There is a very simple decision that you can make that could save you thousands of pounds – so much money in fact, that you can use the savings to pay for your move abroad in luxurious style!
The decision is to sell your British home yourself, rather than employ the services of an estate agent. And if you think that’s going to be a long hard road, think again. The fact of the matter is, when you sell your home yourself you have the control. You have control over the marketing, the asking price, the completion date…and you ultimately have control over the purse strings.
Moving home costs money, and moving abroad can cost you thousands when you factor in needing to get visas, flight tickets, ship your goods and find a place to stay or rent upon arrival. Therefore, the fact that you can save up to £3,500 on the sale of a £150,000 house if you decide to sell it yourself, should be proof enough that sacking the estate agent is how to save yourself enough money to move abroad!
When you look at what an estate agent actually does for the average house sale it really equates to not a lot for quite a lot of your money. So, by taking on the task of selling your own property, you can save yourself the cash, using it to buy your ticket out of the UK. You are likely to be far more incentivised to do everything you need to sell your home – unlike an estate agent – and so you never know your luck, you could even get the home moved on in a more timely fashion than an agent would too. Thus enabling you to move abroad sooner rather than later.
Homes Do Sell in a Depressed Market
Despite the fact that the UK is still in the economic doldrums and likely to remain in them for many years to come, there is still a strong demand for housing in Britain. There is a restriction on what can be newly built, renovated and extended across the country, and so this is just one factor that continually drives demand for homes.
Whilst demand is not strong and prices being paid are not rapidly rising, you can still sell your home, and you can still get a decent price for it. If you bought at the peak and live in an area where there is a lot of stock on the market you may find it hard to realise a profit, but even you can still offload a home you no longer want to live in. Elsewhere in the country, there are people, perhaps people like you, who know that you have equity still in your home, and all you have to do is market it to the right people at the right price to get it sold…
Do Your Research Before You Try to Sell
You need to appraise yourself of and understand all the legalities involved in selling your own home before you put it on the market and accept viewings however. In the UK there are rules that have to be abided by – for example you have to have a HIP (Home Information Pack) before you can market the property.
All the information you need is online in various websites that all offer to list your house for you, or you can get an independent guide to selling your own home from Amazon, for example Anthea Masey’s Sell Your Own Home Kit: Be Your Own Estate Agent and Save Pounds
It’s worth gathering and reading as much information in advance so that you don’t learn by your own mistakes. You probably only have one home to sell, so you need to ensure you know what you’re doing when the time is right and you put it on the open market. Any time you invest now into researching how it is properly done, is time well spent to save yourself potentially thousands of pounds.
If You Don’t Want to Go it Alone…
If after researching you discover that there is more to selling than meets the eye and you’d like a helping hand, you can have some middle ground. An estate agent will charge you thousands, an online estate agent such as Tepilo is free, or HalfaPercent.com will charge you just half a percent, then there’s the HouseNetwork that charges a range of fixed fees…or shop around and browse the many choices available for you to list your home and get it marketed to a waiting audience of potential buyers.
What You Can Do Yourself
Whether you go for the middle ground option or you decide to take on the whole task of selling your home yourself, there is an awful lot you can now do to raise the profile of your property.
First, get it valued for free by at least 3 estate agents. A valuation service should be offered free, but check first – you don’t want any hidden charges at any step of the way. Consider averaging out the prices suggested to get your asking price, or maybe you have your own idea about what your house will sell for? Look around at similar properties in your area that are on the market, gage what they are selling for and use this as an indicator to lead your pricing decision.
At the end of the day, you have to pay off your mortgage, you have to make sure you realise as much gain as you can – but a buyer will always be looking for a bargain! So, find the right price to pitch your property at. Start too high and you might not get anyone through the door – but at least you can reduce the price. Start too low and you can never then get away with upping the price later on – it really makes you look like a dangerous and loose bet!
Now assuming you have your HIP and you know how the legal side of the process will work, you can begin marketing your home. You need to take decent photos of all aspects of your home, you need to have a decent reproduction of the images on a sheet of paper that also lists out your homes main features. You can hand these out on the street if needs be.
Knowing your buyer can help when producing marketing literature. For example, if yours is a family home, find out about the schools and amenities for kids in the area, add this to the home information you hand out. If yours is a bachelor pad, make more of the social side of life around your home. Tempt the buyer by giving them everything on a plate.
Get your house listed on any free sites online, use social networking sites to get the new out there that your house is for sale. Enlist the help of friends and neighbours to spread the word. Perhaps you can pay for a private listing in a newspaper – or maybe yours is a house full of character that a local magazine or paper will list for free in the form of an advertorial or feature. Be creative, and blast the market with news about your home – don’t be shy about marketing! You need as many eyes to view your home to get it sold.
Next you have to be prepared to make yourself available for viewings. Be as flexible as possible – but remember that many people will only have evenings and weekends to view. This will see you giving up a lot of your free time – but hey, won’t it be worth it when you’re jetting off to your new life?
Always make sure your house is pristine at viewing times, don’t assume an eye will look beyond the pile of ironing you’ve dumped on the kitchen table, or a dirty floor in the kitchen. It’s a harsh reality but once an eye has seen something it doesn’t like, it keeps on looking for dust, dirt, unkempt areas of the property and proof that this is not the home to buy. It’s human nature to be looking for a sting in the tail – so make sure there isn’t one to put off your buyers. And don’t be offended if people criticise your home – none of us share the same taste exactly, and at the end of the day, you’re selling your house because you no longer want or need it, it’s time to let go of it emotionally too. Detach yourself!
Finally – When the Offer Comes in…
Know that one in three offers are withdrawn even after they have been accepted, so be prepared for this to happen, but don’t expect the worst. Once an offer is made, haggle up if you can, and then be prepared to quite literally move! You will be dealing with your buyer’s lawyers and possibly also their mortgage company…so make sure you have your own legal representation in place to assist you if you’re not confident. It may also be a requirement of your mortgage company that you have a lawyer in to handle the monetary side of things.
Conveyancing can be aided and abetted if you are open and communicate with lawyers on both sides regularly – keep pushing, do not a let a day go by without calling in for an update and to make sure all is running smoothly.
Stay calm, be open, be approachable and then when the inevitable hitch comes along with a bank failing to deliver goods on the day they are supposed to, or your buyer’s lawyer hitting on a sticking point, you know what’s happening and if needs be, you can help the process along, or at least not panic that your dream is collapsing!
Bon Voyage Great Britain!
The day will finally come when you have sold up and are ready to pack up and ship out – you will have saved yourself thousands of pounds in estate agent’s fees by simply putting in your own time and effort to selling your own home. When you think about it, it makes sense on all levels doesn’t it! So, what’s stopping you moving abroad now? Certainly not money and certainly not having that house hanging around your neck like a millstone!
But Wait…
What if after reading this you decide that actually, you don’t want the hassle of selling up even if you will save yourself thousands. Is there another way you can realise the cash necessary to move abroad? The good news that actually there is! You could become what the media have dubbed a ‘reluctant landlord’ – but rather than being reluctant about it, our next report will show you how you can instead rent out your property in the UK, thus maintaining a foot on the property ladder, avoiding yourself the headache or the costs involved with selling, and still have money in your pocket to fund your dream of a new life abroad!
