The Great Hunt: What are your house-selling tips?

megamezzosoprano

I've sold two properties in London for over the asking price by producing my own 'mini brochure' and handing it to people when they come to view. (Our estate agent was so impressed, he took some too!)

This gave all the information estate agents don't provide, such as the local schools with high OFSTED ratings, the best pubs, restaurants and food shops, entertainment venues and our 'top 5 things about this area'! It also gave our property a 'human' touch, free from estate agent flannel.

Don't assue your buyers live locally, or have done their homework - the more helpful you are, the better. It wasn't anything fancy, home-designed and ink-jet printed on qood quality photo paper for clarity. Every buyer took one, and in these days of electronic listings, nothing beats a good old fashioned sheet of paper in the hand when comparing properties in the pub afterwards.

Just remember to add your estate agent's telephone number in large letters at the bottom!

chog24

My pro tip for selling your house? DON'T use an agent! Stick up a Private Sale notice in front of your house (anyone who wants to live in your road will be visiting the area frequently, if only for other viewings arranged by Agents) and put an ad on a suitable internet based search engine (Gumtree's a good one).

By all means get agents in to tell you what you should charge for the place, but they're gonna take thousands of pounds of YOUR profit for doing naff all. No, sorry, not "naff all", they'll do a great job of putting in communication barriers between you and your buyers, which will frustrate your buyer, possibly to the point of alienating them.

We bought our house (in April this year) by leafleting the area where we wanted to live, having spent 2 years being consistently ignored or taken advantage of by Estate Agents (despite being in an excellent position to move quickly, having mortgages ready to go and so on). We already had a good surveyor on hand, went through London and Country for our mortgages and knew a good lawyer, so there was absolutely nothing that an agent could have done for us that we couldn't do for ourselves. Better still, the negotiation was as smooth as you like. None of this responding to your initial offer with "We've had another offer on that property. What's your best and final offer?" and no implied-but-not-actually-stated-outright pressure to use their solicitor and their mortgage advisor.

I'm never, ever selling via an agent again and I'll be reluctant to buy that way if I don't absolutely have to.

macloud

OTOH, beware of accepting an estate agent's 'valuation'. Remember they are in the business to make money (from you), as quickly as possible and to beat any rival estate agent to make the sale. They can therefore be tempted to value LOW for a quick sale. It will not worry them that they price a property at £10,000 below the going rate, to encourage a quick sale, but it sure would you !


This is the voice of experience, BTW. You have been warned !

Gra76

We sold our previous house almost exactly a year ago.

My tips would be as follows:

Declutter the entire house - we decluttered every room and left only 'essentials' in each room plus a few small items that added to the ambience of the property.

Get your kids out of the house during a viewing - fortunately our mother-in-law was happy to look after them every time we had a viewing.

Clean inside AND outside - Make sure your windows are clean and that the driveway isn't full of weeds. I powerwashed the driveway regularly when we were selling to keep it looking nice.

Be prepared to spend some money to make it more desirable - We redecorated the whole house from top to bottom. We renovated the property from a tired looking house that hadn't seen anything new in it since it was built to a modern looking house with lovely finishes everywhere you looked. We were one of 4 houses in our small cul-de-sac that were selling all at the same time. Ours was the most expensive but still sold fairly quickly, the other 3 are still for sale a year later. They all look 'tired' compared to ours and their prices have dropped and dropped again.

Walk through your house with your 'potential buyer' head on and ask yourself "Would you be happy to live here". If the answer is anything other than an instant "Yes" then you might want to do something about it.

Get more than one EA round to value your house - We had 4 round. Two of which suggested prices so low they were laughable ("But you'd sell it instantly" was the response both of them gave when asked why they valued it so low), one so high I couldn't imagine it selling in a million years and one that was what I was expecting (having researched previously sold prices in the cul-de-sac).

