Presenting Your Property
When you come to sell your home, remember that presentation is important, and whilst to the majority of us this may seem obvious, it is worth remembering a few basic rules to make the best of your home.

The approach to, and appearance of, your home will create the all important first and last impression for a potential buyer.

Make sure gardens are neat, windows are clean and that gates and doorbells work. Front doors should be in good condition and easy to operate. Picking a purchaser off the hall floor after entering through a door that sticks may break the ice, amongst other things, but doesn’t create a good impression!

Potential viewers realise houses need to be lived in rather than ‘show houses’ but they will still appreciate a tidy, clutter free, property with rooms that have clearly defined uses.

Buyers often comment on the feel of a property. Open doors letting light into dark corridors, a cool house in summer and cosy one in winter, always helps to create a comfortable atmosphere.

These measures won’t guarantee a sale but they will maximise
your property’s potential.

When To Market
One of the most frequently asked questions is – When should I market, before or after I’ve found
a new property?

In most circumstances the best advice has to be to place your property on the market before you start looking in earnest. Doing this has many benefits, not least that you will be taken at lot more seriously by estate agents and sellers.

I am sure you will have seen houses sold before a ‘For Sale’ board has even gone up! Typically, the
first people an estate agent will contact are those who are in the best buying position. As a result,
many of the most desirable properties only get as far as being offered to those who are in position to
proceed. If your property is not for sale, it is unlikely that you will be the first to hear of any new
properties coming onto the market.

If you do find your ‘dream purchase’ before finding a
buyer and offer a price acceptable to the seller
they will almost certainly continue to market, as your
offer will have no time scale attached. It could
take one day for you to sell or it coiuld take three
months!

To a seller your ability to proceed is as important as the amount you offer.

The biggest worry about placing you home for sale before finding a new property is ‘What if I can’t
find something I would like to buy?’

This is where our experience comes in. Our aim is to find a buyer who is not only willing to buy, but
one who is aware of your need to find. By bringing this to their attention early in the negotiations and
then confirming in writing when offers are made that acceptance would be strictly ‘subjest to you
finding a suitable property’, most buyers will have little problem with you spending time looking.

We will make sure that you are never pressured and that your next move is the right one.

What to do and when to do it!
It is important to instruct a legal adviser at an
early stage, they will discuss how the transaction
will proceed and prepare the groundwork even
before a buyer is found. Most legal advisers now
work on a ‘no sale, no fee’ basis.

Your legal adviser will need to obtain your title
deeds. These will be held by your lender if you
currently have a mortgage. The solicitor will require
your full names and address and details of your
lender and your mortgage account number if
applicable.

Providing these details at the outset ensures that
your legal adviser has confirmation of your
instructions, that all the information is correct and
that draft documents can be sent out to your buyer’s
legal adviser without delay.

Progress of the sale
We will keep you advised as to the progress of your
sale as much as we can but are wholly dependant on
your legal adviser updating us. We therefore
strongly recommend that in the first instance you
should contact them with any query you may have.
They should also let you know when key stages are
reached. We will check that all is running smoothly
and to the typical timescale.

On average transactions take approximately 12
weeks to complete from the date an offer is
accepted.

Very often delays in instructing a legal adviser at the
outset causes the first 2 weeks to be wasted whilst
information is collected and this pushes the
completion dates back further. If you are buying
another property we urge you to inform your legal
adviser immediately and ensure they have the funds
to put the preliminary searches in place (usually
about £200).

If you require a mortgage this should also be set up
at an early stage so that an application can be sent to
the building society or bank as soon as you have
found a property to purchase.