A Step-By-Step Guide To Selling Your Home

Selling your home can be stressful, especially if you are also looking for another property to buy. However, your decisions when selling a home can save or cost you thousands of pounds. Here’s our selling checklist, which includes everything you need to know about the selling process.

The Selling Steps

Prepare Your Property

Prepare your property for valuations and viewings by cleaning it up. Make sure your home is clean, tidy, and clutter-free. This gives potential buyers a blank canvas to imagine how they will use the space. It should also appear appealing from the outside. Mow the lawn, pull weeds, clean the windows, and fix any broken gates or fences. If your home is in disrepair, you may want to consider some home improvements. Still, it’s worth consulting with an estate agent to see if the investment is worthwhile.

Valuation

Before you put your house on the market, you’ll want to know its worth. Nothing beats having an estate agent come to your home for a thorough inspection to provide an accurate property valuation. For example, I contacted my local Harold Wood estate agents. They could see all of the improvements I had made to my home while living there and calculate how much value I had added to your property. They’ll also be able to see how well it’s maintained, learn about its best features, and highlight them to potential buyers.

Mortgage

Inform your current lender that you intend to sell your home and inquire about your options with your existing mortgage. If you end your current deal early, you may be charged a fee, so factor that into your budget.

Solicitor

To handle the legal aspects of selling your home, you’ll need a conveyancing solicitor and an estate agent. Your estate agent will gladly recommend solicitors with whom they have previously worked, but do your research and compare your options and prices. You won’t instruct the solicitor until you’ve agreed to a sale, but you should decide whom you’re going with early on.

Viewings

You can show them around yourself or have your estate agent do it for you. Make sure that your agent provides you with detailed feedback after each viewing.

Offers

The most important thing here is to decide how much you are willing to accept ahead of time and stick to that figure. Don’t be too concerned if you have to decline an offer; it’s pretty standard. You’ll still be leaving the door open if the buyer decides to return later with a revised offer if you do so in a friendly and cordial manner.

Contracts

You can exchange contracts once the buyer’s mortgage offer is received, the buyer’s solicitor is satisfied with the responses to the inquiries raised, and a date for completion is agreed upon by all parties. Both the buyer and the seller must sign the contract. The transaction becomes legally binding once contracts are exchanged.

Completion

This is the point at which the property officially changes hands. You accept payment and leave the keys with the estate agent. Your solicitor will also deal with the Land Registry to transfer ownership.