The Sales Process

A realistic assessment of the value of your property is an important first step to ensure you understand how you will finance your home move.

Whilst websites can be used to provide an indication of what your property might be worth, you will need the experience of a professional estate agent to get a more accurate and realistic assessment of its real value.

We are happy to provide you a free, no-obligation, property appraisal.

We can meet you at your property a time that best suit your needs. Our appointment with you would typically take between 30-60 mins and would include a detailed inspection of your property.

At our meeting, we will discuss the specific needs relevant to your own situation, market forces and current demand, previous transactions in your street and activity levels with other properties similar to your own. This information will help us advise you on:

• The potential value range applicable to your property
• Anything you could do to enhance this value

We can also address any questions or concerns you have at this meeting.

To book a free valuation, please call the office on 0116 267 4049.

First impressions matter, and this starts with the marketing photos (most buyers don’t read the description until they’ve looked at the photos).

Preparing your home for photography is therefore one of the most important actions you can take to maximise your chances of attracting interest. This could involve some moving of furniture and basic de-cluttering. This is especially important where we are taking 360 photos as these show everything!

Use this handy guide to understand about preparing your property for market.

You will also need a Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for the property as it is a legal requirement.  We can arrange to have an EPC produced for you, quickly and without fuss – and at a competitive rate.  As this is provided by a 3^rd party we do ask that this is paid for upfront.

We commit huge amounts of time and money towards marketing properties to prospective purchasers – with the main aim of encouraging them to view the property.

We will discuss with you the best times of the day & week to present your property and do our best to steer appointments around these times. Many considerations need to be made, including your normal weekly patterns, parking availability and traffic levels, children and pets, light levels and garden aspects.

Whilst we offer accompanied viewings, some vendors are happy to carry out viewings during evenings and weekends when we are unable to do so. This can help if a buyer is unable to attend during normal opening hours.

Any offer received will be put forward to you at the first available opportunity. You will then need to make a decision whether the offer is accepted or rejected. (Please Note: at this stage it is common for a buyer to submit a low offer to test the water) If the initial offer is rejected and the purchaser decides to increase their offer, the process will repeat as above until you decide to accept the offer.

We will pre-qualify purchasers in advance of any viewings – and at the point of receiving an offer we would like to carry out a full qualifying process.

This will formally check their status and ability to proceed with any offer they make. In order for us to do this, we will ask for contact details of their broker or mortgage lender, and any estate agent dealing with their current property sale.

You will need instruct a solicitor/conveyancer to act for you in the sale.

Once this information has been provided and we have contacted the necessary parties for verification of your purchasers’ situation, we stop showing your property to other prospective purchasers.

It is at this stage that we will try to make you aware of any chain implications and the likely timescale of any agreed transaction. Due to the nature of the buying process, it is important to note and understand that any information provided by us concerning the transaction chain is not guaranteed and could change at any time. However, regular liaison will be made with legal parties acting on both your and your buyers behalf to ensure we can keep you abreast of progress on a timely basis.

When instructing a solicitor, they will usually give you a fixed price quotation for their work. We can provide you with a free no obligation quotation from one of our recommends solicitors. This has the advantage of being a tried and tested company who we have a good rapport with enabling u to chase them more effectively.

The time it takes to progress from this stage to completion is dependent on various factors – but the entire process usually take at least 6-8 weeks.

The time the Searches & Surveys takes varies massively depending on the type and level of report needed. This is because different properties require different levels of assessment i.e. new builds, well maintained properties or properties in need of some attention. This will also depend on what the Mortgage Lender require as part of their process.

Sometimes surveys come back with concerns or questions which will need to be addressed, an example of such is wood work in period properties or building control sign off for previous extensions.

On occasion work may need to be carried out (or the buyer may renegotiate and do the works themselves once the sale has completed). The other possible consequence is that an indemnity insurance may be needed by the solicitor (usually as your expense) and would insure the buyer in case of any financial repercussions in the event of a claim.

This is the stage at which sale contracts which have been signed by each party are exchanged meaning each party will now have a copy of the contract signed by the other party. At this stage the sale becomes legally binding and pulling out of the sale would come at considerable financial penalty. Once contracts have been exchanged a completion date can be set.

The completion date is normally set once agreed by all parties involved (not only you and the person buying from you, but everyone else in the chain as well) this is normally to allow each party to arrange a removal company. This date may change if one or more parties are struggling to book a removal company.

For example, if you are buying another home, you will need to be out of your property on this day to allow your buyer to move in this is the same as the person you are buying from.

If you are moving into rented accommodation this can make things much easier for you as you may decide to set your own the moving date before completion. This would allow you to arrange a moving date around your availability.

Today will be a stressful day for most as you will need to coordinate the removal company collecting your items and delivering them to the new property. You will also need to ensure we have all the sets of key and that you have all of your possessions out of your current property before the sale completes (this is when the funds have changed hands with the solicitors) at which point you will not be allowed back into the property without the permission from the buyer.

We recommend that you stay in a hotel the evening prior to completing and that the removal company collects your belongings that evening this will mean on the day of completion half the jobs have been done. You may even with to stay in a hotel the night of completion just in case the key handover isn’t until later in the day. This is especially helpful to consider if you have small children.