Plan well ahead - There's plenty of paperwork to do when selling a house, don't ignore any of it when it comes through. Get it completed and send it back. Also start getting quotes for removals as soon as you've accepted an offer. Again, ask a few removal companies for quotes as they differ vastly we found.

Be friendly with your potential buyers. We were put off more than one house as buyers simply by the obnoxious people who lived there. The house might be nice but if the people are rude and unfriendly when you go for a viewing what will they be like when it comes to the nitty-gritty of selling the house?

Be patient! The whole process takes time. Don't expect to agree a sale and it all be done by the weekend. Ours took around 8-9 weeks to exchange and I'm led to believe that was pretty quick as most exchanges go...

BigAde

Blue22 wrote: »

I agree with this and it worked for me. I paid the EA a massive £7K but I ended up with £53K more than expected. The legalities were far from straight forward in my case but with the promise of such a large fee, the EA was chasing everyone and jumping through hoops on a daily basis in order to see the sale to completion.

I tried this approach with EAs 10 years ago, but none of them were interested at the time. Sold privately in the end so didn't end up paying them a penny . Logically this tiered commission structure is the best approach for the seller - get the EA work for you to get the best price. Otherwise there's little incentive for the EA to get the best price - he'll likely undervalue your home for a quick sale.

originalkat

I am following this site with interest as I have a property to put up for sale in a few weeks. I am lucky in that mine is a flat I bought to 'do up' and sell on and it has been gutted, everything is brand new, in some parts including the joists. Hopefully there is little to find fault with although I am sure someone will.

I would agree with everything that has been said about cleaning and de-cluttering, I cannot believe some of the photos I see on property websites, un-made beds, overflowing rubbish bins and dirty cluttered bathrooms, grass three feet high in the garden, what are they thinking!!

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but I would add having a folder for prospective purchasers with guarantees and installation dates for appliances, central heating etc. Include gas, water, sewerage, council tax and electricity bills (remove personal details first ) plus anything else that you would want to know if you were moving in.

One comment I would make is that considering the extortionate fees charged by estate agents it is well worth trying to sell privately if you have a standard property. However there are some circumstances in which it might be better to use an agent. With my flat for example I own the freehold of my own flat and also the freehold of the other flat in the building which is an unusual situation and there is the possibility that some buyers might be put off if they don't understand how that works. Their legal adviser can reassure them that it is a benefit but there is a chance that they might be put off initially and not even view it.

I would probably try a private sale but then use an agent if I am not successful after 4 weeks, carrying out plenty of research and playing them off against one another to get the best deal.

Good luck to anyone buying or selling a property.

rodroc

Unitoons wrote: »

Sold our house in March - on the market for 24hrs and sold for full asking price.
My top tips are:
De-clutter and tidy - a house full of "things" looks small and also makes it hard for the viewer to imagine their items in the space.
Clean, clean, clean - make sure the house is spotless - all the time! Difficult to do but vital for a sale! Air fresheners help too.
Remove pets and children - no-one needs a distraction (pleasant or otherwise depending on your view) - you need the viewer to focus on your house.
Fix minor cosmetic issues - I had some coving which was falling off and a few minor cracks. I made sure these were all filled and fixed so people wouldn't spot them and think they hid a bigger issue.
Tidy the front garden - it is true what they say about first impressions!
Add some finishing touches - I put out fresh flowers and fruit in some of the rooms. I also dressed my dining table for dinner.

:T:T:T

These really are some useful tips for selling a home. I agree with all of them, specially the ones about cleaning and not having your kids or pets around. This really does influenceon the buyer's mind.

Regards
Rod

Red_sky

BigAde wrote: »

You know that big shiny BMW they turn up in?

Yes, same with my dentist, big shiney Porches and Ferraris parked out the front of their dental practice and I used to wonder why I always got charged a huge amount every time I went to visit my dentist even when I only had minor work done. Problem is it's pointless trying to use a different dentist because they all charge the same huge amounts unless you're lucky enough to find an NHS dentist. Apologies for diversifying.