My top tips for selling your house (How to sell a house)

Member Name: birdy22

Product:	How to sell a house
Date:	10/04/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I am an estate agent so I do this daily

Disadvantages: ........

I wrote some usefull tips for buying a house so I tought I would do the same for selling.

I have never sold a house of my own but I sel houses on a daily basis as I am an Estate Agent. I know alot of people think we are all bad but honestly we are not.

1) Get as many valuations as you can. When the valuer comes to your home, never ever sign up with them straight away. I would advise you get at least three agents out. Do NOT be flattered by a high valuation figure as alot of agents do that just to get you to sign up and then after a week or so they will ring you to try and get you to reduce or they will just leave it on the market and basically forget about it.

2) Do your own research. There is a national website called nethouseprices which shows you sold prices in your area. Anyone can view this. Although it does not show you the condition the houses were in when they sold it does give you a rough guide.

3) Search the agents websites, see how easy they are to use. Register your details with them and see if they contact you about suitable properties. Mystery shop them to see how good they are.

4) Once you have decided which agent you want to go with, contact them and tell them that someone else has offered you a lower fee. They may negotiate on theirs.

5) Before signing a contract see if there is a withdrawl fee. Try and get this taken off and request that you want to go multi agent (more than on agent advertising your property).

6) Once your property is on the market you need to be flexible with viewing. If you can not meet a time or date that a buyer wants then try and get somene to do the viewing for you (most estate agents offer this service for free).

7) If somone does not turn up for a viewing remember that it is NOT the estate agents fault.

8) If someone places an offer, reject it. Never accept the first offer. If an estate agent says 'they will not increse and the offer will not stand next week' do NOT listen to them. it will not be true. If a buyer wants your house they will wait. If not then they were never that keen and would probably have pulled out half way through anyway.

9) Request that the Estate Agent leaves your house on the market until the buyer proves their funds or pay a deposit. It is not unreasonable to ask for a deposit.

10) When the sale is agreed it is out of your Estate Agents hands. You need to push you solicitors to get it to go through as quickly as possibl.

11) Remember that house prices are dropping. Over the past year they have dropped by approx 18%. They are continuing to drop. Estate Agents can tell you what they think your house if worth but THEY are not buying it. It is only worth what someone is prepared to take for it.

12) If you have been on the market for 2 months and had no viewings then your price is too high. Every new listing should have at least one viewing arranged in that amount of time.

13) If your house if on the market for £220,000 and you hve had two offers from different prople from round about £180,000 then that is what your houseis worth.

14) If you ar buying somewere else and you can not accept a lower offer on yours cause you need it for the one your buyin then put a lower offer in on it. If you have your house sold then they will be more inclined to accept it.

15) If your house is on the market for £210.000 then try changing it to Offers Over £199,950. This is a psychological thing and it will attract more buyes but the offers you receive will be round about the same as it is stating that you want over that amount.

16) If an Estate Agent offers a property auction then this is a good idea, especially if you are wanting a quick sale. When you think of auctin what is the first thing that comes ino you head? No I am not putting my house into that cause it is for cheap houses? Good!!!!!! That is what you want buyers to think, you want them to think they are getting a bargain. Starting bids are set low to get people intrested in bidding. The more people intrested the better. They will bid up against each other and most of them get carred away and end up paying more than they had plnned to go to. Auction entry fees are normally charged but if you do not have the spare cash then put it on your credit card. By the time the sale completes and you have the money you can pay it off your card without paying too much interest.

17) The thing that Estate Agents spend most of their time trying to explain to sellers is when they say 'my next door neighbours house if for sale fr £250,000 so mine must be the same' what w say it that the neigbours house is still for sale, if it hasn't sold then why? If you want yourhouse to be still for sale a year later then put it on for that price.
Another thing they say is 'mine has conservatory so it is worth more'. Tht is no right. A conservatory does no actallu add value,it just makes it more saleable.

I hope is helps people out there who ar selling their houses at the moment. Just remember that prices are dropping daily. If you have had an offer now for £10,000 below the asking price the that must be what it is worth. Can you afford to leave it on the market for another few months and risk the prices dropping even fure?

Summary: Top tips for selling you house