Making the brave yet exciting decision to sell your current home and purchase a new one – whether that is because you are looking to downsize, upsize, or else for another reason – can throw up a lot of questions that can sometimes be overwhelming.
So, with this in mind, here for your information and, of course, reading pleasure, is a step-by-step guide to selling your home to hopefully help make things a little clearer in your mind.
1. Make Sure You Are Making The Right Decision
Obviously, if it were possible to apply the wonderful gift of hindsight to such big decisions like moving house, there would be no doubt in your mind as to the best choice to make for you and the rest of your family.
However, sadly, unless you are just completing your final year at Hogwarts and majoring in divination, any decision you make, either professional or personal, it not guaranteed to be successful.
Therefore, when it comes to selling your house, it is important to ensure you have looked into every aspect of the process and are as sure as you reasonably can be that you are making the right decision.
Plus, it is worth pointing out, at this particular conjecture, that there are many benefits to renting your home rather than selling the property outright.
2. Make Sure Your Finances Are In Order
Next, having decided to sell your home, you need to ascertain an accurate estimate as to what your current property is worth – and the best way to move forward with this is to contact a reputable and established estate agent, such as Hopewell estate agents, who can advise you on what to do next.
You should also find all documentation and paperwork relating to the house sale and speak to your mortgage lender to find out where you stand with them; there may be an early repayment charge to consider, or you may even be able to transfer your current mortgage to your new property.
3. Decide Whether To Rent Or Buy Your Next Home
Naturally, after the house sale has gone through and the funds have arrived in your bank account, you will hopefully be in a position whereby you can take out a mortgage on your new property.
However, depending entirely on the reasons for selling your home in the first place, you may well want to consider renting your next property, either for the long-term or indeed for a shorter time. Although the latter decision would result in you paying out more money, this does reduce the pressure and time constriction when choosing your next home to buy.
4. Hire An Estate Agent
As previously mentioned, estate agents are the best people to go to when you are looking to sell your house, and without one, you leave yourself wide open to problems, complications, and even suffering heavy financial losses.
Choose your estate agent based on the primary key factors, which include their proposed likelihood of finding a buyer who will pay your asking price, their history of success in the past, and how quickly they appear to sell similar-sized properties in the same area.
5. Obtain An EPC
An EPC, or energy performance certificate, is essentially a legal document that clearly ranks each individual property in terms of the overall energy efficiency level of the building.
When prospective buyers become interested in buying your house, they will request, either through their own estate agent or else on a personal level, for you to provide an up-to-date energy performance certificate before they proceed with the sale.
6. Get The Property Ready To Sell
This sixth point on the step-by-step plan requires you to stop viewing the property as your home, treating it as a show home to attract potential buyers instead.
There have been numerous research studies conducted and published over the years that have proven that the more attractive and more staged a house for sale looks, the more likely it is to sell, and moreover, the quicker the property is snapped up.
7. After You Accept The Offer
When you are at the point where a potential buyer has submitted an offer, and after careful deliberation, you officially accept, most of the hard work is done.
However, there are still a wide plethora of other duties and responsibilities you have relating to the sale of your house, which are detailed below:
- Negotiate the contract between yourself and the buyer
- Consider any discounts due to issues brought up during the surveyance and showing process
- Exchange the contracts, which is the official and legal committal for you to sell the property and the agreement that the buyer will purchase it
- Move out!
- Complete the house sale by handing over the keys to the new owner and accepting payment
