Selling your house for dummies

[Chocolatecupcake12]

Hi

I've never sold a house before. I've got estate agents coming next week to give me their valuations.
I'm having a massive declutter and tidy of the house.
I haven't got an epc assessment, so I think I need to look into getting this sorted
Will need to pick a conveyancer/solicitor once I've picked my estate agent.
Hoping to get it on the market early September as I've heard July and August are pretty dead periods for selling. This gives me a few extra weeks to get the house completely presentable for viewing and pictures. Will get new white towels and bedding
Can anyone give me a list of stuff I need to think about that I haven't already mentioned, a selling checklist for dummies if you will?

Kerb appeal. Make sure it looks as good as it can from the outside.
Remove personal photos for the photographs and anything else that’s personal to you and your family.
Hide as many appliances as you can, so work tops are clear and do the same in bathrooms. People don’t want toothbrushes and manky soap on show. It’s a PITA but necessary.

Go round and look at the house as though you were a prospective buyer. Are the drawers and wardrobes too full to close?

Make sure it’s as clean as can be before the photos, beds wrinkle free, toilet lids down.

Hoping to have absolutely everything cleared off the sides for pictures and viewings and away in cupboards maybe pop a couple of house plants in a couple of places
Are there any obvious things I'm missing from the practical side of things. I know I need to get the epc rating, solictor and estate agent sorted but I feel like I'm maybe missing other things that I need to get sorted before getting it on the market so I don't slow anything down

Unless your towels and sheets are particularly garish in colour or very worn I wouldn’t bother replacing them.
Decluttering is great but don’t make the place look sterile. You want it to look homely. Do any minor jobs that you’ve put off but don’t be investing in things like new carpets (or new sheets) as you won’t see a return. Getting the carpets cleaned/rent a machine if they have seen better days though.
I agree with PP about curb appeal. A pop of colour by the door and make sure it’s weeded and door and window frames are clean. Clean the windows inside and out too.
Don’t do showings yourself - let the agent do their job. And they will organise an EPC. Get any paperwork together: warrantees, FENSA certificates, building control sign off - whatever applies to you. Might be good to get your boiler serviced if it’s been a while.
And if you do meet potential buyers don’t do the classic mistake of saying ‘we’re moving as we’re busting at the seams’ ‘we’re moving for a better school’. ‘The X road is noisy so moving to a quieter neighbourhood’. You’d be amazed how people just cannot hold their tongue!
Pick your estate agent carefully. Just by chatting to them you can find out a lot. Ask them how much X house sold for (and better if through a different agent). If they don’t know that’s a huge red flag - they should know the neighbourhood market inside and out, know what other houses are being marketed for and what they achieved no matter who sold it. I was looking at a fixer upper and asked the agent what the property might sell for once done up. He couldn’t tell me. Well I already knew as a house two doors up had just been renovated and sold. I was testing him and was not impressed. So do your own research too. Rightmove has all the sold prices (though there is a delay of about three months), and you can look at comparables and how long they’ve been in the market. Remember they must be comparables - a house in a busier road/near a park/walking distance to a good school/train will affect the price so try and look at houses the same as yours in similar condition and location.
it’s a buyers market currently. Be realistic.

Thank you so much
Yes will get window cleaner and gas man booked in for a service
One of the estate agents coming to value the house has another incredibly similar house they've just sold, so I'm intrigued to see how much that went for
Luckily not moving because I need more space or to get away from bad school etc, it's because I need to move towns, so luckily I can't put my foot in my mouth with that really 😂
I was planning on checking with estate agents if it was best for me to be out of the house while they show people around or if people like the owner their, so good to know it's best to be out of the way
I'm not planning on spending a lot on the towels and bedding, just thought some relatively cheap white bedding and towels would look a little nicer that mismatching towels and look a little nicer on the photos

When you choose your estate agent, don't go for the one who values your house for the most automatically. Think of other things too.

Check what percentage of the sale they take as a fee and how long your contract with them is. With our last house, one agent wanted to tie us in for 2 years, without the chance to change agents. ( Well you could change agents, but agent 1 still got a fee on sale.)

We found it helpful to have an agent with lots of other houses on the market in our area. We picked up extra viewings that way. People would be going to view a property, so they would bring them to see yours too (and vice versa).

Hope that helps. Good luck.

With viewings, we've always tried to b) out of the way, but if you are around it's lovely to say, I'll be back just before you leave, if you have any questions. They often do, and it shows that you don't have anything to hide. (And I always ask them if the agent showed them the airing cupboard!! Agents IME have no idea how exciting it is to have good storage/an airing cupboard!()

Go on the agents websites or their Rightmove 'section' and look through some listings, read the details, check the photos - there are some weird very wide angle shots of rooms out there! See whether they make you want to visit the property, or whether you think you've already seen enough info and won't bother - not good. We must have all visited properties that we originally thought weren't what we wanted and been surprised. Vice versa too of course, but then what a good job the EA did! Lol.

