Selling a house guide

Simple tips to help you get that sale

There may be lots of potential buyers who are looking for a property like yours, but if you don’t get the basics right, you may not be doing your property justice. Open House online estate agents have prepared the following hints and tips to help you make the most of your home.

Maintenance & repairs

• Finish-off the DIY jobs you’ve been meaning get done (e.g. touch-up chipped woodwork, stop dripping taps and re-hang cupboard doors which have slipped).
• A potential buyer will have often formed an impression before they step into the house. A well-kept garden, pathway and fence are immediately appealing.
• Check your roof and guttering, replace broken tiles and repair the lead flashing
• Cutting the lawn and tidying the gardens can also make a large difference, particularly if you’ve not tended to it for a while.

Household ambience

• Remove clutter – this will make your home seem more attractive and also enable potential buyers to imagine their own belongings in a room.
• Painting the walls a plain shade maximises the feeling of space and light and enables buyers to imagine their possessions in the property. Research shows that most buyers prefer natural, earthy colours to bright, bold shades.
• To prevent rooms looking too bland, use strong colours for accent walls or cushions and accessories.
• De-personalise your rooms by removing personal items, such as family photographs and children's drawings. Buyers should be looking at the property, not the owner's possessions.
• Flowers and a bowl of fruit will brighten up a room and provide a pleasant smell.
• Organise rooms - a property will be more appealing if rooms have a specific purpose.
• Restore period features and fireplaces.
• Don't cook immediately before a viewing, particularly foods like fish or curry, as the smell will linger. The smell of freshly baked bread or fresh coffee though is said to provide a welcoming feel to a home.
• Ask friends or family to look after any pets during viewings.
• Try and make viewers feel comfortable. Offer them a drink and tell them about the bills and local amenities etc.

When selling a house with Open House Online Estate Agents, we offer free advice, to help you get the best price for your property. We will also go through a Cost of Moving Appointment with you to ensure that you are fully informed about all of the costs involved with your sale.

If you have require any further advice about buying or selling a house or flat, speak to your local Open House online estate agent.

Why use an estate agent?

Be seen, be sold

Open House online estate agents offer a complete selling solution to ensure that your property is seen by as many potential buyers as possible - because the more people that see your property, will mean that more people will view it, which should then result in more (and hopefully higher) offers on your property.

Open House provides a full marketing service to ensure that your property is seen by as many potential buyers as possible. We believe that no other agent can provide your house with as much exposure.

Conducting a market appraisal

We have a highly experienced team of professionals who have fantastic local market knowledge of the area they operate in, so that we can provide you with a realistic marketing price for your home. We also have access to a number of market valuation tools to support our extensive knowledge to ensure that your property is marketed at the right price.

Open House online estate agents can also advise on how the local property market is performing, how many viewings to expect and what percentage of the asking price you can expect to achieve.

We also provide basic tips on how to present your house in the best possible light for viewings, as it’s essential to create the right first impression because most viewers will make a decision within the first couple of minutes of entering your home.

Measuring, property details and photographs

We will take accurate measurements of the dimensions of your rooms with a laser measure and take photographs for your property details.

It is extremely important to get the photographs right. Most people will quickly make a decision as to whether they are interested in a property simply based on the photographs they see on a set of details or on the internet. Open House’s team of marketing advisers are equipped with wide angle lens cameras and have lots of photographic experience to ensure that your photos are taken from the right angles to present you property in the best possible light.

Your final property details are forwarded to you for checking and signing off, to ensure that everything is accurate and that you are happy with the presentation.

Arranging an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

In August 2007 the Government launched compulsory Home Information Packs (HIPs) to make buying and selling property more straightforward. The HIP included a document called an EPC, which looked at the energy efficiency of a property. In May 2010, HIPs were suspended, maening that it is no longer a legal requirement to obtain a HIP before selling a property. However, sellers still require an EPC by law, and this must have been commissioned prior to the marketing of the property.

Open House online estate agents offer a fast and competitive EPC solution. Call us today for more information.

Marketing your property

This is where an estate agent really earns their money! Open House online estate agents ensure that your property is seen by as many potential purchasers as possible to get your house sold as quickly as possible at the best possible price.

Software & registered buyers – We have a large national database of qualified buyers looking for property in your area who will receive your property details the second your property begins to be marketed. Our IT system enables us to immediately alert buyers to the availability of your property. Our extensive database of buyers is automatically cross-checked against your property details and potential purchasers will be alerted by SMS (text) alerts, MMS (picture & text) alerts and Emails.

Open House website – Our cutting edge website provides users with instant access to our entire portfolio of residential properties. Using a combination of quality digital photography, floor-plans, location maps and local information links, we provide buyers with a clear understanding of what your property has to offer.

Property portals – Internet marketing has become particularly important in recent years and is popular with buyers because they can get easy access to detailed information and imagery. In addition to our own national website, we advertise on the likes of Rightmove, Google and Globrix. Research shows that 80% of UK buyers currently search the internet to look for property. Our aim is to showcase your property to the broadest market possible. So you can rest assured that your property will be exposed to as many buyers as possible - approximately 20 million!

Print advertising – We use a variety of traditional media, from local newspapers and magazines to national publications. This ensures that we can still reach those potential buyers who do not yet have access to the internet.

Property boards – A property board will be placed outside your property. Our high profile “eye-catching” boards are one of the most effective ways of generating interest in your property.

Local area canvassing – Our local agents post 1000s of leaflets through letterboxes in your area every week.

Arranging viewings and providing viewing feedback

We arrange the viewings for potential purchasers at a time when it’s convenient for you. If your property is empty, or you’re away on holiday, or you live out of the area, we can also offer accompanied viewings (dependent on selling chosen Open House selling option).

It is also important that you know how a viewing went. Whether the viewing feedback is good, bad or indifferent, we endeavor to provide you with feedback for all viewings within 48 hours of it taking place.

Negotiating offers and helping you get the best possible price

Dealing with offers on your property directly can often be uncomfortable and tricky to deal with. This is why we will handle all offers on your behalf, communicate them to you as quickly as possible and confirm them in writing.

In the event that an offer is below what you were hoping to achieve, we will negotiate the offer up in order to get the best possible price for you. We will also qualify all client’s offers to ensure that they are in a position to proceed (i.e. from a financial point of view and/or check the chain is complete where appropriate).

Once an acceptable qualified offer has been received, we will then tie up the sale for you and help you get the ball rolling for the start of the conveyancing process.

Sales progression support

Once a sale is agreed and solicitors have been instructed to conduct the conveyancing process, Open House online estate agents will assist you with the progression of your sale. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the solicitors to advise on the progression of the sale (inc. anticipated exchange and completion dates). However, where possible, we try to assist this process by keeping in touch with the solicitors and your purchaser, and generally try to assist to push things along to ensure that the sale goes through as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Costs you may encounter when selling a house

You will need to allow for costs that are incurred throughout the process, which may include, but may not be limited to:

• Estate Agency Fee (from as low as £195 + vat with Open House)
• Conveyancing Fee
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
• Removal Costs
• Storage Costs (if applicable)
• Mortgage penalties (if applicable)
• Disconnection of utilities (if applicable)

If you’re also looking to buy a house as part of the same move, then please refer to our buying a house guide for other costs that you may encounter. Click here for our ‘buying a house guide’.

Contact us today on 08444 100 444 or take a look at our online estate agency selling options and find out why selling a house online with Open House estate agents will quite literally save you £1000s – meaning more money to spend on your new home.