How selling a house works 
1. Home improvements
2. Decide how to sell
3. Know your value
4. Online advertisement
5. Viewings
6. Conveyancing

As we’ve entered a New Year, a lot of homeowners will start to look at the changes that they want to make in 2021. Some want to redecorate and refresh their house, whereas others are ready to sell up and move elsewhere. If you’ve been looking at selling but want to know more before you move forward, this is the article for you! We Buy Any House look at the selling process, and how you can prepare yourself and your house to sell.

Need to sell house fast? Get a cash offer for your house today!

1. Home improvements

Before you list your house for sale, making home improvements is a good idea to help increase your value and increase the interest in your property from potential buyers. If you’re wondering, how can I redecorate my house on a budget? there are several tips and tricks that you can use to keep costs down. From decluttering to repainting, spending some time improving your house before your sale is beneficial in more ways than one:

• It can help to increase your value, depending on how much you’re able to do – it can also encourage buyers to put in a higher offer than they may have done before the redecoration.
• It can help you generate more views. Potential buyers will likely look at your house as an online listing before moving further and arranging to come for a viewing of the house, and if they can see that it’s recently been redecorated it encourages them to move forward with your house rather than others that they may be looking at.

When you make home improvements, don’t forget to take the outside of your house into consideration as well. Kerb appeal is an important part of selling a house, and we’ve put together some helpful tips to increase your kerb appeal here.

2. Decide how you want to sell

Previously, homeowners thought that there was only one way to sell their house; on the open market. However, there are other paths that you can take to sell your home, such as:

• Selling at an auction: This is one of the faster ways that you can sell your house and is a perfect option for those that don’t want to deal with the stress that comes with selling on the open market. There are positives and negatives to selling at an auction, which you can learn more about in our blog post, should I sell my house at an auction?
• Quick sale companies: These companies are also a great option for homeowners looking for a quick sale, especially for those that have had issues selling on the open market previously and aren’t in a position to wait for a seller. If you’ve been thinking, how can I sell my house faster? These companies may be ideal for you! As with any decision, there are positives and negatives to quick sale companies too, which we’ve discussed in detail in our article what to consider when selling your house fast.

When you’re deciding how you want to sell, making sure you do your research is the key. Know the ins and outs of each method and decide which suits you best depending on your circumstances.

3. Know your value – and what people will pay!

You may already have an idea of your property value, but with the pandemic still going and the changes that the world has seen over the past year, it may have changed. If you’ve decided to sell with an estate agent, they will be able to attend your house and do a survey to confirm your property value. It’s important to remember that when estate agents value your house, they will generally edge on the higher value option. They do this because when your house is up for sale, you will generally have offers under the asking value. While this can seem like a good idea to help you achieve the best sale price you can, it can be a risky game as it will often put potential buyers off, especially if there are other houses that they’re interested in with a lower asking price.

Listing your house at the right price is incredibly important. Too high, and you’ll lose potential buyers right away before they even view the house. Too low, and they will assume that there’s hidden problems that they don’t want to deal with. You can do your own research by looking at houses in your area that are a similar size and seeing what they’re priced at. This will give you an idea of where you should be looking for your price, and make sure that you’re not going too high or too low.

4. Online advertisement

Advertising your house online is one of the best ways to gain interest, especially with so many of us staying at home again in higher tier restrictions. Platforms such as Rightmove and Zoopla are the most popular ways to advertise online, and your agent will be able to create a listing for your house to attract potential buyers. Your agent may also take pictures of your property, but you will want to make sure that your house is in the best state it can be when this is done. Advertising pictures are a really important part of your listing, and there are a few things you can do to improve them:

• Have your photos taken during the day, with curtains open to provide as much natural light as possible to brighten your rooms and make them look more spacious.
• Declutter and tidy before your photos are taken. Every room will look better when it’s organised, and it will make for much better photos for potential buyers to look at.

• Make sure that they’re taken by a professional. If your agent has sent someone to take your photos you should be fine, however, during the first lockdown some homeowners had to take their own advertising photos and struggled. If you’re thinking of taking your own photos to limit the amount of people in your house, or if you’re currently needing to isolate for 10 days but are keen to move forward with your sale, we can help. We put together a guide on how to take the best photos to help sell a house which is full of helpful tips!

5. Viewings

Once you’ve generated the interest of some potential buyers, they will want to view your house before going to the next step. You may decide to leave hosting viewings to your agent if this is something they offer, or you might prefer to do them yourself.

Currently, house viewings can still go forward no matter what tier you’re in, but there are some precautions that you will need to take to keep everyone involved as safe as possible:

• Limit the amount of people that attend each viewing, to avoid crossing more than the necessary households
• Everyone should wear a face covering while inside the house
• Leave doors open so that your viewers don’t need to touch the doorhandles, reducing the risk of contamination
• If you or your viewer experiences any symptoms before the viewing, it should be cancelled and rescheduled after a negative test result.

6. Conveyancing

Once your viewer has turned into a buyer, you will be able to accept their offer and move through to the conveyancing stage. Conveyancing is the legal aspects of buying and selling a property and is what confirms the transfer of the house from you to your buyer. Conveyancing can take a long time, and it’s important to know this when you sell so you’re not worried about the natural delays that can occur. It can take up to 20 weeks, but is often faster than this, especially if you’re selling with no chain. For more detail about the processes and costs, you can read one of our previous blog posts, what is conveyancing?

How can I sell my house fast?

If you’ve been looking to sell and don’t want to face the standard delays that come with house sales, we can help. We Buy Any House can let you sell in as little as 7 days, leaving you free to move on and not have to stress about a drawn-out house sale that could take over 6 months! Get in touch with us today for your free cash offer, and see how we can make your sale easier.

Back to all articles