buying a property

When selling your home, everyone wants an easy process and someone to talk them through the procedure. This article provides all the answers in order for you to accomplish those difficult steps.

First things first, you need to decide on whether you wish to sell your house yourself, or use an estate agent. Before making this decision you should first consider how much each method would cost and how much time you personally have available.

Selling your home yourself will indeed save a lot of money but not necessarily time. Using an estate agent will ensure that they take full responsibility for advertising, negotiating a price for the house and also deal with any problems that arise. Do you have the time to make all these arrangements? And will dealing with the problems yourself be a struggle?

If you wish to use an estate agent as your method, you should first do a little research on the local estate agents near you. You should find out what type of property the agent specialises in, whether they belong to a professional association, how much they charge and their reputation.

High street estate agents must confirm the charges and rate of commission that will be made. A high majority calculate their fees as a percentage of the final selling price of the property, this is usually between 1 ½ - 2 ½ % (the rate of commission). It is also a good idea to check that the following costs are included or additional; the advertising costs, the ‘for sale’ board, VAT and of course the advertising costs.

An alternative to this would be to sell property online using online estate agents. WOW property are Guilford online estate agents and offer a fixed fee irrespective of the price of your house and whilst taking care of the difficult stuff, still allow you to show potential buyers around your home for a better insight and a personal approach.

Once this process has been agreed by both you and your chosen agent, and your home is up for sale, you now have to decide who to sell it to. You may find that more than one buyer(s) has found an interest in your house and made an offer, so you now need to compare your buyers for the best possible procedure. Considering things such as whether they are a first time buyer, what payment method they are using, the time at when they wish to move and the length of the chain they are carrying behind them now they have found a buyer for their own property. If you are using an estate agent, they generally find this information out for you.

When you have accepted an offer from a potential buyer(s), there is no reason why you cannot change your mind and accept a higher bid from someone else. Your estate agent will usually take care of negotiating with the potential buyer(s) about the price.

When the contracts are finally exchanged, the buyer may wish to visit your house to measure up etc, however you should not allow any work to be done before completion of contract.