Selling Guide

You need to organise an appointment for the agent to come to the property and discuss with you what they think it is worth and discuss freely and openly their strategy to sell the property and how they will work with you to achieve the best possible price within a suitable time frame. The agent should help you along the way using their professional knowledge enable you to present the property at its best for marketing purposes as well as guiding you on your legal responsibilities as a seller.

At this stage, it is also sensible to find your paperwork in those “safe places” in your house. This can take time and you wouldn’t want this to delay the conveyancing process when you have worked so hard to find a buyer.

You can help your agent take the best photos of your property and top notch photos are a huge help in encouraging buyers to enquire about your property and allow the agent to truly sell it for you.

This checklist may help you prepare for your photoshoot:

• Clear surfaces down
• Hide any cleaning products
• Clean, neutral bedding is a must
• Clear away pet beds and bowls
• Mow the lawns and weed the borders
• Make sure all light bulbs are working

Once the basics are taken care of you can start to add a few little bits to really finish it off. Fresh flowers on the dining room table or in the hallway always look lovely, fluffy cushions on the sofa add a sense of home and the cushions out on the garden furniture on a sunny day will really help people to imagine life in your home.

Your photos are taken and you’re ready to get onto the market but consider timing this carefully. You should expect viewing requests to come in quickly, so whilst we understand you need to continue your normal life through this process, you need to be ready to allow people into your home. If there were a few little jobs needed in the garden or you have a holiday booked it may be better to hold off launching for a week or so until you will be ready to accept viewings. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a buyer lose their raw excitement for a property from having to wait for too long before viewing it!

Viewings should not be a stressful experience, people do understand that you to be live in the property and that you have other commitments too so appointments will be arranged at a mutually convenient time for you and your potential buyer. That being said, it’s advantageous to welcome buyers into a tidy and fresh home so, you need to keep the house tidy. Selling the lifestyle that your home provides is as important as selling your home itself.

Top Tips

• Avoid overpowering smells in the home, whether that is last nights spicy dinner or an overpowering perfume.
• Keep entrances to each room clear so people can walk in easily.
• Make sure there is somewhere for your buyer to park near to the property – it might be worth moving your own car from the driveway to give them space.
• Open blinds and curtains, allowing as much natural light into the property as possible.
• Try to keep pets (and their odours) out of the way. We know it’s hard to believe but not everyone likes our furry friends and some even find them intimidating.

Congratulations, you received an offer from one of your viewings! Use your agent to the best of their ability, they are working on your behalf so make sure they work for you to achieve the best price for your property in the current market conditions.

Once you have a mutually satisfactory offer the agent will ‘qualify the buyer’, requesting full proof of funding and ID from them in order to make sure things run smoothly further down the line.

This is where your sale is passed on to the solicitors and they progress the sale through the legal channels. This can be a fairly straight forward process providing that you have as much documentation to hand as you possibly can. Your solicitor and your buyer’s solicitor will first receive a memorandum of sale from the agent confirming all of the details of the transaction between you and your buyer. Make sure this is correct when you receive your copy so there is no confusion from the outset.

In short, the conveyancing process looks a little like this:

Of course, it isn’t always going to be the most streamlined process as things can come up on either side. It is important to check in regularly with your solicitor and agent to make sure things are all on track.