the bank to secure.
- Chain-free cash buyers - this could be a buy-to-let investor or someone who has sold their house already and doesn’t need a mortgage.
- Home-movers who have exchanged or sold their house SSTC - (Sold Subject to Contract)
11. Renegotiate or Accept Offers
Many times, buyers will offer under the asking price so this is the time when you’ll decide whether to accept the offer or renegotiate. Ask the advice of your estate agent who will be able to help you decide. Before accepting the offer, consider the following:
- How fair is the offer? Is it close to the valuation or similar to other properties that have recently sold in the area?
- How quickly do you need to sell the property?
- Will you have enough from the sale to move to your next property?
- How long has your property been on the market?
- Do you have any other offers on the property?
- How likely is the buyer to increase their offer?
- What is the market like, are homes struggling to sell?
It can feel like a daunting position to be in, not knowing whether you have made the right choice. Remember to be realistic but also to stick to your guns if you think the offer is too low and you are likely to get a higher amount from the sale.
12. Househunting
Great news! You have accepted an offer on your property, now it’s time to find a property to move to. You may have already had a look at some homes, but you are in the best position to make an offer if your home is SSTC (Sold Subject to Contact) and sellers will take your offer more seriously.
Chat with your estate agent to see what homes are available in your desired area, or if any properties are due to come on the market soon.
13. Help to Keep Things Moving
Keep up with communication throughout the sale of your property to keep things moving quickly and on time. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or if you are worried that you haven’t heard anything for a few weeks.
If you know you will be out of the country or unable to sign anything for certain time periods, communicate this to your estate agent, solicitor and conveyancer.
14. Exchange and Complete
Once you exchange contracts, the house sale becomes legally binding and it is time for the buyer to pay their deposit.
On the day that you complete the transaction, you will be moving out of the property and dropping off the keys with the estate agent. Most homemovers complete the sale of their old property on the same day as their new property, and this saves having to put all of your belongings in storage.
Ready to Sell your Home?
We can help you sell your current home and find you your dream home, just give us a call on 028 9065 3333 or contact us via email. If you’re not ready to sell your home just yet, why not take a look at some of the homes we have for sale at the moment?