A couple of estate agents I looked ar the properties they were listing and everything looks dark and cramped, then when I've checked the floor plans, it was actually a decent size house, so I ruled them out. Also noticed some obsessed with ai enhancements where it was difficult to work out what the actual house looked like, so they were also ruled out. No point in getting people in the house for a viewing when they are then disappointed it's nothing like the listing

Walk into each room, look for the worst thing that catches your eye in that room and fix it*.

*assuming it is not your husband/wife or the kids.

Yes definitely don't want a house sitting unsold forever because they've overvalued it
Definitely will check when they come for valuations for the lock in period, I checked all their fees when I booked but forgot about lock in periods

The point was if they aren't good at marketing your property may indeed be nothing like the listing - ie better than! Have you seen some of the photos (and quantity of same) that some EAs list?
I still say that you can only really tell what somewhere is like by seeing it yourself. So the difficult job is to get the buyer through the door.

😂
I did see a post on another thread to go into each room and take a photo before the real estate agent photos happen and pretend you're looking at it as a potential buyer and see if you notice anything so I think I'll do something like that as it's so easy to just get used to things being left in places

When talking to agents, ask about who will do the viewings and who will manage the process post offer. It often won’t be the person doing the valuation. I wouldn’t use any agent who uses freelance viewings agents.

ChatGPT is helpful for decluttering- upload a photo of the room and ask if what it would remove.

Oh I would never have thought to ask that. I always just assumed they'd be employed by the estate agents directly. I assumed avoiding purple bricks etc and going for local estate agents would avoid that sort of thing. So will add that to the list of questions for estate agents

People often need help to visualise how they would live in the space you’ve already carved out for yourself so as pp said de personalise. No bathroom clutter, bath toys, dressing gowns etc. please don’t try and dress your bed then use cushions that are like pancakes it looks awful and unnecessary.

Make it as generic as possible, you’re selling your home but to potential buyers it’s going to be theirs so the more you can show off the space the better. Remove any live laugh love signs (if you have them) throw them in the bin. Things like carpets and kitchens aren’t as big of a deal as some make out lots of buyers will want to change them so as long as it’s clean and they can live in it whilst making any changes if that makes sense.

Also, it’s only worth what someone else is prepared to pay try and take any sentiment out of it, it’s a transaction even though it’s your home.

Good luck, we’re about to sell ours too hope all goes well for you!

@WildFlowerBees no live laugh love signs anywhere luckily haha
Mainly hard floors, so luckily easy to give a good clean and carpets that I do have have been recently cleaned
Will make sure I put all the shampoo, toothbrushes etc away in cupboards for photos and viewings

Look at sold prices of houses similar to yours, but bear in mind that, in most areas, the market is stagnating or falling.

All other things being equal, I’d suggest a smaller local agent, who will see the process through. You don’t want a viewings person who knows nothing about the workings of your house.

If you have certificates for any work done, make sure you know where they are.

Do not take an EA recommendation of an online conveyancer. Online conveyancers can be tied in to some EA s.

Do buyers care if you can't get fensa certificates for all your windows? They're all pvc double glazed but I've only got certificates for one window and door I replaced in recent years. The other windows must be 20-30 years old and I've looked up on the fensa website and the rest of the windows aren't listed on there

Price has to be very competitive now, and the "seasonal" thing people used to talk about isn"t such a thing any more, the cost of mortgages and how much they could be in future is the main thing influencing buyers now.

Some buyers might use it as leverage for a price reduction.

Are you using price tracking phone or computer apps, most buyers have this now, you need to know what sellers of similar houses are doing.

We’re just putting my late mum’s house up for sale. We’ve had three different estate agents out and they were all pretty on the ball. The one we’ve chosen said she would not worry about waiting for the school holidays to be over before putting it on the market as it’s not especially a family type house, so would that affect you? Ours is an old character cottage- it will probably go to someone down sizing or possibly a first time house.

I'm selling a home that would be good for families, I'm guessing most of which will be busy with school holidays at the moment. I know mortgage rates have more of an impact at the moment but I think listing during school holidays probably not a wise decision. Also the extra few weeks give me a bit more time to be getting things prepped so it's all ready to go for a quick sale if there is early interest.
I don't want to be the seller who hasn't got their shit together

Don’t go for a High Street Agent, go for an independent who has a personal interest in selling it

I am looking at similar houses in my area, what they're being listed for and what they've sold for. So I've got a rough Idea of what I can get for it
One of the estate agents that will be here to value the house has sold an almost identical property in the last month so hoping they're gonna be able to give me a realistic figure