Ultimate house selling tips

[CuteOrangeElephant]

I will have the estate agents in next week after our lovely cleaner has done a deep clean and I have a massive list of (tiny) chores to do this weekend.

I have never sold a property before so I would like to know from those of you who are more experienced sellers, what is the best investment of my time (this weekend) and money?

I am getting properly nervous .

I already have decluttered massively.

Unfortunately I've got a real marmite property so I think it's got to look perfect on the pictures to get people in.

Thanks

think of your house as having a brand "cool quirky country life" or something.

So childrens toys - only have the best quality toys out (wooden, lego etc) and stored in baskets or attractive storage. Likewise with cat - cute ceramic pet bowls, a nice little blanket over his bed, definitely hide litter tray, no jumbo sized plastic bags of cat food or tatty toys or massive scratching trees around. So even to someone who doesn't have pets or children, it still doesn't look offputting or out of place.

@NotMeNoNo those are very good tips, thank you. I will make sure there's as little stuff as possible in the pictures.

I shall tell my DH that my toy snobbiness has a purpose .

Declutter first

These tips are good. Following

Surely the amount of effort needed depends on location!

If this is a popular area, things really donot need to be immaculate or pristine, or requite special lighting etc. As a viewer I never cared for that either, and as seller several times over I know it's not what really matters. I personally look for a nice situation on a street and the house that's pleasant to me as a building, and solid stucturally.

I agree that the interior has to smell nice (but not with over-powering scent) and be well-ventilated, maybe anything too eccentric/unusual put away in terms of accessories.

I do think most people have a bit of imagination and can look past someone's style, look at how the space would work for them - it's the size and being in good order that matters, and again, location.

I think a huge effort with moving furniture/storage/painting is needed if the location is not great at all and you need to somehow seduce people with your styling, but for any sensible viewers that wouldn't really work anyway.

...another important thing is the comfortable temperature - not too warm and stuffy, and definitely not too cold, heatijgn on but not on full blast on cold days!

Research solicitors soon as well. If you sell quickly your buyers will expect you to have solicitors lined up, and if you haven’t this could hold up the chain.
This happened to us that I was looking for a solicitor and scrambling together paperwork when we were already busy doing trips and viewings on houses to buy. Would have been less stressful to be ready beforehand!

Researching solicitors is on the to do list for Monday.

I am pretty sure that we will be going with the local solicitor that helped us buy this property, as she was utterly brilliant, but we will still get another quote.

And hopefully we won't hold up the chain as fingers crossed, there won't be any! Our property is going on the market chain free and it's ideal for first time buyers.

We sold ours on 2.5 weeks on 2018, our EA was a good photographer and I'm obsessed with 'house staging' as the yanks call it so I'm sure that helped get people in the door. Price does make a difference too of course.

GROUT PENS - use them on all tiles, the difference is amazing.

We had a toddler so removed a lot of toys to a family members house and then when we had viewings we threw it all a travel cot that went in the corner.

We were aiming for first time buyers, so no clutter, no personal stuff out. We bought a house that had terrible pictures but I can see past that myself where a lot don't. I nearly didn't view it as it wasn't my thing but wow, fell in LOVE at viewing!

Watching

Some really interesting tips here! We're hoping to go on the market in the next few weeks as first time sellers.

I'm struggling a bit with knowing the right balance between decluttering things on sides etc and making the house look too empty.

questions for solicitors:

• how much?
• if the sale falls through, is it no sale no fee except for the non recoverables?
• what are your deputising arrangements for when the main contact is sick/on holiday/has pissed off at lunchtime on Friday?
• how long to return calls/emails?
• any extra charges? (some high street dinosaurs make you pay for photocopies..)

3 estate agents booked for a valuation tomorrow. I am very nervous! We need to get back at least as much back as we paid for it 3 years ago (126k). The dream would be 140k!

Hope it goes well, let us know.

Ask them what they would market at and what they think you'll actually get. Lots value high to flatter you and get your business. They should show you examples of houses they've sold locally recently and tell you the sale price agreed. Also ask who does the sales progression. We wanted someone who we'd met and who knew the house, not a team of admin staff in a call centre.

Hope the valuations went well OP

The valuations went ok.

Agent 1: valued at 130-135k and 1250 selling fee.

Agent 2: valued at 145-150k and 1700 selling fee.

Agent 3: valued at 140-145k and 2400 selling fee.

We have discounted agent 1 as we didn't feel that she understood the house.

Agent number 2 was really lovely and had previously sold the house 12 years ago. She was very enthusiastic about the house and the local area. She stressed the house should not go on for less than 145k.

Agent 3 was very on the ball. She said 140k if we want to sell quickly and 145k if we can hold out for the right buyer. Plus side is that they get on average 98% of asking price and they have a lower than average fall through rate. Plus my cat loved her.

I think we will go for agent 3 despite her higher fees. I've done some Rightmove sleuthing and the 98% figure seems correct, whereas with agent 2 we've noticed that there's quite a big gap between asking price and price realised.

I am properly torn though

I think I'd go for 3 too from what you've said.

How do you see the asking price v. sale price info on Rightmove? We're looking to put ours on the market soon too and it would be helpful to see!

You need to have the Rightmove link of a sold property, then you can see the original advert including the asking price. If you click on Market information from there you can find the sold price.

You access sold prices from the main page, on the bar at the top (buy, rent, find agent house prices) then choose sold.

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html

Put a postcode in, a search area and it will show everything. If it was advertised on RM then there is a clicky link. Extremely helpful when seeing the condition of a property.

My advice re staging a house for sale, I decluttered and put loads into paid storage, stand in the doorway of a room and really look at it. What can you see? Wires, something sticking out from under the bed?

Put out expensive shampoo and condtioner, you do not want 30 bottles of shower gel out or your razor on display in a bathroom. I also had specific house sale towels, just Asda or Matalan ones but pristine as never used. I used to stash any used towels in drawers under my bed until the viewing was over. Brand new shower curtain if you have one.

As we had fitted wardrobes, I made sure it looked super organised, trousers all together and in colour order that sort of thing. Toys away in toy storage, a place to hang coats and put shoes.

I had a list when I viewed houses like what can I see from standing at the kitchen sink or from sitting on the sofa. If you have great views make sure the agent points them out.

Good luck.

Ours is on the market at the moment, and we're just changing EAs.

The first one had the lowest fee but took horrendous photos (all bleached out with a flash) and he also moved things around so it just looks odd. Our living room looks like a doctors waiting room where he moved stuff around to emphasise the length of it He also photoshopped pictures of the garden and it looks really odd.

I will be much firmer this time with the new EA before we approve anything. It's a steep learning curve.

My advice to add to the excellent advice above, is to not be there for viewings, it's quite off-putting.

You can negotiate fees with estate agents, so you could ask for a reduction if you really liked the agent but not her fee. I'd go in quite a bit lower, and then settle somewhere that makes you both happier.

"Show" towels is a great idea. Last time we had agents round I had spare duvet and pillows and used my nicest linen covers, beautifully ironed - unusual for me I just rolled them carefully between viewings, and kept them in a cupboard.

Great thread. Thanks CuteOrangeElephant. Perfect timing as we are about to start the process too and I’ve been thinking about what we need to do to get the house ready.

I’m approaching in two stages. A general declutter to get estate agent ready and then stage it for photos and viewings. Will be asking advice of the agent as to what we need to do. Also have a friend who does this so will ask her to help.

You're welcome.

I feel a bit stupid now about not haggling the agent down