Tag: house sale

Pros and cons of a DIY house sale

Pros and cons of a DIY house sale

Within the property industry, the majority of people usually hire various professionals to help guarantee a smooth and successful sale. However, there’s nothing preventing you from undertaking a DIY house sale approach. It may or may not be the right solution for you. Why should you hire? What are the pros and cons of opting to sell your home by yourself? Let’s have a look at the options.

House for sale illustration

Pros

1. Enjoy profits alone

One of the major reasons people decide to sell a house for themselves is to avoid paying lots of money to a real estate agent. If you’re good at marketing and know the paperwork needed to effect a transfer, you can sell the property on a DIY basis and enjoy all the profits you make from it.

2. Avoid the stress of professionals 

Hiring specialists like realtors or flat fee agents to assist you to sell your house saves you the hassle of having to be there because you might not have the spare time. You might be on a busy schedule and receiving calls or showing the property to potential buyers may be quite a stressful situation for you. However, once you take on a professional to represent you or do the work for you, you can kill two birds with the same stone.

3. Better knowledge of neighbourhood benefits

As prospective buyers view the property, they need to appreciate the advantages of living in the neighbourhood. You may be more knowledgeable about local amenities than hiring a professional who doesn’t reside in the area or isn’t well informed about it. For example, you may have more experience of land for sale in Oklahoma by owner. Since you have a clear picture of the benefits they stand to enjoy, you’ll be in a better position than a hired expert.

Illustration of a house for sale sandwich board

Cons

1. Time

Hiring specialists to assist you to sell your house saves you the hassle of having to be there because you might not have the spare time. You might be on a busy schedule, and receiving calls or showing the property to potential buyers may be quite a stressful situation for you. However, once you take on a professional to represent you or do the work for you, you can kill two birds with the same stone.

2. Connected to the market

Ostensibly, selling properties isn’t your day job, and that’s why hiring someone that does it for a living is worth it. You’re not well connected to the market, whereas trained and experienced real estate agents are. They have the know-how and a network of prospective buyers and other professionals who can assist them make a fast sale – which you will not.

3. Save on marketing cost

Marketing your property by yourself can be quite costly for you – money which you may not be pleased to have to spend. However, when you assign professionals to lead on the publicity, they are skilled at marketing your property quickly and efficiently, to a wide audience, using the most economical methods available. You’ll therefore spend less on your marketing budget if you hire than you will if you opt for the  DIY option.

What are some of the professions you should involve when selling your property and benefits you stand to gain? They include the following:

1. Property solicitor

When you embark upon selling a property, you need to ensure that the transaction is conducted legally and accurately. A specialist property solicitor will be your legal representative, and will have an in-depth knowledge about the contractual paperwork required for a transfer of ownership. Some of the forms needed include title documents, transfer contracts and payment terms. The attorney drafts the legal papers for you and represents you to effect the transfer without you having to be present. How much is a real estate attorney? It will cost you an estimated $2,500 to $3,000 and fees are on a flat or hourly rate basis.

2. Estate agent

Real estate agents are professionals who represent a property owner in a sale to a potential buyer and effect the sale on your behalf. They’re well informed about the various key details a buyer looks for as they inspect the property and have the right words to encourage them to buy the property. A real estate agent earns his/her money on an agreed commission percentage on a successful sale or a fixed amount negotiated upon appointment. Hiring a real estate agent also reduces the anxiety about the documents needed for a successful transaction. They’ll draft them on your behalf and ensure the transaction is a smooth one.

3. Home stager

Home staging has become an increasingly popular method to help market properties today. A home stager dresses the property to make it appealing to potential purchasers. They arrange the space by introducing and/or arranging furniture, fittings and accessories; and by doing this, they make the space more liveable. Sometimes, a home stager can work alongside an interior designer to ensure the property is colourful and reflects a client’s personality. While marketing a property, an empty space photo may not be as attractive as a staged home, and that’s why hiring a home stager is undoubtedly worth it. It draws viewers’ attention and increases the number of visits to the property, which may eventually lead to a potential purchase.

4. Surveyor

Potential buyers will only complete on the purchase the property if it’s as per the quality standards that they (and their mortgage company) expect. Therefore, they often have the property inspected before contracts can be agreed and exchanged. A home & building surveyor is equipped with the tools and expert knowledge to inspect the property and recommend any repairs and improvements needed to ensure the property is per the client’s expectations. They will issue a detailed report after the inspection to inform the purchaser of the property’s condition.

[disclosure*]

How to improve your chances of selling your home

How to improve your chances of selling your home | H is for Home

Whether you’re looking to sell your house now or sometime in the future, it’s worth considering that it’s not something that just happens overnight. However, if you’re looking for the option of selling quickly or would just like to improve your odds of selling when the market improves, we’re sharing some simple steps on how to improve your chances of selling your home.

