Most people when selling their house will rush out to the nearest estate agent to try and get their home straight on the market, but also straight into the stress of what it means to deal with an outside source controlling the sale.
Selling your own home, however, can be less stressful and because you are in control, the sale can go at your own pace and patience can be reserved.
The process isn’t entirely complex like most will think it is and can be regulated with relative ease, all you need to know are the steps that need taking. The most challenging aspect is when it comes to dealing with the legal side of the sale, but that can be easily dealt with thanks to the expertise of licensed conveyancers.
There are many reasons why you’d want to do the sale yourself, with the main benefit being that it is much cheaper to do and the thousands you’d save in not having to hand over commission of the sale to estate agents can be spent on doing up your next house.
The first step in selling any house is getting some advertising done. This is another area where you can save money because it is often cheap to pop your house and its details on numerous internet sites that promote houses for sale. Some of these can actually be free (look at sites such as Gumtree.com and Movingsoon.co.uk ) and it can also pay to place some ads in local shops and supermarkets as extra promotion.
Right, now your house is in the public domain, you should start to receive some interest from potential buyers and this is where it starts to get interesting. You have to make sure that you can manage your time efficiently when it gets to the point of accepting people to come over and view the house. Don’t get to the stage where you feel you have to rush people around because of other commitments, interested parties probably won’t appreciate that.
Security could be an issue here if you feel uneasy about letting strangers into your house and it might help to have a friend with you so you feel more secure. It’s also important to make sure your house is prepared to be viewed, so make it tidy and presentable.
Hopefully, if everything goes to plan, you should begin to get some offers on the house and you have to put your game face on because there will be some who think they can be cheeky and start throwing in offers miles below your asking price. Get ready for a bit of negotiation.
There are some tips to be given on negotiating, with the main one being not to be too hasty when haggling with a buyer and not to come across as desperate. When confronted with two or more offers, it can be great to use this to your advantage and use them to get the offers as high as possible as they compete against each other.
Make sure you’ve got a minimum price you’re willing to accept, one that you won’t go lower than and this will often be a price lower than your asking price.
Don’t be rushed into accepting an offer and don’t immediately think the highest bid is the best; it can pay to evaluate a buyer’s situation and how easily they can move forward with the sale.
So let’s say you’ve shuck hands on a deal and you’re ready for some legal intervention, now is the time to get yourself a professional conveyancer who will ensure the deal goes through smoothly and legally.
The conveyancer will ensure both parties are eligible for the sale to go through and that the paperwork is completely up to scratch. Once this is all done (plus a few other technical bits) and the papers have been signed (and you’ve found a new place to live of course), you’re set to go and name a completion date.
About the author: Sam Bisby writes for Jackson Barrett and Gass Commercial Conveyancing and Residential Conveyancing who are based in Wilmslow, East Cheshire.
