10 Steps to Selling a Property

1. Speak to a Mortgage Advisor

If you are considering selling your home, before you contact your local estate agent, we advise that you speak with an expert Mortgage Advisor. This will give you clarity and information about your current mortgage and how much you might be able to borrow if you are looking to move to a larger or more expensive property. A mortgage advisor will be able to assist you to budget for the full costs involved in moving and help you understand what offers you could entertain for your own property, putting you in a better position when it comes to negotiating the sale price for your home.

Knowing this mortgage information will help you to make decisions about your next step on the property ladder, giving you the knowledge to focus your property search and the confidence to sell your property. If you’d like to have a conservation with a Mortgage Advisor today, speak with one of our experienced Finamply Mortgage Advisors, call 01304 249 964.

2. Contact your local estate agents & organise a property valuation

Google is a great place to research estate agents near you, as you can read their customer reviews and visit their websites to find out more information about them. Once you have a shortlist of three estate agents, do contact them to arrange a valuation visit. The valuation of your home will be carried out by a Valuer or the Branch Manager and should take approximately an hour, depending on the size of your property and any questions you may have.

On the subject of questions, do create a list of questions you’d like to ask each estate agent that visits your home. This will help you to decide which agent is best suited to your selling position. Here are some suggested questions to ask:

• How many properties have you sold in the last three months?

  Agents have access to their performance statistics and should have this information on hand and ready to share.

   

• How many active buyers do you have looking for homes at this time?

  The best agents will come prepared with information about which buyers they have registered and actively looking to purchase a property like yours.

   

• What tools do you have in place to help make my sale more efficient?

  Technology and innovation are enhancing the way homes are marketed and sold. We offer our sellers the opportunity to use i-PACKS. We were the first agent to use i-PACKS and they gather information from you, the seller, to present buyers with detailed property and location information on schools, transport links and more. Buyers can make informed decisions about your property upfront by having access to information they would normally find out after money has been spent on solicitors.Take a look at an i-PACK here.

   

• How will you market my property?

  Listen to how the agent responds to this question because the answer should be tailored to reflect your individual needs. We offer four marketing solutions, which can be adapted to suit your selling situation – Market Ready, Discreet Marketing, Traditional Marketing and Secured Sale. Find out more about these here.

   

Remember the best agent will value your property at a price that will help you to achieve the outcome you’d like, and this isn’t always the highest valuation. Do you need a fast sale or are you happy to wait for the right price?

3. Appoint your agent & solicitor

When you’ve made the decision and appointed the agent, you’d like to sell your property, this is also the ideal time to appoint your solicitor. Get yourself prepared with a solicitor so that when you are ready to accept an offer on your home, you have completed some of the paperwork ahead of time. Speak with your chosen agent for solicitor recommendations as they will need to work closely together to complete a successful sale. We have worked closely with our preferred conveyancing panel for a significant number of years which means our dedicated Sales Progression team have a close working relationship with them. This means our average number of weeks to sell a property, from an offer being accepted to exchange, is under the national average of 19 weeks. Find out more.

Upon signing the agreement with your agent, all sellers are required by the UK Government to conduct an Energy Performance Certification (EPC) and complete an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) check. These are required by law before your home can be marketed to buyers.

4. Declutter

Set time aside to declutter before photography and a 3-D walkthrough is captured of your home. This will help to present your home in the best picture for potential buyers. Ahead of moving day, you will need to remove furniture you don’t wish to take with you, as well as go through draws, cupboards, outbuildings and lofts, so why not start decluttering early on rather than leaving it all to the last minute?

Donating good-condition pieces of indoor and outdoor furniture to charities is a great way to create space. If you have the time, you could also sell clothes, shoes, toys, books, and technology on a number of well-known websites.

5. Get your house market ready

When you are happy for your house to be photographed arrange an appointment with your agent. We have an in-house team of professional photographers who have also been trained to capture a 3-D walkthrough of your property, giving buyers an immersive experience online ahead of booking a physical viewing.

