How do we sell a house?!

[Buglife]

We’ve decided rather quickly to sell our house. DC2 on the way and while we love our house it’s rather cramped downstairs and it’ll be tough with two kids stuff. We bought this house while we rented and it was empty already when we bought it so we had a very painless easy move. Now it comes to it I have no idea how exactly to go about the process of selling and buying at the same time! Rather cheekily we’ve booked a viewing of a house around the corner although we haven’t put ours on the market. We are getting a valuation next week, should we get 3? Do estate agents differ a lot in fees? Also I assume you wait for your offer before calculating how much money you have to put towards the next house and then apply for a mortgage when you’ve had an offer accepted on the house you want to buy (we engaged our mortgage advisor to find our mortgage after we’d offered on this one)? This seems much more daunting than just buying first time.

Also we aren’t really planning to do much to the house before selling bar freshly painting a couple of rooms, that won’t be done before we get it valued. I can’t see it making a difference to valuation? we are looking for a quick sale so don’t want to be too worried about getting absolute maximum because we have savings to go towards next house, should get the mortgage we need and I know this house was a steal when we got it so we will make some money whatever. But I’m still worried about feeling I need to make it perfect or no one will buy it. I’m planning on putting a lot of “stuff” into boxes in ge loft to begin with, make it seem less cluttered. Any other tips? We have a child and so can’t be a show Home.

Any advice on timelines/best order to do things would be great!

We’re in the same boat! Following for advice!

I’d get your mortgage advisor involved now - ours has already got us a mortgage in principle so we know what we’re allowed to borrow and people will take us seriously when looking around.

MissClarke did you just look at the max you could borrow then without knowing exactly how much cash you’d be adding? I will have a firmer idea of what we can put in when we get the house valued of course. We have a vague estimate we will have £90,000 if we make what we’d expect on the house plus savings. Are you on the market now or planning to soon?

Having bought and sold at the same time several times I would do valuation ASAP with different EA, choose estate agents, then get a mortgage arranged and then start viewings.
The thing is while you are not on the market, sellers might even refuse to let you view (we only wanted procedable buyers).
Decluttering and freshening the house up is a great start. With 2 small kids myself i know its hard to keep it tidy, but it makes a difference if the house is generally clean. I always took the kids out for a walk before the viewings, so the potential buyers saw the house without any hassle.

Which? do a good guide to moving which you should be able to find with a quick google.

I found this site useful when I sold and bought for the first time: hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-selling/step-by-step-guide-to-selling-your-home/
Good luck!

Thank you, I’ll look at the links. I’ve got a valuation booked and will get two more and we’ll then contact our previous mortgage advisor and get an idea of what mortgage we can have. Looking at Which? Is a good idea, they give very clear advice. It occurred to me an hour ago that my BiL was an estate agent for over a decade 😂 so I’ve asked him which local firms he rates and obviously he can advise on the best way to deal with them! I don’t know whether waiting would be better, I’m due in July and I doubt we could be all ready and moved in by then. I moved when DS was 8 months but I can’t work out of moving whilst heavily pregnant or with a newborn is worse 😂

Tbh, i would probably prefer move before giving birth. Once you have an offer on your house and your offer is accepted it should be done within 6-8 weeks.

You are unlikely to have an offer accepted on a house until you have an offer on your house, no one will take their house off the market for you until you have a buyer.

Get several estate agents to view your house. Don't just assume highest valuer is best bet. Look at how they market the house, how many others they have for sale in the area, how long they are taking to sell.how easy it is to change estate agents later if you want to.

Bear in mind that estate agents nearly always overvalue because they are in competition with each other.

Hi OP we have just sold our house xmas week. We got 3 valuations. My tip is to negotiate on your estate agent fees. My DH managed to knock them down from £4800 to £1800 on no sell no fee. Trust your instincts when choosing an agent as you will be dealing with them a lot. We have 2dc 3yrs and 7mnths so impossible to keep house tidy. Do an open day as it means less disruption and stress trying to keep house immaculate for viewings.

tandt

Once you have an offer on your house and your offer is accepted it should be done within 6-8 weeks.

Where do you live and how many houses have you bought/sold?! That is a very short period between going under offer and completion of sale in the UK. Possible where there’s no chain or complications but don’t bank on an 8 week completion in general.

But, I went with highest valuation because he guaranteed he'd get it and if he didn't he would drop his commission to lower than competitor.
He got the asking price in a week AND this was nearly £20k higher than next valuation.

I was so sceptical.

But it did take a stupid amount of time to move. Plus the one I was buying fell through. I sold and went into rented and bought an empty property. That STILL took 4 months to complete with just one transaction and me being on the solicitors case. It was a pain.

