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IS ONE OF your New Year’s Resolutions selling your home?
It can seem like a daunting task if you haven’t been through the process before – or even if you have. There’s a lot to organise and take into consideration before you take the plunge, but there’s no time like the present.
We’ve put together this handy primer to help you tackle the first major hurdles involved in selling your humble abode. As ever, if you have any valuable words of experience or advice, please don’t hesitate to leave them down below in the comments section.
Once you’ve made up your mind to sell and move on, start looking at your house with a critical eye – and put yourself in the position of prospective buyers seeing it for the first time.
Research by Rightmove found that dirty kitchens and bathrooms were the worst turn-offs to viewers, with more than half of the 4,000 respondents to the survey picking these as the biggest no-no.
These are not only some of the most-used rooms in a house, but also personal places that potential buyers will imagine themselves using. Make this easier for them by ensuring they are spick and span for viewings.
Ben Lillington Lester, Branch Manager of Savills Ireland in Blackrock, told TheJournal.ie:
Having the place clean and clear is an absolute must. I see some places up online with clothes on the floor and cornflakes in the sink. Presentation is key. For example, over 30 per cent of Savills clients are international buyers, they can’t just pop down in person that afternoon to see the place. If your photographs, brochures and internet links aren’t up to scratch, you aren’t going to generate interest and get those leads.
Other things that may rub buyers up the wrong way include:
Fix what is obviously damaged in your house, but don’t go gutting and refitting if it’s not completely key for your property. Focus on first impressions – for example, paint the front door, tidy the garden and make sure communal areas/entrance areas are in tip-top form.
‘Stage’ your home for when viewings and open houses are arranged – ie stow away clutter, make the beds, style the dining room table, arrange furniture well, and so on.
Also think about removing any interior design that detracts from the general feel of the house. You don’t have to depersonalise totally, but do bear in mind that the feature wall you love may in reality distract viewers.
Tim Wardley, regional managing director at estate agency Connells, told the Guardian:
“Purchasers are trying to picture themselves living in your home so minimise personal possessions such as photos.”
Consider what a buyer is looking for and what they want to see. Describe your assets well and understand what is attractive about your home. Make a list to bring with you to your estate agent – think transport links, schools, what the area is like, whether or not there is parking, levels of noise, etc.
For example, if you have good neighbours, make sure the estate agent knows this so that they can pass on this information to those interested in the house.
A crucial decision when it comes to sell is your choice of estate agent. This can hold potentially the biggest sway over whether or not your property goes for the right price.
Ben from Savills recommends seeing at least three agents in order to ensure a good range of skills and experience. “See a local agent who knows the area really well, then a large agent, then an international agent like us… They’ve all got something to bring to the table, they’ll all put a different spin on it.”
Haggling on fees with agents is something that comes up often when prospective sellers are considering putting their house on the market – but Ben warns against getting too bogged down in this issue.
“The most important thing is not the fee – it’s getting the best agent and the best price. Fees are flexible, and sensible discussions can be had about them, but you get what you pay for. Decide what you need and work from there.”
Ben’s other piece of insider advice is to ensure the agent you choose has the right team around them. For example, are the people answering phones in the office to set up viewings with prospective buyers as impressive as the agent you met when putting it on the market?
Ben advises setting a competitive asking price, while of course at the same time ensuring you aren’t under-valuing your home. He strongly warns against setting the asking price too high, explaining:
The first four to six weeks are the most important time, and setting the price too high can lead to little interest. Reducing the asking price later then creates a negative first impression.
Set an asking price instead, he advises, that will “generate interest and excitement. Buyers love hot and fresh properties that are new on the market. They don’t like houses that have been hanging around too long – they’ll worry there’s something the matter with it, or wonder if they’ll have problems selling it on themselves.”
The price has to be right in these early weeks on the market in order to generate competition and getting bidding going. Consider opting for a competitive price from the get-go and following it up with open houses and advertising, rather than scaring prospective bidders off at the first hurdle and having to play catch-up later.
If all of this seems too daunting, consider setting up a market appraisal with a few estate agents first. This will just be a cup of tea and a chat over the timeframes, the property itself and what you’re looking for. Ben says that most (if not all) estate agents should do this step for free – and this is crucial for advising people how to proceed.
“There’s no one size fits all when it comes to advice. You have to meet people and have a conversation and go from there.”
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I am struggling to remember a single thing this government have managed properly.
Apart from their numerous pay rises.
@Andrew Martin: working day and night to legitimise the pay rise for working day and night to legitimise the pay rise.
@Andrew Martin: errrr how about Ireland ranked 20th highest in full vaccinations? And a working tracking app, how about us not going the way of the UK. We ate doing a lot of right things. Sorry to ruin your massive failed whinge
@Paul Furey: Your opinion is in the minority now unfortunately
… People want the country opened up.
@Paul Furey: ha, a tracking app that chewed through battery power and didnt work 100%, 20th while vaccinating a relatively small population and what way are the UK going? Fully open soon and more vaccinated than us?…… I get that you’re pro govt in the majority of your posts but in reality they’ve handled this crisis very poorly on many levels. Poor communication, leaks, conflicting info, not protecting the elderly in the first wave, afraid to lock down initially while watching everyone else lock down(26th in europe to do so), not engaging with heavily impacted sectors, nearly a year in level 5 and not managing the economy through the whole thing, rules that dont make any sense, taking ages to enforce masks for a airborne disease, not making use of rapid testing. And theres prob more.