Cane furniture set in a garden

Attend to your garden

Despite the garden being a big selling point of a home, it’s sadly often one of the most overlooked and neglected areas. This isn’t done deliberately, it can have a lot to do with the weather making it an area that doesn’t get used a lot, so it can get forgotten quite easily.

However, especially if you’re hoping to sell the place, it’s definitely worth taking some time to give your garden a bit of a freshen up. This doesn’t need to be intense or expensive work; you can make it look miles better simply by cutting the grass and adding some affordable garden furniture. Do this and you’ll quickly notice a big difference.

Workman carrying a ladder into a house

Take care of any repairs

If there are things in your home that need doing such as repairs that you’ve been putting off, then now is definitely the time to consider tackling them. Not only can this boost the value of the property in general, it can help you sell it more quickly. Even if it’s bringing in a plumber to carry out some pipe leak detection work, sometimes it can be the small things that make the biggest difference in terms of repairs.

Testing a fuse box

Carry out a full check

When it comes to safety, you can never be too careful. So, if you’re planning on selling your house and you’d like to get things moving quickly, a good thing to do is get a full check carried out. This can cover anything from the external structure of the house, to the internals such as the electrical wiring to make sure that everything is as it should be. Not only is this something that should be done regularly, if you have this done and ready to show potential buyers, it will give them a feeling of confidence and perhaps encourage them to submit an offer.

Paperwork in a folder

Have all the paperwork ready

When you sell your house, there’ll be a lot of legal paperwork involved. Instead of waiting until the last minute when the mortgage lender, solicitor and estate agent request information, it’s a good idea to have it ready and at hand before you require it – especially if you need to prepare for a quick sale and want to boost your chances of completing.

[disclosure*]

How to successfully sell your house for cash

How to successfully sell your house for cashcredit

You may, perhaps, have been faced with the situation where you’ve had to quickly sell your house for cash. Sometimes this is the best option for a given set of circumstances. If you’ve ever had to go through selling your house, you’ll be aware of how stressful it can be. There are a few basic principles to follow to make the most of the process of selling your property and keep anxiety to a minimum.

Here are some of the foolproof ways in which you could speed up the selling process and successfully sell your house.

Mayfair on a Monopoly board

Have a realistic valuation

One mistake that vendors often make is setting the asking price too high and then lowering it later when they’ve failed to attract prospective buyers. What people often don’t understand when selling their house is the fact that this can ultimately lead to a slower sale and sometimes at a much lower price than first expected. The first 30 days after you put your house on the market is the optimum time that you’ll see most interest and activity. If you’ve initially set the price too high, buyers would choose to stay away assuming that your property is out of their price range or not good value for money.

House with curb appeal

Improve your house’s curb appeal

You can improve your property’s curb appeal by adding a few touches here and there to make the exterior of your house more appealing to buyers. Mow the lawn and trim the hedge, put some potted plants on the doorstep, give the front door a wash or a lick of paint and make sure there’s no litter near your front gate. First impressions count and it’s especially important to bear this in mind when trying to sell your property. Prospective buyers are already beginning to form an opinion before they even enter a house. However, curb appeal is just the start.

Clutter-free living room

Clean and de-clutter

This one should be quite obvious but you’d be surprised how often it’s overlooked. The fewer things there are in an interior, the larger it will appear. Therefore, remove unnecessary things and any excess furniture. Store away things that you’ve added for that personal touch such as family snaps on the mantelpiece, knick-knacks on shelves and children’s artworks on the fridge door. Fold up the laundry and tidy away clothes & shoes into drawers and wardrobes. Make sure the bath and shower are spotless. Creating as blank a canvas as possible is important so that the buyers can envision themselves, their family and their possessions in the house.

If your property really needs help, hire a professional to do a deep clean of the house. If you have an appointment with a viewer, make sure any pets are kept out of the way – take the dog for a walk and make sure the hamster, guinea pig or rabbit is secure in its cage. And, if you do have pets, be aware of any odours that may be present to which you have become immune. The same goes for cooking smells; baking bread and freshly brewed coffee are said to be good for helping to sell your house – not so fry ups or kippers… ditto tobacco smoke. Counteract these by opening some windows, spraying air freshener or lighting a few scented candles or incense.

Property for sale signs

Ensure your listing is on all the property portals

Finally, when you’ve decided to sell your house, make sure that it is listed on all the major online property sale portals. Also ask your estate agent to showcase your house on their social media channels. This would increase the chances of your house being noticed and thereby getting sold. Most estate agents have Twitter accounts and Facebook business pages where they publicise their listings.

In addition to all of the above, get all the necessary repairs done before the house goes on to the market. Make sure that your house is as presentable as possible and doesn’t appear to buyers that too much work would be needed after the purchase. This will attract more buyers and your house should sell more quickly and for a better price.

[disclosure*]