So exactly how much can you save selling your home privately?
You can save thousands of pounds by selling your home yourself and not paying commission to an estate agent.
This is very, very real money which most people simply cannot afford to lose.
The table below speaks for itself:-
Example 2% estate agent HUGE SAVINGasking price commission (inc. VAT) (by using a no fee service)
£200,000 £4,700 £4,700
£300,000 £7,050 £7,050
£500,000 £11,700 £11,700
£1,000,000 £23,500 £23,500
It's not surprising that more and more house sellers are choosing to sell privately without an estate agent. In return for some knowledge and effort, the savings can be huge.
But, in addition to the savings shown in the table, above, you also need to remember the following:- when considering the capital growth in the value of your property, an estate agent is effectively taking a % of the increase in your property's value, not just a percentage of its current market value.
What do we mean by this? Let's take an example: If you bought your property for £200,000 three years ago and then you sell it for £300,000, an estate agent who is charging a commission of 2% will (according to the table, above), take approximately £6,955 from your sale proceeds (i.e., 2% of £300,000).
That's clear. However, that £6,955 actually represents nearly 7% of the £100,000 capital increase. Yes, you're potentially losing 7% of the growth in your investment by paying it to an estate agent! Think about that. Think about it very carefully indeed.
What do you need to know and do?
1. Preparing your property for sale
Bearing in mind a few tips can make your sale process a lot easier (and a lot quicker overall). These apply whether you're selling through an agent, selling privately or doing both.
Tip 1:
De-clutter!
What may just be "the day-to-day of life" for you is likely to be viewed by a buyer as being symptomatic of a messy, or (even worse) a poorly maintained, property. This topic links to Tip 2, which you'll come to shortly.
But one issue which many forget is that you can have too much furniture in a property. This can be a big presentational issue. Too much furniture starves rooms of space, or (if poorly matched) just looks bad.
Even if you have a lot of furniture which you need to keep, consider putting it in storage or leaving with friends or family in the short term.
Tip 2:
De-personalise!
Remember that most properties are 'personalised' to the owners. They tend to show all the trimmings of home. But, importantly, they are 'home' for the current owner. Probably not 'home' for the prospective buyer.
The more you can remove the 'personal' elements, the better. Although sometimes difficult, it's important and you should try to bear it in mind.
Often the things the mean the most to you will mean the least to a prospective buyer. See if you can move family photos, collectibles, etc (or at least make them less prominent). Obviously don't just stuff them in a cupboard as a high proportion of buyers will want to look in cupboards to check storage space!
Tip 3:
Tidy, clean and fix!
In addition to ensuring general tidiness/cleanliness and doing essential maintenance, be aware of, and do something about, the really important areas, inside and out...