@Paul Hedderman: the UK also had 50 deaths today, the highest number since April. Do you want that here too?
@Paul Furey: The only thing this inept government can agree on is on how to F..k things up.
@Sam Harms: Adjust for population. Thats like 3 – 4 deaths here…. And they had 6 yesterday. Thats why 7 day moving averages are better stats to look at to get a more accurate picture.
@Paul Hedderman: in the past 7 days they have had 213 deaths
@Sam Harms: thanks sam. Thats an average of 30. This time in their second wave when they had slightly higher daily cases they were getting around 600 deaths a day. Big difference….. Thankful the vaccienes are being rolled out
@Sam Harms: Thanks also for proving my point. 50 is way worse than the 7 day average of 30. 66.6% more infact.
@Paul Hedderman: so you don’t think an average of 30 people a day dying from covid is bad? How many people are you willing to sacrifice?
@Sam Harms: in the UK, no, thats very good in regard to fighting the virus. Thats like 2 people a day here…… Around 2 people die a day here during flu season. Never any restrictions for that and most people go on with their daily lives unaware. While any death is sad for the loved ones humans get sick and die all the time. We live beside viruses and illness every day of our lives, unrestricted pre covid. We’ll get to a stage with covid where we’ll live unrestricted, hopefully limiting deaths as much as possible, but there’ll probably still be deaths. People need to realise that.
Typical..right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing….
@Paul Somers: typical….moaner
@Paul Furey: is ‘whinge’ your favourite word, Paul?
@JedBartlett: He seems to have an extremely limited vocabulary:)
@Paul Furey: i never tire of seeing you whinge about other people whinging.
Do they ever talk to each other before telling the public stuff?
@Ballybough Marcus: no they haven’t the intelligence
Misunderstanding something they are brilliant at
@Keith O Hanlon: Yes exactly, this is what the email says:You can use your certificate to facilitate travel across EU member states during the Covid-19 pandemic and on the actual cert it mentions that this is not a travel document
@Keith O Hanlon: Yes exactly, this is what the email says:You can use your certificate to facilitate travel across EU member states during the Covid-19 pandemic and on the actual cert it mentions that this is not a travel document
@d: Well thats actually a contradiction in terms as they are saying you must have it, or a pcr / antigen test, to travel.
So if you do not receive the covid passport by email having been vaccinated in June, and are flying on the 19th of July…..and there is no call centre no to contact ? you seriously could not make this up….
@Linda Oreilly: Well wouldn’t that be a little bit silly, booking for the very day the restricitions are up? In Ireland. Where nothing runs on time.
@Tom Tom: And its that sort of attitude that contributes to these shortcomings. “Ah shur we’ll be grand” instead of saying get your overpaid asses into gear get it done properly.
@Linda Oreilly: Is it not going to be available on the Covid tracker app as well? You’d have that to show?
@Fiona Fitzgerald: yep I got my Covid Vaccine Passport via email late last night. No more PCR tests!!
All i can think of anytime one of these eejits make a statement is a chant you would here at a foitball match ” You don’t know what you’re doing”
@Derek Lyster: just waiting and hoping for a slight slip up by theGovernment and the Shinners and lefties are out of the woodwork…the rest of us agree that a good job is being done in extreme and unprecedented situations.
@john gavin: I’m neither a Shinner nor a Leftie as you so condescendingly put it. I would just like our vastly overpaid representatives to do their jobs properly. Not try to rush through legislation that has in no way been thought properly through so they can go on holidays. I for one don’t agree that they, have or are, doing a good job.
@Franny Ando: But that’s exactly what a Stalint-Trotskist-Marxist-Lefty-Commie would say!
Seriously though, it self expires in 3 months and they can’t do it the right way anyway because it’s constitutionally *very* sketchy and likely wouldn’t pass muster. They are lucky they have Michael D to sign it tbh. I doubt some of our previous presidents would.
So, yeah, it’s rubbish, but at least it will put itself in the bin in October so I don’t see the need to stress it.
@John Considine: But remember they are also saying it can be extended beyond Oct. So let’s hope it is put in the bin:)
Michael Martin looking a bit unwell these days
Ahh the good old “GANFYD” approach: “Get A Note From Your Doctor”.
Doctor’s notes waste huge amounts of time and aren’t as valuable as most folk believe. Waste of your own money and your doctor’s time in many cases.
We need to move away from this business of medicalising everything. Why would you need a doctor’s note to eat out, go on holiday etc? Surely that’s the Dept of Health’s decision.
Tried to ring the number today as my cert has the wrong name on it. Rang once then disconnected. This happened 10 times. Looks like they’re getting paid not to answer the phone.
The Mrs. Received her cert today but is disappointed that it can’t be laminated due to the glare from the paper which prevents the digital machine from reading the QR code.
So what’s the phone number then ?
I got mine through my gp but at a hse vaccination centre. God only knows if or how I’ll get one. I better call the helpline. Oh no wait, its not set up yet.
Got phizer in a country outside the EU. I wonder will they accept my covid vaccination certificate!
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