Your top tips for selling a house

[HoHoBrandyButter]

Having never done it before - we were first time buyers for this house - we don't really know where to start! Have had a valuation but not sure how to pick an estate agent - or how to do anything else really!

I'd love any tips you have - what do you wish you'd known before you sold your first house?

Approach a few estate agents as a buyer. See how good they are at trying to sell you various houses. Are they keen sellers, following up asap, getting feedback etc. Also get 'a feel' for them.

Set the right price. The EA will give you a good idea, but they lie, they will be over geneours to get your business.

Do you use the sold price finder on rightmove and zoopla? They will tell you what the neighbouring houses have sold for (and in the wider local community). This will be your best bet for setting a realistic price. Do bear in mind that no one will offer asking price, so you need to be priced higher than you want - just keep it reasonable, e.g if you want £90k market it at £95.

Also bear in mind the effect the stamp duty threshold has. If your house is around the 250 mark - no one is going to pay more than 249,999 for it, because they stamp duty jumps up.

Is your house ready to market? Are all odd jobs done, garden tidy, well decorated, de cluttered etc?

If not get it done, it is a hard time to sell and people are extra picky in a market like this.

Good luck!

use a local agent but beat them down on their price; 1.5% commission at most, 12 weeks agreement to start with and then see how it goes.

get on to reallymoving.com for solicitors, surveyors etc, and pick one roughly in the middle of the price band after reading reviews. Solicitors do not need to be local. Surveyors (when you are buying) must be. (PM me if you want details of the solicitor I used)

clean up, finish jobs, keep garden under control. For viewings at this time of year lights on, heating on, and place always sparkling.

good luck!

Make every room have a purpose and de clutter. If a house is full of stuff it makes it look like you have outgrown the house (so the viewer will imagine outgrowing the house before they have even moved in)

Dear HoHo

You say you have had a valutation done but do not know how to pick an estate agent . Who did the valuation for you if not an estate agent ? If it was one, I would ask a couple of others to do ones so you can compare the figures. I would also agree with what all the other posters have said but would also add that you need to check out which solicitor you would use to carry out the conveyancing for you . Best of luck

The estate agent will be representing your house so pick one who gives the impression you want your viewers to have. We're planning to sell our house next year and as it's a 19th century cottage we'll be using an agent who knows the history of the house, and town, and can sell the unique features. We won't be using a wide boy agent with a shiny suit and a line of patter who knows nothing about old houses.

View a few properties with agents that sell houses like yours and see who does tge best Job- who was easy to contact & arrange viewings at a suitable time? Who has great details- maybe floor plans? Who shows you round a house enthusiastically but not cheeseily?! Who follows up with a call for feedback?
This is how your buyers will see your property ....

Be realistic with your asking price, and don't expect every viewing to result in an offer. Those two bits of advice would have stood me in good stead when I was selling my first house, as it would have saved me a lot of disappointment and nail-biting, even in the bouyant market then.

Would disagree with the statement that you solicitor/conveyancer does not need to be local...I think it helps enormously if there are any quirky issues or glitches with searches etc. Also they will be (albeit maybe only slightly) motivated to keep a good local reputation. Ask around...neighbours, people from the gym, school etc. Ask the estate agents too...but be aware, some have their own solicitors (who may or may not be local). Neighbouring town is fine...so do not have to be doorstep local...but certainly close.

De cluttering has been mentioned up thread. Make sure you really do this.... It's not a case of just tidying up.

We packed non essentials up into boxes and stored them in our loft. They would have been packed for the move anyway and it made the house look so light and spacious. We even took down some bookcases and an extra chest of drawers we keep in the bedroom. It made such a difference.

fishfingersareok - take your point, but the local solicitors wanted more than twice as much as the non-local one that I used (who was not one of the cheap bodyshops that are a bad idea). One of the local ones even wanted to charge extra for photocopies. These high prices were also charged when I was buying, 200 miles away, so it wasn't just a one-town thing.

I could have got a taxi to the solicitor I used, 150 miles away and still had change for the difference. I could certainly have couriered documents if needed.

some of the solicitors justified their high prices as being less than that charged by the estate agent. Specious argument. And as it turned out the estate agent did a hell of a lot of work for his money as we had chain problems.

We're in the same position, but what I've found out so far, is definitely to declutter, clean and tidy. We've got a storage locker ready for all our extra things. Get the odd jobs done so the house looks ready to move into. We're having a carpenter out to finish a few little things in the kitchen. The houses I've noticed selling quickly look like they're ready to move into on the photos.

Definitely keep an eye on your house on rightmove. Do the photos look good, has it got a floorplan, is the text well written and correct? All these things make a difference when buyers are browsing the internet. Nag your EA to get things updated on there.

We're going to (hopefully) have a cleaner when we're selling. Just a few hours a week to keep on top of the kitchen & bathroom etc. Might be money well spent.

We got 3 agents in and chose the one that seemed genuinely enthused about our house, but used information on the pricing from the other agents to decide on the asking price. Check that you are in the agent's core market as their buyer list will be focused around their core market.

Remember that most decisions on whether to view are based on the internet details. Look at the information on rightmove for similar properties they are selling. Are the photos good and enough of them? Can you read the text on the floor plan? Does the text read well? Insist on reviewing and being allowed to edit the property details as you do get some strange wordings or accidentally focussing on negatives.

Get the agent to do the viewings (some people don't agree with this). When we sold our first house the offers we're really cheeky until the agent started doing the viewings. We have also had some quite odd owners show us their houses who might have done better to get the agent to do it. Check whether the agent does the viewings or they have an odd job person doing it, as they can be less effective (you hear of them saying negative things).