every year consumers in the UK pay estate agents in excess of £3 billion
to sell their homes. We know there's a better way.
Welcome to fuzzbo.com The fuzzbo.com guide to selling
Ask yourself: what does an estate do for their money?
How much do estate agents charge?
So, can I really do this myself?
How much is my house worth?
Can I use an estate agent as well as fuzzbo.com?
Preparing & presenting your property for sale
Photographing your property
The patter of tiny feet
Attention smokers
Making appointments for prospective buyers to view your property
Open House – how does that work?
I’ve had an offer – what do I do now?
I’ve accepted an offer – is my house ‘ sold ‘?
When do I need a solicitor?
What if someone offers more money?
So you’ve accepted an offer – what happens next?
What does the buyer do next?
My house has been down-valued by the buyer’s surveyor – what do I do?
The survey is done - the buyers are happy - what happens next?
When do we complete?
When do I hand over my keys?
Ask yourself: what does an estate do for their money?
They value your property. Put a board outside your property, advertise it in their office, on the internet and in the local paper. When an offer is made they liase between the you and the buyer and the solicitors.
How much do estate agents charge?
The average UK house price in 2006 was £184,000. The average fee charged by an estate agent was 1.7% of the sale price. This adds up to a whopping £3675.40 when you include the VAT. That’s a lot of your hard earned money – in someone else’s pocket. To see how much you could save by selling your house with fuzzbo.com why not use our fee calculator?
So, can I really do this myself?
The simple answer is yes, you can, but as with many things in life perfect preparation will be the key to your success. This Q & A guide is designed to give you all the guidance you need to help you sell your own property.
How much is my house worth?
Getting the price right is quite often the key to selling your property quickly. Fortunately there are a huge number of resources available to enable you to ascertain the correct value.
Use your local estate agents – Most agents offer a ‘ free ‘ valuation of your property if you’re thinking of selling. Get a couple of local agents in to provide you with a valuation for sale – remember this is a free service and you have no obligation to instruct them to sell your property.
Local property papers are full of houses for sale – find properties similar to your own and see how much they are asking.
Internet based resources such as the Land Registry and websites such as www.nethouseprices.com provide up to date information on all houses sold in England & Wales – by entering your postcode you can find out how much properties in your area actually sold for and when they were sold.
Using one or a combination of the above will enable you to ascertain a price at which to market your property. And remember to add a bit onto your price to allow some room for negotiation.
Get your initial asking price right and you should expect to achieve about 98% of that figure, based on UK averages in 2006.
Can I use an estate agent as well as fuzzbo.com?
Yes you can. Most estate agents operate on a sole agency basis – however they can only claim a fee from you if they have introduced the buyer to your property.
This means that if you find a buyer through fuzzbo.com you will not have to pay any estate agents fee. – Potentially saving yourself thousands of pounds
Preparing & presenting your property for sale
A home that is visually appealing and in good condition will attract potential buyers. First impressions count for a lot – cut the front lawn, tidy the gardens & do anything else you can to make your property appeal to people when they drive past.
Strong curb appeal will lure potential buyers inside – so the interior then has to live up to their expectations. Make sure the property is clean – windows, kitchens, bathrooms need to sparkle. Take care of any un-finished DIY jobs, clean dirty carpets and tidy away as much clutter as possible.
Investing a little time and money in the presentation of your property for sale will pay dividends in the long run.
Photographing your property
A picture paints a thousand words. Buyers are far more interested in what they see than what they read. Pick the best rooms, get them looking great and snap away. If the room is dull turn on the lights ( lamps are better than centre lights ). Buyers like to see the kitchen and they also like to see the garden. Be careful taking pictures of your bathroom - they are quite often too small and you end up with a photo of the loo and nothing else. Also if you have a horrid coloured bathroom suite forget the photo !
The patter of tiny feet
Cats & dogs may be great companions, but they can be a problem when it comes to selling your property. Do yourself a favour and keep kitty & fido out of the way – and don’t forget to remove the cat litter and do what you can to get rid of any unpleasant odours.
Attention smokers
If you must – do it outside. Tobacco is a big turn off for many buyers. Try to get rid of any unpleasant odours and try not to smoke in the property for a few days before you start viewings.
Making appointments for prospective buyers to view your property
Think about when would be the BEST and WORST times for people to view your property and try to arrange viewings accordingly. For example, if you live close to a school you may want to avoid viewings at hometime when the roads will be more congested.
