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★A guide to selling your house privately
Posted on: 21st October 2018 | Filled under: How to Sell a House
Written by: Mark King
There may be several reasons why people choose to sell their properties privately.
One of the most common reason is to avoid costly estate agent fees.
If you are considering selling your house privately read this first.
Selling a house privately can be slightly more challenging than putting it on the open market via an estate agent – and there are various considerations you should think about before getting started. For a start, it might take you longer to sell the property if you are doing so without the help of a dedicated agent; you’ll have to take care of aspects such as marketing, viewings and negotiations yourself.
Considerations before deciding to sell privately
Selling a home privately is not the right option for everyone. Although the allure of saving a significant sum of money can make it seem worthwhile, there are some instances where it might be more difficult. If the market is stalling, the marketing machines of estate agents may help to give your property that extra boost it needs to attract buyers.
Also, if you are selling real estate with a complex lease, using an estate agent may be a better option; they have lots of knowledge and experience of buying and selling leasehold properties and will be able to manage the added complexity of lease sales. And finally, if you don’t have much time to spare in your daily life, selling privately might not be right for you; you will need to put in considerable extra effort with aspects such as marketing and viewings, which you may find difficult if you have a busy schedule.
However, if you already know someone who is interested in buying your property, conducting the sale privately is a great option. There may not be much of a need to go through an agent if you already have a buyer – as much of the work an estate agent will do for you will be in marketing and finding buyers for your property.
If you have decided that selling a home privately is right for you, there are a number of steps you will need to take.
Set your asking price
There are various tools you can use to help determine a fair asking price for your home. Zoopla, Sold House Price and Rightmove all offer valuable data on recent sales; not only can you check what other similar properties are on the market, but you can also check what they sell for. There’ll often be a discrepancy between what a home is on the market for, and what it sells for; pay attention to this as it will help to set your expectations.
Consider renovating your property
You may not need to do a huge amount of work to your property to dramatically increase its appeal to prospective buyers. Often, simple actions such as applying a fresh layer of paint to the walls, tidying away clutter or deep cleaning the grouting between your tiles can make your house instantly more sellable.
Advertise your property
As the majority of homebuyers move within a small distance of their old homes, your prospective buyers are likely to live nearby. This means that you should, therefore, focus your marketing efforts on your neighbours and surrounding areas.
There are various ways that you can target those living nearby; you could consider distributing leaflets to certain streets, using noticeboards in local shops and libraries or by clever use of social media. Most buyers, however, will start their home search online, so if there is any way you can advertise your property through a local website – perhaps a local newspaper – this could be an effective option. Unfortunately, popular sites like Rightmove don’t yet offer listing options for selling homes privately.
Another option when selling your house privately is to sell to cash buying companies like Mark King Properties. We can present you with a no-obligation offer on local properties of any type or condition. Private sellers often turn to us in order to speed up their sales; for those that need the cash fast, we offer a quick and hassle-free private sale option.
Set up your viewings
Once you start marketing your property, you will need to make yourself available to show prospective buyers around. If you appoint an agent, they will take all enquiries and set up property viewings; however, if you are selling privately, you’ll need to manage this yourself. You may need to be a little flexible to accommodate your prospective buyers – you might need to take time off work to host a daytime viewing. Or you may have to delay your evening to accommodate someone who can only view it after finishing work.
Negotiate for the best price
Once your viewings start, you’re likely to start receiving offers. Decide before you go into this process what price you are willing to accept for your house sale. This will help you to stay focused on achieving at least this figure and will help to ensure that you do not take any less than you need.
You are likely to receive offers that are too low for you. It will then be up to you to go directly to the would-be buyer to turn it down. Always deal with people in a cordial way, as this will help them to feel at ease enough to put in a second offer if they wish, and will keep the door open.
Accepting an offer
Once you have received an offer on your house, put it in writing. Ask for the buyer’s contact details – such as email address, home address and telephone number – and send out a confirmation. Although offers are not legally binding, they do help set the wheels in motion and complete your sale professionally.
Instruct your solicitor
Once you’ve accepted an offer from a buyer, you will need to hire a solicitor to handle the legalities of your private sale. There are tonnes of options out there, so recommendations from family and friends can be a great place to start. It will help to use a local South Wales solicitor if possible, as they will be more familiar with the particular set of challenges of house sales in the area.
Selling your home privately to Mark King Properties
At Mark King Properties, we take the hassle out of selling privately. Working directly with all of our clients, we are able to assist with aspects such as conveyancing; having been purchasing properties in the South Wales area for many years, we have various regular contacts that we use to swiftly reach exchange with minimum hassle.
Selling to a cash buyer like Mark King Properties also takes away the worry of tasks such as marketing and viewings; we will make you an offer on any property so you can enjoy all the benefits of selling privately without the hassle.
If you are looking for a quick house sale Mark King Properties can make you a cash offer today. We Buy Any House regardless of condition. Get a free cash offer today click here.
