11 Jan How to cut costs when selling a house
Selling a house can be time consuming and stressful and a number of significant costs can be involved in the process. Clearly, if you are going to the trouble of selling your property, then you will want to retain as much of the sale value as possible. Some costs may not allow for very much leeway when it comes to the selling process but others may be reduced with some careful forethought and management.
Good marketing
Spending money on an estate agent may seem like an unnecessary expense, but if you want to get effective marketing for your property, then you will need to make an outlay in this area. It’s quite difficult to market a property yourself and expert help may be just what you need to package the property to the right buyer and speed the process up, saving yourself time and money. Having a property on a market can be extremely disruptive to daily life with regular viewings. The trick is to choose an agent who will get the job done efficiently. Look for one with a successful track record in your area and they may very well be open to negotiation when it comes to price.
The temptation may be to make as many improvements as possible before putting your property on the market, but there comes a point when you may be overdoing things and the money you’re spending won’t be reflected in the sale price. Ultimately, the price you can realise for your home will be limited by the general location, the street you live on and the size of the property.
If you are going to make some improvements before you sell your home, do as much of the work as you can yourself. Be sensible about the money you’re spending. There’s no point installing gold plated taps if you’re about to move out. The cost of building work is also increasing sharply. Despite the rising cost of living and economic uncertainty, the housing market appears to be relatively stable and prices in some locations and circumstances have continued to show modest growth according to this recent report in The Guardian.
Shop around
Before you engage anyone to work on your behalf, make sure you look around first and see what competitive rates are for the services you need. This applies to legal and conveyancing costs, as well as estate agent costs. If, for example, you’re looking to minimise transfer of equity costs, then it would be a good idea to look at specialist firms that offer services in this area, such as Sam Conveyancing.
Shopping around applies in equal measure to removal firms or someone to tidy up the garden. The important aspect in this is to look for value – the cheapest isn’t always the best. What you want is a fair price for honest work carried out properly.
When you find a buyer, you will need your legal adviser to go through the documentation carefully and highlight any irregularities. Having effective support at this stage could very well save you a great deal of money in the long run by identifying any issues and dealing with them before they become major and costly problems.
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