Ten
things you need to know about selling your house yourself ¦ Property
Guides on Times Online
- How much to ask? To establish your asking price, scour the property
sections of local and regional papers and estate agents’ windows to assess
similar properties. Check out property websites such as www.globrix.com,
www.propertyfinder.co.uk, www.rightmove.co.uk,
or www.primelocation.com for
current selling prices. Look up selling price trends in the local authority
area on www.landregistry.co.uk,
and find prices on specific towns at www.upmystreet.com.
Information on the prices paid for specific houses sold in your area by
postcode is at www.houseprices.co.uk.
- You could ask an estate agent (it’s useful to get three opinions) to give
you a no-strings valuation, or pay for a formal valuation (from around £140)
by a qualified valuer or chartered surveyor. This will be typed up on headed
paper and should reassure nervous buyers put off by the absence of a
“proper” estate agent.
- Thoroughly research the private sale websites, and if possible, go on
personal recommendation. As a general rule, the cheapest option is to
advertise only on the site itself. The cost goes up to include
“multi-listing”, which gives your property exposure through wider property
portals.
- Consider eBay
(your property can be listed for a flat fee of £35).
- Techno-savvy house-sellers are even marketing their houses on Youtube
. Make your own virtual tour, and it’s completely free!
- Think about advertising in local, regional and national media (including
magazines such as Country Life, if suitable), shop windows (but be
discerning) and in “free ads” publications such as Loot.
- Think laterally. If you have created a wonderful garden, place an
advertisement in a gardening magazine to attract a like-minded buyer. If you
have river frontage, try a sailing magazine. Stables? Go for a riding title,
etc.
- Consider holding an “open house”. Advertise it in the local paper, hand out
flyers (don’t forget to fix one in your car window) at school-gates, work
etc, and personally invite neighbours, friends and colleagues. Provide soft
drinks and simple nibbles, chose a weekend day, and make it a social
occasion. Don’t under-estimate word-of-mouth – someone may know someone who
is desperately looking for a property just like yours.
- When you write the ad to sell your own home, keep the wording punchy and
succinct. Potential buyers are most likely to remember information from the
beginning and end of your description – psychologists call it “primacy and
recency”. So this is where you highlight the Unique Selling Points. Don’t
write one long block of text: start a new paragraph for each room. Be
specific about distance – don’t say, “close to station”, state, “half a mile
from station”. Don’t forget to include the basics, such as central heating,
double-glazing, number of bedrooms, garage etc. You may want to say who the
property is suitable for, ie “first-time buyer” or “growing family”, but
don’t go overboard on flowery estate-agent speak. And finally, check all
spellings and grammar are accurate.
Preparing to sell your house yourself
- Walk up and down your road and assess how you can make your house stand out
from the crowd. Sweep the pavement, remove all rubbish and leaves. If the
wheelie bin must go at the front, buy a cover for it, or hide it behind a
bush or trellis.
- Check that the front door opens and closes properly. Ensure the doorbell
works and the knocker gleams. If the paint is cracked, give it a fresh coat.
Move outdoor clothes, boots and clutter away from the door, so the view into
the house is clear and inviting.
- Keep single overhead lights switched off and replace with lamps. In
daylight, pull back curtains and raise blinds to let maximum daylight flood
in. Clean windows inside and out.
- For evening viewings, candles create a warm and welcoming glow. Make sure
all light-bulbs work and are of sufficient wattage.
- Give carpets a through shampoo; hire cleaning equipment from a local hire
shop, or call in a professional cleaning company. Carpets will take at least
24 hours to dry, so don’t leave it until the last minute, and keep children
and pets away. A humidifier can speed up the drying process.
- Clean the whole house, de-clutter and put bulky or unattractive items into
storage. Pay particular attention to kitchens and bathrooms; these should be
pristine, with not a speck of mould, grime or grease. Buyers like to imagine
that they would be the very first to use the shower and the oven.
- You want to create a comfortable home, but it shouldn’t be a family mess.
Scrub off finger marks from around light-switches and door-frames, peel off
“decorative” stickers in children’s bedrooms, and scale down the number of
family photos on display. Some home-stagers even advise swapping children’s
“character” duvet covers for classic plains or stripes.
- Make the most of your space. Move everything possible off the floor. Don’t
block windows, as viewers will want to stand in front of them and look out.
Arrange furniture so they can see the corners of the room. This helps them
to gauge its proportions and also contributes to a sense of “spare” space.
- Give every room a purpose. If you have a dining room, show it as one. Borrow
a table if necessary, and dress it with a centrepiece or a cloth. Suggest
multi-functional uses for spare bedrooms; create a daybed out of a single
divan, with inviting cushions and a throw, and install a laptop on a basic
desk.
