Buying & selling

You may be relocating for work, retirement, romance, or any of a whole host of other reasons. Whatever your motive for selling your home, in order to ensure a successful outcome, you need to have an effective strategy.

This guide outlines the selling process, from accepting an offer through to completion, and shows you how to maximise your chances of a smooth and speedy sale.

Getting ready for action

Here are some essential steps to take before putting your property on the market. To keep yourself focused, draw up a plan of campaign - for example, Week 1: decide selling method (estate agent or private sale), Week 4: have property ready for viewings, and so on.

1. Decide when to sell

Getting your timing right is possibly the key factor in achieving a sale within a reasonable period. A local estate agent will be able to tell you which are the peak times of year in your area for selling your type of property. Unless your personal circumstances dictate otherwise, be guided by this advice.

2. Decide how to sell

Next, decide whether to use an estate agent or go it alone. Depending on your circumstances and the type of property, you could consider a sale by auction. Selling at Auction gives further information.

If finding time to deal with the nitty-gritty of selling seems a tall order, investigate the possibility of employing a professional sales manager to handle it for you; an estate agent may be able to recommend one. Their services can include liaising with agents, arranging viewings, commissioning surveys, and dealing with mortgage lenders and solicitors, depending on your requirements.

3. Prepare your property

As no one who has watched any of the plethora of television programmes about selling a home can fail to be aware, making your property as appealing as possible to potential buyers is vital to successful selling. Our Top 10 Tips for Selling Your Home suggests some ways.

4. Commission an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate)

Anyone selling a property in England, Wales or Northern Ireland must have commissioned an EPC before they start to market their property. The EPC doesn't need to have been produced beforehand, although you must have ordered one.

If you are using an estate agent, it will be his responsibility to have an EPC prepared. If you are selling privately, it will be yours.

5. Appoint a legal adviser

Although it is possible to do your own conveyancing when selling most types of property, the majority of people use a solicitor or licensed conveyancer. The latter are sometimes, though not always, less expensive than solicitors.

So that you are ready for action as soon as you receive a suitable offer, choose your legal adviser in advance. Referrals from satisfied clients are helpful, so ask around. Before entering into any agreement, obtain written confirmation of charges.

In this article, references to a solicitor apply equally to a licensed conveyancer.

The selling process, step by step

If you've followed our advice, you should be ready to go full steam ahead when a well-placed potential purchaser comes along.

The checklist below outlines the stages involved in selling a property, and shows the likely sequence of events. Note that the introduction of HIPs looks set to change the process slightly.

On average, a sale takes around 10 weeks, from receipt of offer to completion. Much depends on such variables as the performance of your solicitor and the purchaser's, how quickly the local authority and Land Registry reply to searches, and the length of any chain. To speed things up, you can, if you wish, make the sale conditional upon exchange of contracts within a stipulated time.

Seller's checklist

The potential purchaser submits an offer, through the estate agent if you are using one, or direct to you if you are selling privately

• You accept the offer, or negotiate
• When a price is agreed, both sides instruct solicitors
• If your purchaser's offer is ‘subject to contract', neither side is committed until contracts are exchanged. Your purchaser will probably ask you to remove the property from the market now, but you are not obliged to do so. You may, if you wish, accept a higher offer, though this practice, known as ‘gazumping', is generally frowned upon.
• If the property is mortgaged, you must provide your solicitor with your lender's details, so that he can obtain the title deeds. If there is no mortgage, you must produce the deeds yourself or be able to tell your solicitor where they are, so he can request them from the holder (a previous lender, for example).
• Pending receipt of the title deeds, your solicitor will ask you to complete two forms, which he will refer to when drafting the contract: a fixtures, fittings and contents form (containing details of items included in the sale price, those that can be bought as extras, and so on), and a property information form (detailing, among other things, whether your home is connected to all necessary utilities and who is responsible for any perimeter structures, such as fences).
• When he has obtained and checked the title deeds, your solicitor will prepare a draft contract and send it to your purchaser's solicitor. The draft will contain details of the purchase price, items included in the sale, whether the property is freehold or leasehold, and so on.
• Arising from the information in the draft contract, it is usual for the purchaser's solicitor to make further enquiries about the property, which your solicitor will discuss with you.
• While all this is going on, your purchaser and/or his mortgage lender will have commissioned a survey. If the surveyor's report exposes significant shortcomings in your property, the purchaser may ask you to reduce the price to reflect them. Though you are under no obligation to do so, it may be wise to consider the possibility rather than let the deal fall through. Your estate agent or solicitor can advise you.
• Once any renegotiations have been concluded, both parties are happy with the draft contract, your purchaser's solicitor has received the search results, and, if applicable, your purchaser has obtained a mortgage offer, contracts are exchanged. At this stage, the purchaser pays you a deposit (typically 10 per cent of the purchase price), and a completion date is set.
• After exchange, neither side can withdraw without paying compensation to the other.
• Your solicitor will now prepare final accounts for your approval and ask you to sign the conveyance (transfer document).
• On completion day, you must give the purchaser vacant possession of the property, unless it is being sold subject to a tenancy. Your solicitor will arrange the repayment of any outstanding loans, pay you the balance of the sale proceeds (by cheque or electronic transfer), forward the title deeds to the purchaser's solicitor, and notify the Land Registry of the change of ownership.

After all the hard work, your home is finally sold, so sit back, relax, and crack open a bottle of something sparkling!

With thanks to BuyAssociation.