Posts Tagged ‘Selling Your Home’

Follow the rules, use common-sense and take professional advice and you will never look back again. Here are some guidance techniques to help you survive and perhaps prosper.

1. Let us start with wanting to place your own home on the market. Go to successful local Agents first (try to find testimonials as to each Agents good record and reputation – but don’t believe everything you read on their websites).
2. At the same time consider asking for loan finance and go to at least two sources for provisional advice – perhaps even apply for a Loan Certificate in advance of selling your home so the loan finance deal can be begun asap (remember that the loan valuation is not a survey).
3. When you find a home to buy make your offer subject to loan finance/verification, subject to contract and subject to private survey.

Q1 – Which Estate Agent?

Ans 1 – Choose three local Agents (try to match your idea of who will buy your home to which Agent might most appeal to that profile of Agent: EG: if you think that a family will buy your home from your nearest Town, perhaps a family wishing to get out “of the smoke” then it might be important to choose an Agent who has a satellite Office in that Town).

Get each budding Estate Agent to commit to paper what they think they could get for your home, how soon and how they intend to market it (see below). Look very hard at their terms of business.

Q2 – Marketing Plan?

Ans 2 – Get a written commitment from the Agent about when they are going to advertise your home, how and in what papers and magazines? Perhaps even get them to understand and agree a time limited sole rights to sell your home but after that period they be dismissed and no costs or charges will be paid unless you have agreed an offer that came via their agency services. A good Agent would agree to this whereas a dodgy Agent may not. This tactic may also get the Agent to actually tell you what they really think you might achieve – the actual value rather than what they believe you want to hear.

The Agent must produce full Property Details: this must mean several colour photographs, a room layout plan, the Energy Performance Certificate and all usually provided location, features, services, dimensions etc.. for room listing data. We would also suggest that the details provide a simple listing of all guarantees and planning documents that are in your possession and are valid (why not tell potential buyers something of value to help sell the house? Why not tell potential buyers where they can safely park their cars when viewing?).

Q3 – Instructing your Estate Agent.

Ans 3 – No sell, no fee is the way to proceed. Also never give sole selling rights – at best give Agents a clear run at selling your home but retain the right, at any time frame and at no cost/penalty to you, to instruct other Agents (but do not do so yet). Also make it very clear that should somebody they introduce to you, who visits your home but does not bid and then bids AFTER you have dismissed that Agent will mean the old Agent gets no commission (you will need to specifically agree this – in writing).

Q4 – Which Solicitor?

Ans 4 – This very much depends on the type and age of your home but I am not in favour of these massive Call-Centre type regional offices, especially those that are linked to loan companies or Banks.  I am also a believer in keeping this decision out of the ambit of the estate agent as just too many potential conflicts of interest can otherwise cut in to your potential detriment. Buy and sell via an Agent but that is all – do not buy any extras.

Call Centres are fine if you have a simple home, with a registered title, nothing unusual or altered and located in an area without any flooding, coal-mining, contamination, radon gas, mundic or other such issue. However, for the most part a local, experienced but young Practice is to be preferred. A Practice that is not too busy, does its homework long before exchange of contracts is due and is well connected with local, independent Surveyors. A Practice that goes on even if the lead staff member is ill or on holiday.

Q5 – Found a home to buy? When should you instruct the loan Valuer and your private surveyor?

Ans 5 – Arrange finance first: get your offer in writing/verified after the Valuer has visited. Clear the finance with your solicitor and then ask when the solicitor thinks is the right time for the private survey. Never instruct the loan source (your mortgage Valuer) to do a simultaneous private survey with your loan valuation.

In my view the private survey can wait until the chain is complete and all loan valuations have been completed and loan offers verified by each parties legal team: by this route you are limiting the chances of survey expenses becoming abortive because a chain has fallen through.

Q6 – What type of survey should you have?

Ans 6 – This is a difficult question as it boils down to your personal bias, your budget, the type and age of home you are buying, the characteristics of the location of the home, how much information you need, what services you may wish to link to that inspection, etc…..

For a mainstream, fairly modern, good condition home of traditional construction and in a non-clay or non-high-risk position a standard Homebuyer Report is fine (the most popular form of survey in the UK).

