Selling Your House
Selling your house may seem like a daunting prospect but it is actually a relatively easy process - especially if you take on the task in an organised way. Let’s take a look at what you need to know about selling a house in the UK.
Step One: Decide that you are selling
This may seem like an obvious point but you do need to be fairly ready to sell before you can make a start! A lot of people decide to sell and than back out down the line because they just aren’t ready. So, think about why you want to sell and how quickly you need to move.
Step Two: Get your house ready
Few of us live in a perfectly tidy house that we can put on the market immediately. So, take a long hard look at your home and work out what needs to be done to make it sell. You could, for example, get rid of clutter, tidy up your paintwork or even put some stuff in storage to clear space. The better your house looks, the quicker it will sell (and the more money you’ll get for it!).
Step Three: Decide how you will sell
You have three main choices here - you can sell your house privately, sell it through an estate agent or sell it via auction. Weigh up whether the money you’ll save by selling it privately is worth it or whether you’d rather pay fees and have estate agents/auctioneers work to market your property. If you decide to work with estate agents/auctioneers then talk to local offices and decide whether you will work with one or more agencies.
Step Four: Have your house valued
At this stage you should also have your house valued by an estate agent (even if you are selling it privately). This will make sure that you get a fair market price for the property.
Step Five: Put together your Home Information Pack
Any property put up for sale since December 2007 has to have a Home Information Pack. You can put this together yourself or have an estate agent, solicitor or other specialist do it for you. This pack contains various bit of information that helps buyers out such as sale statements, evidence of title, an Energy Performance Certificate and the results of searches.
Step Six: Put your house on the market
If you are selling your house yourself then you will need to decide how you will advertise it to potential buyers - you could, for example, use an online service or advertise it in a local paper. If you have chosen an estate agent then they will take care of the marketing as will an auctioneer who will fix an auction date for you and market the property. You are now ready to have buyers look round your home and (hopefully!) to take offers on board and choose a suitable buyer.
Step Seven: Hire a solicitor
Most people use a solicitor or a conveyancer to sort out the legal aspects of selling a house in the UK. Your solicitor or conveyancer will work with you to manage the selling process. So, they will liaise with the buyer’s representative during the sale of the house taking you through to the exchange process where you exchange contracts and the completion process where you hand over the keys to your home and get the money!
Another approach is to sell your house to a company like National Homebuyers who make a guaranteed cash offer to purchase, with no need for public viewings or HIPS packs in place.