Selling your home can be a stressful process. When you are preparing your home for viewers (also known as “staging”), you need to be sure you are guaranteeing extra value to the property, but also ensuring the home is sold faster. But before this, you have to prepare properly. What are the best ways to sell your house but also make sure you are ready for the daunting process?
Check Your Finances
It is important to get an idea of the value of the property. This helps you to calculate how much money you will have after the mortgage is paid off. At this point, look at your mortgage paperwork or speak to your lender, so you can check if you need to pay charges for switching your mortgage. But it is possible to ‘port’ your mortgage, where you take it to a new property. But now is the ideal chance to remortgage onto a better deal, especially if you’re moving to a more expensive property or your current mortgage is coming to an end. It may also be worth deciding if you should rent next, rather than buy. This is worth thinking about if you don’t want the time pressure that comes with buying a new property.
Choose An Estate Agent
It’s possible to sell your home yourself, or you could use an estate agent. The best thing to do is to compare local estate agents based on how quickly they sell properties and how close they come to getting the asking price. You also need to agree on a fee with them for their services, and you should aim for 1% plus VAT for a sole agent. It is also possible to try online estate agents rather than a local one, but check what they can offer and how much they charge. Take your time during this process.
Decide On The Cost Of The Home
This is not easy, but if you do your research and understand the local market, while also working with a few estate agents to do valuations, you can get a better idea of the value, but this doesn’t mean you should go for the highest value. When valuing your property, take into account that buyers will likely try to negotiate a lower offer. If you add between 5% and 10% on what you are willing to accept, this softens the blow.
Staging Your Home
This is where you will make the biggest impact. You can do this by tidying up, decluttering, adding a fresh lick of paint; and make those little fixes, you will make a good impression. Never underestimate the exterior of your property. The all-important notion of “kerb appeal” and how a property looks on the outside can influence a person to buy before they have stepped through the front door.
The Buying/Selling Process
It’s at this point where you play the waiting game. Accepting an offer doesn’t mean you’re home and dry. If you are not happy with it, you can either reject it or wait for a better offer. You can also ask the estate agent to negotiate it upwards. When you are happy with an offer, you can formally accept it, negotiate the draft contract and exchange them. And the process of committing to selling the property is almost done!