However, it always makes sense to actually speak to a surveyor – not a solicitor, not an estate agent, not a builder, not your neighbour, not your dad, not a secretary of a surveyor. Call an actual surveyor and get him or her to recommend a survey product and want they will charge you for it. A real professional surveyor will ask you many questions before a survey is suggested to you. Don’t think they are being officious and nosy – they are trying to focus your attention on the right issues and to give you value for money.

Q7 – Can you use your private survey to re-negotiate the purchase price on your next home?

Ans 7 – Yes, you can. Once you have your private survey do not be frightened to call the surveyor to discuss the report and how you should proceed. Once you have had that discussion immediately call your solicitor and bounce the surveyors thoughts off your legal team leader. This will give you the confidence needed to get stuck in and start a process that might just save you a lot of money (this is the point where you begin to understand the benefit of a good solicitor and surveyor – they can save you thousands of pounds whereas a Call-Centre probably will not).

The rest is in the lap-of-the-gods. Good Luck.

Stuart Parrett at PROinspect Consultancy provides free advice via his website at www.proinspect.co.uk -alternatively initial calls and product quotations are also free (078 3636 3040).

What have you got to lose? A lot if you get your team choices wrong!

PROinspect – surveying to protect you and your investments.

The obvious first:-

• Sell it for well below market value. There you are, done, sold, disposed of, out of the way, gone.
• Instruct an Estate Agent, Broker, place it on the internet, etc….
• Stick a For Sale board up outside.

However, if like the rest of us, you want to get a realistic price for your home and are prepared to get the maximum “net realisation price (*nrp)” then read further. * This is the highest amount of money in your pocket after all expenses and costs have been paid.

It costs good money to sell your home whether privately or not. If you don’t employ a traditional Agent you still have the cost of your legal team and the usual expenses and disbursements.

The real measure of effectiveness for selling your home can be related to just a few factors:-

1. Can I sell it within a given time frame?
2. Can I get the highest net realisation price?
3. Can I sell it with the minimum hassle to me?
4. Can I sell it without breaking the law, any regulations and without being fined?

If the answer to the above factors are all “yes” then whatever method you have described should get your vote: go for it. But…….

Many “Agents” (in the global sense of the word, not just Estate Agents) will tell you their method guarantees you the best price for the least cost etc…. Who can you believe?

At the end of the day, take advice from a traditional Estate Agent (or several) but also get advice from other sources. After this process you can analysis the results and then make a reasoned decision on how you wish to proceed. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and never sign anything.

I am not going to say which is best because beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I don’t know your personal circumstances. If speed is everything then sell to a Dealer/Agent at no cost to yourself (but you will not get the best price).

What I can say is this – if you can sell by a method that allows potential buyers to view your home first, then you need to get busy because you need to get your home fit-for-selling.

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Make sure your home is advertised

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This starts with erecting a board outside your home.

This starts with telling your neighbours and everybody else that your home is a bargain and you wish to move it quickly.

Consider a Garage-Sale to get footfalls across your front door.

Listen to your Agents advise about when they should advertise it, and why.

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Knock off the rough edges of your Home

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You know this one: you have heard it time and again.

Clean the house. De-clutter it. Get flowers or coffee smells circulating around your home. Park your cars down the road so visitors have easy parking. Restrain your pets (and children?). Make sure no mould or condensation can be seen. Clean the bathroom and kitchen in particular and consider cleaning all floor coverings.

If you had enough lead-in-time, redecorate the worst rooms and make sure you have no bold colours. Clean out the gutters and drains. Get the garden looking nice and tidy. Clean all windows.
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Invite offers above a specified Guide Price
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This is not simple advice. Listen to what your Agents advice and take that advice. In a general sense, in a slow market, attracting potential purchasers is vital in order the encourage offers. To do this you need to get people across the threshold. To do this can mean keeping the price realistic – in which case an argument exists for stating “offers in excess of £XXX,000” or “Guide Price £XXX,000”. Don’t forget, you don’t have to accept any offers at all.
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Fixtures and fittings
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Where you will offer your home at a Guide Price (see above) PROinspect also advise you make use of your Fixtures and Fittings. Make a list (as instructed by your Solicitors) but consider making all non-essential-items “subject to negotations” – in other words, depending on the offer you will give then away or make the buy pay for them. If you need to get a buyer to agree to an unusual completion date perhaps giving away your Fixtures and Fittings is a small price to pay – you decide.

