With the number of people involved in a property sale chain, there’s a heightened chance that you could encounter issues with delays, or even the chain breaking with a buyer or seller pulling out of either of the sales. But this is part and parcel of what you expect with any sale regardless!

Getting Your Property Valued

You’ll want a clear and accurate valuation when you sell your home, for it to be marketed.

There are plenty of valuation tools online to get you started. In all honesty, however, we’ve found these to be generic, automated valuations that much of the time are inaccurate. The results usually come up over-valued, meaning longer marketing periods with the asking price having to be dropped after a while anyway to match market expectations.

You’ll need an actual person to determine this, backed with facts and figures to correlate. Some tools online are a little smarter, whereas it isn’t an instant valuation, it will forward your property’s details to agents to research and get in touch with you to give you a deeper insight.

Another way is the most traditional, contact a handful of agents in your local area to come out, appraise, and value your property based on their visit. Much more appropriate as they tend to be quite accurate.

The final way to is to pay for a building survey together with a valuation. Backed with a report generated discussing and justifying their findings so that there can be little room for dispute if you ever encounter low-ball offers while going through the sales process. Have a look at my recent Property Survey blog to get further insight into what you can expect and the rough costs.

Finances

Before seriously looking to sell your home and look for another, the biggest factor many will have to consider is personal finances currently, and whether any will have to be applied for to be lent to pay.

Aspects such as the amount of equity you have in your current home, with the hopes you have value to carry over to your new property results in having to borrow less or pay less out of your pocket.

Consider stamp duty fees, buying a property after your first will incur stamp duty costs needing to be paid, much of the time this is able to be absorbed if you’re borrowing a mortgage against the home. If not, and you’re paying in cash, this is a cost you’ll have to pay yourself. Be warned these costs can be huge…

Take a look at my recent article relating to Stamp Duty Land Tax for examples of how to work out how much you’d have to pay in SDLT.

There are also estate agent’s fees to pay, and with the various options on the market on how to list your property for sale, these fees will vary. All of this is covered in my other recent blog post Who Will Sell Your Property, including approximate costs you can expect to pay.

Mortgages

A specialist mortgage broker will be able to aid you with finding the right service if you’re looking to sell your home, and purchase elsewhere.

Options include a traditional remortgage, or you now have the ability to port your mortgage. Porting your mortgage allows you to carry over your existing mortgage to your new property, potentially making the transition simpler, as well as retaining a preferential interest rate you may currently hold.

Although porting your mortgage may be easier, you could potentially be saving thousands by checking out current and updated mortgage deals with a new package or lender.

Energy Performance Certificate

A necessity when looking to sell your home.

Ensuring the property has a valid EPC will allow you to advertise your property on the open market, allowing the public to be able to check the current energy efficiency of the property, as well as any suggested improvements to make the home, even more, energy efficient.

I’ve spoken about EPC’s at length in a recent article EPC – Sell My Home, have a read of it to get in the know of everything included in an EPC assessment.

Documents

Relating documents and identification will need to be prepared in advance, the likelihood is that they’ll be asked for early on for aspects such as AML (anti-money laundering) checks etc.

When buying, you’ll need proof of ID, and proof of address. When you sell your home, documents such as appliance guarantees, compliance certificates, and other records of maintenance and upkeep for the property.

Preparation For Sale

Prep is vital if you want top money when you sell your home.

The price paid must be justified by the current state of your home. Get it sale-ready before it’s marketed!

Look around and see what areas you can de-clutter, and make each room as tidy and as presentable as possible.

Make time to go over any walls that have marks on them to freshen up the initial appeal.

Kerb appeal is a biggie, first impressions matter. Ensure the frontage of the property is trim and proper, windows and fascias are clean, driveways jet-washed, and lawns mowed.

Marketing With An Agent

It’s imperative you find the right agent to sell your home.

The whole process is enough of a headache without the weight of a useless agent that doesn’t try their utmost best to present your property in the greatest light.

Who to go with, what to ask, fees you should expect to pay, as well as many more questions that may be floating around your head. It’s normal!

I’ve written plenty of advice on which option to look at, take a look at my blog ‘Who Will Sell My Property?‘.

Conveyancing

Get this part done nice and early.

Figure out who you’ll use, and the fees you’ll pay for their services. It’s better arranged now so that you’re prepared to come at the time you agree on a sale!

You’ll want to shop around, not only for the best prices, but for the best testimonials of time-scales kept to, and consistent communication.

Agreeing To A Sale

On average, it’ll take around ten weeks from your property being listed for sale, to an offer actually being accepted.

This will vary however on various factors, such as the current economic situation, supply and demand etc.

