House Selling - Money Saving Tips

mostyn's_minders

Hello,

We are looking to sell our house, which is our only residence, but have been renting it out for the last 18 months, and have not lived there for 2 years. We are worried that we may be clobbered for 40% Capital Gains Tax on the equity in the property, when we sell.

Can anyone gives us any advice on the rules for avoiding CGT?

dilwyn_roberts

I've seen an internet conveyancing firm that charges £195 flat fee for selling and £195 for buying. Are these internet firms reliable? They do seem very cheap compared with normal solicitors. Also I've just put my house on the market with an estate agent and have accepted an offer within 2 days - the problem is we hadn't received the contract details and therefore have yet to sign anything with the agent and have just found out that their charges are 1.75%. I know I should have checked the fees before agreeing to let the agent market the property but didn't expect things to move so quickly. Any suggestions - do I still have haggling powers as I haven't signed the contract yet.

ecclesto

Thanks for that. I have tried putting a private for sale board outside my house but haven't had much luck! Going with Bright sale estate agent on net for.5% fee and this includes solicitors fees. They are a new firm but have you any ideas?

goodlife1970

Hi there,first time poster,in fact Ive just registered to join in this thread! Heres my story:we had decided to sell our house and having never sold a house before we went through the usual channels and after comparing three Estate Agents chose what seemed like the best service and marketed our property with them.After the second sale with them fell through,on the day of exchange no less,I decided that we were being treated badly by the Agents and told them that we no longer wanted them to market our property,we had no lock in (or prehaps we had passed it?) and I just had to inform them in writing.I put a nicely worded advert in the local papers Propery Section (cost £80) and after a frenzy of veiwings,on the second day,I sold the house! Not only that I had the best offer Id ever had from either of the two fallen through sales and I didnt have to pay Agents fees,so that made it better still! I then contacted the solicitor of the previous buyer and as the searches had already been done and were still in date,I purchased these from the solicitor,saving the new buyers time and money (ok so it cost £300 but it cut down the total sale time and as the buyers didnt have to pay to have them done it was a goodwill gesture on our behalf AND after all they had given us our best offer!) Then it was just a matter of exchanging solicitors details,we actually moved a week later! I would recommend that before signing up to an Estate Agent that you at least TRY to sell the house yourself,if it doesnt sell then by all means try an agent but at least give it a go first,it saved us £1100 in fees! Thanks for listening!

tartantabby

Selling your house privately will definately save you money. Local newspaper advertising can be very effective. Even cheaper still..one of the house selling websites like Houseladder or House with LOTS of traffic. A For Sale Board should help... For more suggestions, tips etc. try http://www.sell-your-house-quick-help.com/ or a google / yahoo search.

The key is to get the pricing right for the local market. Your best bet is NOT to rely on estate agents valuations - these are in fact just 'asking price' guides. As people have said before here..it pays to do your own homework.

You will also get best results combining different approaches eg local newspaper advertising and website advertising..

Al_saver

Hi. I'm a first time poster and new to this.

Found site which I thought would be useful called house network. They offer virtual estate agent for less than £500. However you must carefully consider whether you wish to use them or not otherwise you could find yourself £200 out of pocket.

I called them to arrange a viewing (I used their landline 01781 no rather than the published 0870), but this will cost £199 plus vat and is actually called a marketing fee where they'll do a visit and photograph your place to go on rightmove. However, if you cancel this and decide not to sell youstill could be liable for the £199 + vat upfront fee. I got the following from their Manager..

"Whilst it is unfortunate that you have decided not to use us, I’m afraid we will not be able offer you a refund as we do require 48 hours notice under our standard terms and conditions in order to cancel any appointment.

Our agents are regularly asked to travel substantial distances in order to conduct our home visits for us and as such one would have been appointed to travel down to you today. We ask for 48 hours notice so as we are able to arrange for the guys to conduct another visit elsewhere.

I am able to keep your details on record should you ever wish to use us in the future however."

I was not made aware of this "standard term and condition" when I signed up, and since they arranged for the viewing around 48-hours in advance, it was a bit difficult to give them 48-hours notice!:mad:

That said, it's still a substantial saving in fees vs trad estate agent (cheapest quote 1% + vat), and they handle everything up to completion when you pay a further £199 + vat. The downside is they don't actually value your house for you, you have to show potential vendors around, and they don't agressively market your property locally (through papers or via real buyers who are already on estate agents mailing / phone round lists)

I could still get them to come around to take some photos. At least I can have some nice picture of my house for my £200!

Frustratingly, rather than the moan I wished to make this appears to be rather an ad for the agent!

I'd best just say - BEWARE OF WHAT YOU SIGN UP FOR ONLINE. BE CERTAIN YOU ARE HAPPY TO PART WITH MONEY YOU MAY NEVER SEE AGAIN.

PS: They marketing gimmick is "Let a Monkey sell your property for less than £500." I should have seen this coming!

jeru545

Sorry to hear about your troubles Al_saver.

I am currently selling my house and am wary of using these paid services. They are not all clear and have varying terms of conditions.

If you do want to try selling online I would suggest trying the following free sites first as I am:

http://uk.freeads.net/place_advert.php?src=col-nav-tl
http://www.vivastreet.co.uk/post
http://www.zeebo.co.uk/signup (allow videos too)
https://post.craigslist.org/ldn

Good luck!

chivers1977

On the flipside, me and at least one other MSEr have sold within a week of the pictures going online with Housenetwork saving £2-3 thousand between us in EA fees. As our local agents have never shown us around properties, preferring to get the vendor to do the viewings, I would never use them again. My parents are selling their property in April and will be using Housenetwork following my success! The pictures on their site really are great and you can do your own "non estate agent" blurb.

Al_saver

Cheers Chivers. Sounds like good results. Since I've already paid the money and my best deal with a local agent so far is 1% I may as well give them a go. (And now I've had a weekend to calm down a bit.)

A

hobbesandco

When commission is referred to as a percentage in previous posts, do the fees already include VAT or is it excluded?