How to handle the viewings
- You are selling a lifestyle as much as selling your own house. When you
expect a viewing, banish pets, and send annoying children to play at a
friend’s house. Take trouble with your own appearance. You should appear
calm, collected and well-groomed, just like your house. Clean your teeth.
- Have a “panic basket”. Viewings can be short-notice, especially when you are
selling the house yourself, so you have to act fast. “Make sure you can get
the house viewing-perfect in no more than 20 minutes,” advises Andrew
Winter, of Channel Four's Selling Houses. Have a large empty basket with a
lid on the landing or in the hall to throw toys, ironing and papers into.
Don't stuff everything into a cupboard – you can guarantee the viewer will
want to look in it.
- Plan a route through the house beforehand, and practice it with a friend to
iron out glitches.
- Keep internal doors closed, so that every room comes as a “surprise”.
- With larger rooms, go into the room first and beckon the viewer in. With
smaller rooms, such as box-rooms or downstairs’ cloakrooms, open the door
and allow the viewer to look in, whilst you stand back.
- Give the viewer some space. Allow them a good 10 to 20 minutes to look
around on their own.
- If you’re afraid you will gush or waffle, discipline yourself. Every time
you mention a “feature”, such as the decking in the garden, directly explain
what its “benefit” is, such as “it’s lovely to sit out there on an evening”.
- Questions to ask: Does the buyer have a place to sell; is it on the market
(it is sensible to check this out yourself if an offer is made); is the
buyer in a chain; is the buyer a cash buyer or does he need to arrange a
mortgage; are finances in place; is he a first time buyer; how soon would he
want to move in.
- Questions to answer: How long as it been on the market (be honest, but refer
to summer holidays/Christmas/slow market etc); have you had any offers
(again, be honest, but not apologetic); how do you get on with the
neighbours? (if there have been disputes, you are legally obliged to declare
this); have there ever been break-ins (if there have, say so, but point out
that “Sally next door has lived here 20 years and never been broken into”).
- Security is even more of an issue when you are selling your house yourself.
Communicate by email, then when you are confident, graduate to telephone
conversation. Always take a home and a work telephone number and ring it to
check your potential buyer is being honest. Lock bank statements and
passports in a safe. Try to do viewings accompanied by a friend or relative.
If you must do a viewing on your own, arrange for a friend to call by or
telephone, five to 10 minutes into the viewing to check all is OK. When the
viewer comes to the door, pretend to be on the telephone and close with, “I
must go, the person has just turned up to look at the house”, then the
viewer knows that “someone” else is aware of your whereabouts.
Doing the business yourself
- Decide whether you want to do your own conveyancing or employ a solicitor or
conveyancing agent. The Which? "Guide to Doing Your Own Conveyancing ("Which?"
Consumer Guides) by Paul Butt, £9.99, might help you make up your mind, and
if you really want to save money, order it from your local library.
- If you do your own conveyancing, you will need to decide how much deposit
you require at exchange (typically 10 per cent) and arrange a bank account
for this to be paid into.
- Negotiating offers is the most daunting aspect for most people selling their
houses privately. It is useful to have an absolute bottom price which you
prepared to sell for, and to keep this figure in your head.
- Don’t be pressurised into accepting the first offer you get. It is OK to say
you wish to take a few days to think about it.
- Don’t expect to be offered the full asking price. It’s a buyer’s market, and
people will be chancing their luck. Expect to be offered between five and 10
per cent less than your asking price, so factor this in.
- When you have got the offer agreed, you will need this information from your
buyer to proceed: name; address; telephone numbers (work, home and mobile);
email address; solicitor’s name and contact details.
- No offers after six weeks? Reassess your asking price, freshen up the
photographs and marketing material, consider advertising on an alternative
private sale website, blitz the local area with flyers through letterboxes.
Cost calculator
Classified ad in local newspaper – The Brighton Argus, for example, charges
from £10.22 including VAT, for a three-line classified advertisement, for
one day, or £20, including VAT, for a 4cm x 1cm box, for one day, which can
incorporate a photograph.
Classified ad in regional newspaper – The Yorkshire Post, for example, charges
£321.66 including VAT, for a 5cm x 3cm box, which can incorporate a
photograph, for three insertions, plus one week “free”, over a month.
Classified ad in national paper – The Times, for example, charges from £30
plus VAT for three lines of classified copy, and for private sellers, £150
plus VAT for a 5cm x two column box, which can incorporate a photograph.
Marketing through a private sale website – on www.mylittlehouse.co.uk,
for example, the basic package, which includes your advertisement, and
ranking on the major search engines (Google, Yahoo) costs £89; the
“multi-list” package at £135, connects your advertisement to major property
portals, including www.fish4homes.co.uk
and www.hotproperty.co.uk
Sale board – some online packages include a board, but expect to pay around
£30 for your own, see www.forsaleboard.co.uk
for details.