Open House – how does that work?
Try to arrange a batch of viewings on the same day – at half hour or hourly intervals. Take some time to get the house looking its best – dispatch the kids & pets to grandmas & put on a pot of fresh coffee. Doing it this way means that you save yourself valuable time, you should get plenty of feedback from viewers and you may even land yourself an offer.
I’ve had an offer – what do I do now?
This bit is called ‘checking the chain ‘ and is a vital part of the whole process. Use the form here to list the details. All you need to do is to find out who they have sold their property through ( estate agent or privately )
I’ve accepted an offer – is my house ‘ sold ‘?
In legal terms NO it is not. You do not have a legally binding agreement with your buyer until you have exchanged contracts. This takes place after the survey and after the solicitors have completed all the legal work. The average timescale for this is about 6 – 8 weeks after accepting an offer.
Until contracts have been exchanged either you or your buyer can pull out of the deal.
We recommend that you keep your house on the market until you have exchanged contracts – you can either continue to show people around or just keep a list of names and numbers of interested parties just in case your sale goes wrong.
When do I need a solicitor?
We think that you should appoint a solicitor as soon as you decide to put your property up for sale – they can then do all the preliminary work so the deal can get moving as soon as you find a buyer.
Shop around for a solicitor – a good solicitor need not cost you a fortune, but a bad one may cause you loads of problems.
If you don’t have a solicitor yet then try our preferred partners list here. These are local firms in your area with whom we have agreed service standards for fuzzbo.com customers, and who in our opinion offer a quality service at a competitive cost. And before you ask – we DO NOT get paid to send tem your business.
What if someone offers more money?
You are within your rights to accept any other offer up until exchange of contracts. However, if you do decide to do this make sure you check it out first.
So you’ve accepted an offer – what happens next?
You need to ‘ instruct solicitors ‘. Sounds grand but really it isn’t. All you are doing is telling your solicitor who is buying your house and who their solicitor is. We’ve made it simple for you – just fill in the boxes in the form you can download here , send a copy to your solicitor, a copy to your buyer’s solicitor and it’s all done.
What does the buyer do next?
The buyers need to have a survey done on your house. Occasionally a prospective buyer may have the survey done before they make an offer, but the norm is that the survey is done after the offer has been accepted.
The surveyor is normally appointed by the buyer’s building society and their role is to give an opinion as to the condition of the property, to highlight any problems and to provide the buyer and the lender with a ‘ valuation ‘ of the property. Don’t be afraid of the surveyor – they are only their to give an objective opinion.
My house has been down-valued by the buyer’s surveyor – what do I do?
This is a rare occurrence but it sometimes happens when the surveyor feels that the buyer is paying too much for a property.
Remember, the surveyor has to value the property in its present condition. Quite often when a property is ‘ down valued ‘ it is because the surveyor has found problems. This is the point when negotiations can become difficult and the easiest way to resolve any problems is to sit down and talk them through with your buyers.
Ask to see a copy of the survey report and see what problems have been highlighted. If the surveyor has suggested any specialist reports, eg: electrical reports, damp and timber, roof reports etc get these done & get quotes before you agree to any price reduction.
If there are genuine problems and work does need to be done to the property then you may have to re-negotiate the price, but you will probably be able to reach a compromise figure with the buyer, rather than deducting the whole amount.
One thing to watch out for is that buyers quite often get their wants and needs mixed up - just because your buyer wants to install a new kitchen does not necessarily mean that the property needs a new kitchen.
The survey is done - the buyers are happy - what happens next?
Hopefully, while all this has been going on your solicitor will have been getting on with all the legal work and once this is complete for the whole chain the solicitors will ask their clients to sign their contracts.
When all parties involved in the chain have signed and completion dates have been agreed - this is when contracts are exchanged - and this is the point at which all parties are legally bound by the contract.
When do we complete?
There is no set timescale between exchange of contracts and completion ( the day you move ). Occasionally, deals exchange and complete on the same day - not recommended unless you thrive on stress. Ideally you should try to get a week between exchange and completion - giving you time to make all those last minute arrangements.
When do I hand over my keys?
Once the sale is legally completed ie: your solicitor has received payment for your property from your buyer, the property is no longer yours. Completion normally takes place from about mid morning onwards, and you should be ready to leave the property by this time. Your solicitor will ring you to tell you that it is ok to hand over the keys to your buyer.