An article published in the Telegraph yesterday highlights the growing trend of baby-boomers who are opting to sell up in the UK and ship out in search of a new and exciting life abroad. Not ones to sell and swap their UK lifestyle for similar on the Costa del Somewhere in Spain, these Britons want to get the most out of their UK home in value terms and cash in for fun overseas.
The Telegraph article focused on one couple who are in the process of selling a farm in the UK to ship out to Australia where they plan on buying a camper van and touring round like “two old hippies for a bit…” If you’re thinking of doing something similar, i.e., selling up and getting out of the UK and your current life and going in search of a better life abroad, this article could prove very valuable indeed!
We have the top 8 tips for selling your UK property and escaping abroad so that you can get your British home sold well and put the equity in your pocket to fuel your dreams of a new life abroad.
1) Make Your Property as Appealing as Possible – a recent article on Love Money highlighted the difference between us Brits when we’re selling our home and our counterparts in Scandinavia. Where we so often just open our doors and present our home ‘as is’ to our potential buyers, in many Scandinavian countries they take a completely different approach. They deep clean, they de-clutter and they turn their property into a veritable show home - and in so doing they not only add very real value to their property, they – on average – increase the speed at which the property is sold as well. We Brits should take a leaf out of the Scandinavian book in this instance and clean up our homes and present them as a blank canvas to our buyers. This is definitely the best way to show off a property’s potential for a buyer.
2) Know When’s a Good Time to Sell – unfortunately the Christmas factor is a poor one to add to the mix when trying to sell a property. Homes sell in the new year and in the Spring in the UK – so if you can hold out through November and December and put your property on the market in the new year you may well achieve a better selling price and a faster sale.
3) Price Appropriately – we are in a recession no matter what garbage the media tries to tell you to the contrary. What’s more, people are still struggling to get mortgage financing and everyone is looking for a bargain. So, if you want to sell fast you need to price well. If on the other hand you want to hold out for a good sale price, make sure you research the market locally and see what your competition is. If others are asking less for similar, you’ll have to work harder to sell and you may need to ‘incentivise’ your buyer with benefits such as being able to close quickly, leaving curtains, carpets, fixtures, fittings and even furniture and/or having added value to the home through the addition of anything from a conservatory to a new kitchen or bathroom.
4) Stamp Out Smells – did you know that would-be buyers are most likely to be put off by bad odours in your house according to a survey by Co-operative Financial Services. The worst offending stinks are damp (26%), cigarettes (25%) and drains (19%). Pet odour is another issue – so you need to stamp out the stinky nature of your home and get a fresh feeling in place of it! If you’re not sure whether your home smells you need to get a fresh nose in to sniff out problem odours and make sure you’re prepared for tough criticism. After all, you need to know what niffs in your house in order to be able to blow it away and get your house sold.
5) Get an Agent on Your Side – if you want to sell your house as quickly as possible you need to throw everything you have at your disposal into the mix…therefore you may well consider using an estate agent. However, you need to shop around for an agent – they are not all as good as each other! Haggle on fees, haggle on the level of exposure they will give you, find out how much effort they will put into the sale, listen to advice they give you about making your property more visible and more saleable and then get them working hard on your behalf. You can consider offering them an incentive such as 0.25% more in commission if they sell within 30 days for example.
6) Understand the Auction Process – auctions are not just for repossessed properties – auctions are a good, fast, often sure fire way of selling a property. However, you need to understand the inner workings of the process, you need to know which auctioneers are best at selling your type of home for the most money, and you need to work hard at marketing your home ahead of an auction.
7) Haggle for Your HIP – Home Information Packs vary in price by hundreds of pounds depending on who you get in to put your pack together – this is a ridiculous fact and it means that you need to shop around for someone to give you a best price and the best deal. Do not accept the first offer you’re given.
8) Don’t Ignore the Internet – swathes of people use the internet as their very first port of call when searching for property at home and abroad – do not ignore this fact and make sure your property is on the internet on prominent and leading home sites as well as on any specialist sites that might be suitable for the marketing of your property. Put effort and care into your listing and think carefully about how you promote your property. Target your would-be buyer appropriately and make sure you really make your home appeal to their desire!
In conclusion, there is a lot you can do to make sure your house sells well and sells quickly to enable you to make a new life abroad. Because you’re already putting so much effort into the planning and preparation for your new life overseas, doesn’t it make sense to put equal time and effort into tying up the loose ends at home so that you can have the most money in your pocket when you go, and the fewest ties to hold you back.