Prior to the photographer visiting your home place letters or documents containing personal information in a drawer or cupboard. Once your home has been captured your agent should blur or remove features in your home that identify you or members of your family as required under GDPR.

The agent will take these pictures to create your marketing particulars. These include a property brochure, window card, and online listing to appear on their website, as well as the property portals – Rightmove, Zoopla and On the Market. During the valuation visit, do ask which property portals the agent lists properties on. Once you have approved your property’s marketing, your agent will make your home visible to buyers.

6. Prepare your house for viewings

Give your agent as much information about your property as possible ahead of viewings taking place. They should run through a list of frequently asked questions with you to capture this information, but no home is the same and yours might have unique features and history.

Our sellers have access to a nifty app called, Street. This allows all information about their property to be uploaded to Street so that our agents have key property highlights at the touch of a screen. From boiler service history to whether the home is in a conservation area, when the interiors were refurbished and windows replaced, to name just a few. If a buyer asks a question that is not readily available, our agents will send a message to the seller via the app and information can be relayed in real-time to buyers. Homeowners are also able to see upcoming viewing appointments and instant feedback is given after every visit.

When you receive a call asking to book a viewing on your property, there are some quick and simple things you can action to prepare your home.

7. Accepting an offer

The day you have been anticipating has come, your agent has called to share the news that an offer on your home has been made at a price that you’d like to accept. Once you have confirmed that you’d like to formally accept, you should contact your appointed solicitor to inform them so they are ready to receive the details of your buyer’s solicitor from your agent who will send out a sales memorandum.

If you are purchasing a new property, you will enter what an estate agent calls a ‘chain’. If you sell and buy a property with us, one of our dedicated Sales Progression team will be introduced to you, and they will be available to provide a guiding hand to progress both your sale and purchase. If you are buying a home through another agent, please let your selling agent know so that your chain can be managed effectively.

If you are considering moving to a new area, outside of East Kent, we are part of the Relocation Agent Network which means we can put you in touch with a fellow trusted agent to help you with your property search.

Alternatively, you might like to move into rented accommodation upon the completion of your house sale. To find a suitable rental property, speak to a lettings agent to start the search. We have an award-winning lettings team who’d be delighted to help you.

8. Appoint a removal company

As soon as your property moves to the Sold Subject to Contract phase, we advise you to contact removal companies for quotes. It is important not to leave this to the last minute, as removal companies are likely to be booked up in advance and this could leave you in difficult situation. Knowing who to choose can be tricky because they will move your treasured belongings and furniture, that is why we recommend choosing a company you can trust. Our go-to removal company is AnyVan.

9. Moving Admin

Whether you are selling or buying, or doing both, there is a list of ‘house admin’ tasks that will need to be completed either before you move or just after.

Did you know that on the day you exchange contracts for the property you are buying you need to ensure that you have buildings insurance in place? Speak to an expert protection policy advisor to help you find the best deal for your circumstance. They can also help you to secure contents insurance for the day you complete your house purchase.

Other admin tasks to complete include, but are not limited to:

• Contacting utility companies to inform them you are moving. We are able to help all of our clients switch their energy bills through our partnership with Utility Warehouse (UW). Our dedicated UW partner can guide you through the process and help you secure some of best tariffs on offer.
• Setting in place post redirection so that you have some time to change your home address after you move with banks, building societies, employer, driving licence, national insurance, telecommunication companies, etc.
• Council Tax. Notifying your local council authority that you will be leaving your address.

10. Moving day

The day has arrived, the removal vans are being packed and you are waiting for your solicitor to confirm that funds have been received for the house you are selling, and they have been cleared for the property you are buying. Whilst you might be eager to pick up the keys to your new home, agents cannot legally give keys to a buyer until a conveyancer has confirmed the funds have cleared.

To make the day as stress-free as possible, keep helpful items with you. We suggest packing a small box of essentials, including:

• Food & Drink: Mugs, teaspoons, sugar, tea and coffee, long-life milk, snacks
• Household items: bin bags, anti-bacterial wipes, toilet roll, scissors, duster

If you are considering selling, find and contact your closest Miles & Barr office here.