Thinking of Selling? I invite you to contact me (use the CONTACT FORM above) if you live in southern England as I could help you choose an Agent, value your home, point you in the right direction. Stuart Parrett +44 (0)1489 896 174.

When it comes to selling your home privately you stand to gain a lot of money by way of saved costs. But, just how easy is it?

A sell (selling by “private treaty”) is, on the one hand, perfectly feasible if:-

1. you simply sell to a relative or to your neighbour without any advertising or marketing. Your have not “marketed your home” and the Law and how House selling regulations are interpreted says this is a private transaction. It could easily be considered a “marketed sale” if you depart from strict guidelines – do you know all the in’s and out’s of such Regulations?
   
2. If it is a genuine private sell without marketing then you would not need a Home Information Pack (the HIP with Energy Performance Certificate – the EPC).
3. and you avoid all the hassle of advertising and have people trample through your private space – your home – your pride and joy.
4. You also avoid Estate Agents with sharp suits and smooth tongues. What price for this?
   

On the other hand:-

1. Are you sure you are not under-selling your home?
2. Have you considered the possible benefit to value if you first did certain repairs? Are you sure you know who to ask for this advice? Spend £500 on XXXX and you might ask for twice as much as added to the house value!
3. Do you know how to vet your buyers to ensure they are serious and aren’t going to cause problems “later”.
4. Are you sure you have infringed the law and property regulations and may get a Penalty Notice served on you at any moment?

Balancing these competing forces will tell you which way to go but do think seriously about it.

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Selling your house privately? What are you saving?

Save 1.5% commission = £1,500 plus vat (per £100,000 of house value)

Save your HIP cost = £400 with partial vat

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The only problem you have is the unknown…….

If you are truly knowledgeable then you are saving real money and the consequences, if all goes wrong, will be minor.

If you are not fully knowledgeable and may need help if the going gets tough then you may just regret attempting to penny-pinch.

Perhaps getting the Estate Agents in to give “initial free advice” (without telling you may go private) is not such a bad thing?

Perhaps getting PROinspect in to talk about value and disrepairs, and the effect of doing repairs – effect on value – also isn’t so silly?

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A third Way?

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Nowadays nothing is new. Starting to string up are PROPERTY BROKERS: often these are internet based, but not always.

Website services exists for simply listing your home are available for sales – this means you will need the good old HIP but the fee for this limited brokerage service will be much smaller than a full Estate Agents commission.

Certain Brokers mix internet service with limited marketing and other actions. Again these will save you a large sum.

The secret here is to correctly match what your home needs to dispose of it to those services that are available to you. Why not invite a fee quotation from a (1) traditional Estate Agent, a (2) “partial” Agent/Broker and (3) a full internet Broker service whereby no visits to your home are made at all (sometimes with the exception of a professional Photographer)? You could then assess the value that each brings to the table and match that with what you believe your home needs to get it sold.

For example – if your home is modern and on a large estate (is similar to most other homes and many have sold recently or are on the market) then provided it is in reasonable order then you may not need the full services offered by a traditional Estate Agent.

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A final two thoughts – (1) what about home swaps? Google house-swaps and see. PROinspect would immediately mention that if you go down this route then a private survey would be essential for self-protection purposes: (2) what about selling quickly to an Investor? Various organisations will buy your home “upon request” where an offer can be provided without a full viewing: the latter may be required as you are seeking to avoid an imminent repossession or you simply need the equity in your home quickly – no fees but perhaps you will not get full market value (in some cases nothing even ner to full value). Google sites like National Home Buyers to see how such schemes may work for you.

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A Footnote — I have recently been involved with Estate Agents in the disposal of my Parents home closeby. A long chain developed but we priced the house to sell and found a home to buy quickly. When chain problems cut in, and they often do, our own Agent acted with great authority and rapidity and circumvented several problems before they got out of hand. I have been very impressed with the professionalism shown (and suspect some Agents would not have been so helpful). We have not yet exchanged but are confident we will.

I must state that my Parents just could not cope with self-selling their own home and needed full Agency services: even though I could sell my own home I would normally request full Agency services because I am a busy person and just could not find the time to do all that a modern Agent has to. This is not a choice but a necessity.