House Selling - Money Saving Tips

borders

Quick question that I hope someone will be able to answer.

If I bought my daughter's flat, without a mortgage, would she still need to get a home buyers report? Is it still needed even in 'private' sales?

lynneinjapan

WOLODOMYRE wrote: »

Can someone tell me what i am best doing. Really really want to move from my house but cant afford to do the work i think it needs to sell it. To get it into a decent state to sell i reckon i'd have to spend a good £3000 - which i just do not have. I also cant afford to have the house sitting on the market for god knows how long and having to pay money for it just sitting there.
Should i go with one of these quick sell companies to just get rid in the condition its in at the moment, are there reputable ones out there.

I just cant see an alternative as i cant afford to get the house into a fit state to sell and without doing a major home makeover i cant see anyone wanting to buy it.

The quick sale companies aren't necessarily disreputable but they'll normally only offer you about 60-75% of what your house would be likely to achieve if you marketed it for 3 months. There's an online agency called the Express Estate Agency that uses a low asking price to get buyers interested, with the aim of starting a bidding war of offers over that value, so they might be worth a try. They'll only allow viewings from buyers who've already got finance in place so - assuming that you do get a reasonable offer - you shouldn't get caught up in a chain that drags on for months.

Bear in mind that some people, especially at the lower end of the market, are looking for doer-uppers and your house might actually appeal to them so it might be worth putting it on the market (conventionally) for a month or two, priced maybe £5-10K below similar houses in better condition, and seeing how much interest you get. Take agents' estimates of the value with a large pinch of salt and look up actual sold prices on Zoopla / mouseprice / nethouseprices (in most areas they've been pretty stagnant for the last 2 years) before you decide where to pitch it.

borders wrote: »

Quick question that I hope someone will be able to answer.

If I bought my daughter's flat, without a mortgage, would she still need to get a home buyers report? Is it still needed even in 'private' sales?

It's entirely up to you. A valuation survey is purely for the lender's benefit and a homebuyer's is to satisfy the buyer that there are no major problems that they weren't already aware of, and to give ammunition to negotiate a discount if it does uncover any issues. If you don't feel the need to pay to get the condition of the property checked professionally then don't. But you don't have to pay the £400+ that lenders tend to demand - homebuyer's surveys can be had for around £240 if you shop around. Try www.reallymoving.com for reviews & quotes.

Steve_xx

borders wrote: »

Quick question that I hope someone will be able to answer.

If I bought my daughter's flat, without a mortgage, would she still need to get a home buyers report? Is it still needed even in 'private' sales?

I don't think it's needed in any type of sale/purchase now.

borders

Thanks for the replies folks. She's wanting to move, I'm considering putting my redundancy into a flat to rent. Makes sense to think about where we could both save some money.

googler

Check the forum rules, spammer

jastin

Marcus wrote: »

Greetings all. I’ve been using this site for a while now and have managed to save us a small fortune. Years ago I was an estate agent so I thought I’d see is I could write some bits and bobs in relation to my experiences in the hope that it might save people some cash.

Selling Your House

Methods to Save Money

1) Agents Fees
a. All Estate Agent Fees are negotiable. First, check through the local property paper. See which agents get the most business. Are any members of the NAEA. Busy agents who are members of the NAEA would be my first choices. Select the best 3 or 4 agents and phone them up as potential buyers. See what service you get over a week or so as a buyer - that way you’ll get an idea of how they will market and present your property. A good proactive, busy and well managed agent will still have time and resources to post/email you details and phone you with new properties.

Then get them all to Value your property. Tell each valuer that you have other valuations (BUT NEVER TELL THEM WHAT VALUATIONS OTHER AGENTS HAVE GIVEN YOU - AS THEY’LL MANIPULATE THEIR OWN VALUATIONS) and that you are looking for a fee of 1% with no lock-ins. Most agents will try to lock you in - so that if you instruct them to take your property off the market you will not contractually be able to re-market with another agent for up to 8 weeks (especially with corporates). Make sure you get this down to 1 week after written notice. If you are locked in and you then sell your property through another agent you will get sued for the fees.

Agents are sales persons - they will give you great reasons to lock you in and charge you more... but they also need your business - thus you have the power to ask for and get these things.

b. Once your property is up for sale keep an eye on your agent - mystery shop them ie call them up, give a false name etc. and tell them you are looking for a property that matches your own property’s description - see if they push for you to view your property - are they positive and energetic?

The Duel/Multi-Agency myth.
If you become unhappy with your agent’s efforts it may be time to sack them or go multi agency. Tell an agent that you wish more than one agent to market your property and they’ll try and push up the fees to staggering amounts (2.5%+!!).
Tactics - tell your current agent that you wish for other agents to market your property. Tell them that you’ll keep them as an agent only if they will keep your fees at 1%. If they will not, then sack them (you should only be locked in for a week). I’ve never known an agent not to back down in this situation - they’d lose potential business if they let you go.
Now go to some other agents - probably the other agents on your original list - and tell them that “my agent has agreed to let me go multi-agency and my current fees are 1% - would you like to also market my property at 1% multi-agency?” You can guess what the answer will be...

A 1 % saving on the average cost of a property in the UK (currently £150000) will save you £1500 before VAT.

Duel Agency means you’re marketing with 2 agents - multi agency means you’re with more than two. Agents will try and charge you more for either of these - especially in the case of multi.



2) Solicitor Fees
During you initial enquiries with estate agents, ask them for several recommendations each of good conveyancers or solicitors. You don’t just want the name of the firm, but also the name of the specific solicitor/conveyancer. Remember, some agents will have ‘arrangements’ with some solicitors and some will even have their own - so be warned. A good rule of thumb would be to approach solicitors (by name) who have been recommended by different agents - although some solicitors will have arrangements with more than one agent.

Phone the best solicitors and ask for written confirmation of their charges. Take note of how they treat you - do they speak in plain English, are they friendly and do you get their details as promised the next day. And once again - their fees are negotiable - there’s no reason not to ask your favourite contender to shave £xxx off of their fees if you have evidence of more competitive quotes from other solicitors... they may say “no chance” - in which case you need to make a decision as to whether or not the extra charges are really worth it.

A solicitor can make or break deals for you so shop around. It’s very hard to change solicitors once they start the conveyancing process for you... and it will cost you!

And finally - avoid fee busting corporate conveyancing firms - they will most likely slow down the conveyancing process - these are normally call centre and internet based firms. They can save you as much as £500... but as stingy as I am I would never use them.



I hope this is of use to you and I hope that my info is still correct.
I’ll see if I can write something for buyers when dealing with agents and the like.

Regards
Marcus

Thanks for sharing this information with us.

jastin

you can sell your home through internet by providing advertisements.

nickm_2

Hi all,

Newbie here in need of some advice, we own a terraced house on the Isle of Wight, (Victorian terrace) but have spent a fortune on converting it into a modern home, 3 beds 2 x bathrooms lounge & kitchen diner, we are approaching (3 months) completion and once finished will have underfloor heating (ground floor) Smallbone kitchen with granite worktops, whole house heat exchanger, Kudos shower, Roca & Grohe fittings & limestone/travertine tiles, in essence we feel its worth approx £195K on completion, but the local agents can't seem to see the potential, any advice on other avenues??

Thanx in advance.

arash010

very nice dude so keep it up

andy.m_2

This has been great thanks, I giot my agent to drop another .3% without blinking and caned his exclusivity period so thanks for the really great post!