Depending on how much demand you get for the property, you could be faced with more than one offer simultaneously. There is absolutely no rush to have to get one confirmed immediately, consider the terms of each offer and which suits your wants and needs best.

Starting Your Own House Hunt

Once you’ve agreed to a sale of your own home, don’t waste time with you checking the market for your next step.

Delays in this process could aggravate other buyers or sellers in the chain, with the unfortunate end of collapsing the chain.

The mainstream property portals such as Zoopla, Rightmove and OnTheMarket offer a service to register with them so that you’re notified of new properties as soon as they’re listed.

Using the registration tool can be very helpful as the property market can be incredibly competitive, so getting in contact with an agent earlier could be the result of whether you find your desired home or not!

Finances & Making Your Own Offers

Double-check the budget, and make sure you’re on the right track without stretching!

Factor in the costs of any work that needs doing to the property, do final calculations and see if it works out. If so, make an offer.

There are options for insurance such as Home Buyers Protection Insurance, in the instance, your sale falls through you’ll be out of pocket. This insurance will help offset any deficit you face in a sale potentially falling through.

Mortgage, and Conveyancing

With an offer accepted, move your position forward by speaking with your mortgage advisor to proceed with the full mortgage application.

Conveyancing is likely to be one of the longest processes when selling and buying a home. The current average time from start to end is approximately 12 weeks.

If you’ve chosen a good solicitor, they’ll be self-motivated and will be fairly efficient without much of a hassle.

However, if you aren’t satisfied with the communication or speed they’re working with, ask for a new case handler as a worst-case scenario. The process is already long enough without a lazy case-hander being involved in the mix!

Property Survey

Your lender will likely require a mortgage valuation, different to a valuation conducted by an estate agent.

A surveyor does a thorough check to ensure the property is good enough to lend against based on the agreed-upon sales price.

To satisfy yourself, and to get a deep insight into the property you’re considering purchasing, consider getting a property survey conducted at the same time.

To help highlight potential problems you’ll encounter once you move into the home. There are different levels of home-buyer surveys.

I’ve written a blog article to explain surveys in-depth! Have a look at “Property Survey – What Is It, Commissioning One & The Costs”.

This’ll help you renegotiate the price as it stands, or come to a resolution where the seller remedies the issues before you complete the purchase.

Continuing Communication

Communication is key.

Read through, sign, and return documents you’re asked to complete promptly so as not to hold up the sale process any longer than it needs to.

Many solicitors use online systems to allow you to complete and return any remaining documents with ease. Have a chat with them to see if they offer this facility to make your life easier!

When I say communication is key, I mean it. Especially so when you’re part of a chain. It would be good practice to have contact information for all involved in the process and set up email communication back and forth, helping ensure that all parts of the chain are kept up-to-date with all information. Including yourself!

Getting Estate Agents Involved

You may not feel comfortable or have the time to chase people in the chain along the way. You could speak with your agent to get assistance with moving it along.

It’s also in their best interests to get the whole process done and dusted anyway, as the fee to sell the property is only paid to them when the contracts are exchanged for the sale. Look to discuss the level of involvement you want from your agent. Too much, or not enough, could cause you unnecessary headaches and stress!

Having A Completion Date Set

Outstanding paperwork is completed and returned, surveys and local searches are conducted and returned, and with any other issues having been sorted out, you should be ready to arrange a completion date so that contracts can be exchanged.

Being in a large chain can prove difficult as it’ll mean coordinating a completion date with multiple other parties whilst ensuring it’s suitable for everyone’s schedule.

Organising Your Move

Once all the formalities are done regarding the house purchase, it’s time to look at the day-to-day setups.

The supply of electricity, gas, water and broadband services will need to be linked up with your own personal details to ensure a smooth transition over where you aren’t left without!

Removal companies are a biggie’ too. If you’re moving from a studio or 1-bed property you could get away with hiring a van and doing it yourself. Usually, 2-bed and larger family properties have much more personal belongings so employ the services of removal men to get this job done. Shop around for quotes, you’ll likely have to keep some money aside as they can be costly to use!

The Day Of Completion!

The big day! (Well, aside from your wedding)…

The day the process to sell your home, and buy a new home is official and done.

Money will be moved about between solicitors, and when payments have been received keys can be given and collected retrospectively.

Behind the scenes, the conveyancers will register the transfers of ownership of the properties with the Land Registry.

And you’re done!

Moving forward, you’ll be loaded with the information you need to move again if needed! (If you can stomach the stress again!)

We have property managers on board to help out with the whole sales process from A – Z!

Looking To Sell Your Home, And Buy Another? Look No Further!