The process of selling a house can be time-consuming. Even just bringing that home to market can be a convoluted minefield. Hence, it can pay to have a checklist to go through as you carefully edge your way towards finally having that coveted “FOR SALE” sign put up outside your door.
By treading meticulously through each of the following stages, you might be able to spot obstacles that, left unheeded, could have cost you more time and money than strictly necessary.
Prioritise selling over buying
Before putting a house move in action, it can be wise to closely look at the property market to assess this house move’s viability. However, you shouldn’t start making offers for other houses, as a seller wouldn’t be imbued with confidence if they notice that your own home isn’t yet for sale.
For this reason, before initiating the process of purchasing someone else’s house, you should make sure your home is sold subject to contract, as advised in this article on The Guardian‘s site.
Choose your estate agent carefully
How can you tell which of the estate agents near you are the most successful? The best way is counting the number of their boards on display near the agency’s office. Nonetheless, if most of these signs read “FOR SALE”, this could indicate that sales have been slowed by unjustly high prices.
However, if an agency has a “SOLD” board in the area where you intend to sell, the recently offloaded property may have attracted buyers who have lost out but would pounce on your home.
Settle on one agent or use multiple agents
It’s your decision whether you opt for a sole agency agreement, whereby a single estate agent would exclusively market that property for a term of an agreed length, or a multi-agency agreement.
With the latter, you could instruct multiple agents, to whom no fixed terms would apply. However, you would have the drawback of paying a higher commission rate than with a sole agency option, one big disadvantage of which could be having to long stick with a poorly-chosen agent.
Get your property valued as accurately as possible
You should endeavour to make your property look as nice as possible. A local building firm might be able to help you here. For example, if you have a Yorkshire home with a leaking ceiling, now could be a good time to arrange for roof repairs in Leeds, Sheffield, Rotherham or wherever else the home is.
Once the property’s appearance is at its optimum, get that home accurately valued. Otherwise, the home could sell for a price below the market rate or not at all, warns MoneySavingExpert.com.
Prepare for viewings
Try not to be too awkward with your agency about when you will permit viewings. If your schedule is so tight that showing the property personally is rarely an option, you could hand a set of keys to your estate agent and allow them to show it during your spells of absence from the home.
