1. HIP - If you haven't already got one, legally you must have a HIP (Home Information Pack) before marketing your property or face a fine. There are a number of different suppliers out there, some better than others, but you should expect to pay between £200 and £500 in most cases.
2. PHOTOS - You can take photos of your home yourself with a digital camera and upload them or you may decide to pay someone else to take photos, produce a virtual tour, or even film a video for you.
3. FLOOR PLANS - You may already have a floor plan that you can use from when you bought the property, or from when you had a planning application submitted. In which case you can upload this document to your home profile. If you don't have a floorplan, there are a range of options from sketching out each floor with measurements, and using a sketch and fax supplier (expect to pay around £20) to a professional floor plan company who will come and measure up and produce one for you (around £45 for properties up to 1,500 sq ft).
4. LEASE (FOR LEASEHOLD PROPERTIES) - Find out the details of the lease if you own a leasehold property. To start with you will need to know how long the lease has left and how much the service charge and ground rent is.
5. BOARDS - Do you want a sales board outside your home to increase awareness? They are proven to help with marketing, you can design and print your board and have it put up outside your home. Expect to pay around £40 for this.
6. VIEWINGS - Do you want to do the viewing yourself or do you have a friend or relative who could do them for you. Alternatively you can pay to use a key holding company who will do the viewings for you. Rates for this vary considerably.
7. PUT YOUR HOME ONLINE- Load your details onto your selected portal. Try to be creative here, you really need to make your property stand out. The more photos and information you can give a prospective buyer the better.
8. SOLICITORS - Contact your solicitor and let them know you would like to get paperwork in order in preparation for a buyer. If you do not have a solicitor I would suggest you ask family/friends for a recommendation. This is one area I think it is a bit unwise to be money driven.
9. PAPERWORK - Your solicitor should send you a fixtures and fittings form and a preliminary enquiries form to fill in. I would suggest you get these filled in and sent back as soon as you can. There may be extra paperwork that needs hunting down i.e. planning permissions, building regulation approval or details of your lease.
10. NEGOTIATION - When a potential purchaser contacts you, I would recommend that you negotiate with them initially online and do not give out more personal details than you have to, i.e. when you are away on holiday, where you work, whether you live alone, or your personal details.
11. SALE AGREED - Once you have agreed a sale figure you will need to agree exchange and completion dates and swap solicitors details. You then need to instruct your own solicitor giving them all the details of the buyer and sale.
12. CHECK - Ask your solicitor to contact the purchasers solicitor and check they have been instructed and that everyone is in agreement as to dates and details of the sale.
13. MORTGAGE/SURVEY - If a mortgage is required, check when it is booked in to be carried out. It is at this point that the purchaser will have had to part with some money and so you can be a little bit more confident that the sale should go through.
14. ACCESS - You may well need to be around to let valuers/surveyors into the property.
15. CHASE - Keep chasing your solicitor, asking them to check that the buyer's solicitor has all they require and has put any searches in place.
16. MORTGAGE OFFER - Check with the buyer as to when their mortgage offer will be through.
17. EXCHANGE - Once both sets of solicitors are happy that all paperwork is in order, a deposit is being held and that the mortgage offer is agreed, your solicitors can exchange contracts. This is done by a phone call between them.
18. POST EXCHANGE - Between exchange and completion you will need to arrange removals, contact your energy suppliers and arrange for post to be forwarded.
19. COMPLETION - You move out of the property. The monies are sent to your solicitor who will pay any charges against the property i.e. your mortgage and generally their fees. Any remaining monies will either be used to buy your next home or sent to you directly.
20. USE TEPILO – It’s new and innovative, and you can learn about the process for yourself.
Comments (1)
Item 3, Floor Plans -- you don't have to buy one -- they come with the HIP (hip, hip, hooray). Well, they did with mine. (So obviously I'd suggest you enquire of HIP people to find one that does.) This mention of £45 for up to 1,500 sq ft. i. why are you using feet when you require metres (only) when we upload room sizes? ii. although it's moot (since hopefully you'll get one with your HIP) 1,500 sq ft. is 140 sq m. so that should be OK for anything other than a pre-1965 detached house. http://www.buymyone.com/uploads/floorspaceuseable2.jpg
Item 5, Boards -- it would be very helpful if you said just go to any local printer (rather than an online one which I originally searched for). I got one (the plastic board printed both sides), without the pole, for £25. When I went into the printer he said 'Sure we do house for sale boards; about 20 a week.' Outside they don't advertise this (nor in Yellow Pages ad); they say a lot of other things they print, and they hang up those long banners with eyelets, but you'd never know they did For Sale signs if you didn't ask. Try 'printers' in Yellow Pages.
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