Just warning you!

Southwest. 3 houses. 1- sold in october moved in december. 2 - sold in june and moved in august, 3 - sold in May moved in july.

You have to take into consideration the position of the buyer and seller. In all cases we preferred a lower offer with no chain to a higher offer but with something to sell. The same with properties we bought, we always preferred to deal with committed sellers rather than the ones who are not in a position to move (i.e. have no clear plans, dates in mind, etc.)

Fair enough

My experience (different areas) is that 6-8 weeks is very much not the norm.

How do you negotiate on fees? Just say you are going with someone else cheaper etc unless they lower price? There is a local agent who sells a lot of stuff round here and always has them on higher than I’d think the house is worth, the last couple have been heavily reduced eventually so I’d be a bit scared of going with the much higher price! I think I’d be looking at speed as a motivator when accepting an offer as well. There is one house I have my eye on that is empty and has been on the market for months... £40,000 over budget but if I could get sold and have someone keen to come in here we could make a cheeky offer based on speed.

I doubt it would be very quick, we had 4 months between offer and completion moving from a rental to this empty house. I’d expect we will be ready for the market in 2-3 weeks if we get some painting and bits done and valuations and speak to mortgage advisor, then whilst I am pretty confident we’ll sell alright (it’s a nice area and pretty desirable schools wise) who knows why will happen. I’d be surprised if it didn’t take until due date 😂 another reason to give my Midwife for why I don’t want a Home birth perhaps.

Tbh 6 weeks is probably too optimistic (although possible but depends on how quickly searches and surveys are done and how procedable all parties are).

Another question, if you had a house on the market for 475,000 and it had been onfor 6 months would you still count an offer of £400,000 as an absolute insult?! We offered £9,000 under and got it with this house but it was half the price. My DH thinks we could offer that much less but I think that’s way to low! I think our top budget is £430,000.

Once you have an offer on your house and your offer is accepted it should be done within 6-8 weeks

Wow. We’ve just bought a house with no chain whatsoever (we were in rented, sellers moved in with family). It took 11 weeks, with absolutely no issues whatsoever.

Chat with EA of that house, how open are the sellers to offers? How keen are they to move?
I think any sensible offer is worth trying, the worst they can say is no. But 75 under the asking price? Was the house over-valued in the first place? Has it been reduced recently?
How much you want that particular house? If you like it a lot i would go just below your budget and then negotiate up.

You could offer that, if they don't want to accept they won't, it's not personal just finance. If they haven't sold they may be holding out but you can ask. We turned down a silly offer on our house, we weren't offended we just said no.

You need to find a buyer for yours before viewing others. No point falling in love with somewhere if nobody wants yours!

I won’t fall in love with the one we are looking at next week, might not even bother looking now. The two I have my eye on have both been on the market for months and are over budget so I’ve more been admiring them on rightmove! But if we did get all sorted here and sold etc then I could theoretically make a low offer on one of them if they were still for sale.

tandt5 the house was on for £500,000 and was reduced to £475,000 in September and still no sale. It’s also on with 5 agents now which seems like they want to sell quickly? It is huge, lots of rooms but it’s got a quirky lay out, still with all the spare that’s not an issue. It is also quite close to the High Street and that might not be everyone’s cup of tea, living so close to town and shops and bars. I don’t know myself if there’s any issues at night with noise and people passing through the streets from nights out. It’s a historic area though so some large historic houses and then some tiny cottages which are mainly rentals. So a mixed area. It doesn’t seem to be shifting at £475,000 anyway. The other one is a solid 4 bed 30’s semi with a huge back extension making a big kitchen/dining/living space plus a room for a playroom and a separate living room at the front. It’s firmly residential, a few streets away from here. I don’t know why it isn’t selling really, it seems ok price wise for around here. The bedrooms are a bit small.

It is a great idea to keep an eye on rightmove and monitor what's available and how quickly they get sold.
Five estate agents, the price reduced - they must be desperate to move.
I have to say that january and february there are usually not many houses on the market, so it's a good time to get yours for sale fairly quick.

Hi OP, regarding fees negotiation. In our area there is a lot of rivalry between 3 estate agents. 2nationals and one independent. The independent agent has been selling a lot more in the area and offers 2fee plans. One being a fixed fee of £1800 regardless of if you sell or not and then offered 1% fee only if they sell your house. We got the fee reduced by one of the nationals as they didn’t want to lose another property. So agreed to match £1800. Ring them and say you want them to sell your property but fees are holding you back and ask what their best offer is. It’s worth a try and it means that if you have less fees to pay you can accept a slightly lower offer or stretch you budget for your new place a bit more