Selling your home stress-free – top tips

If you’re a homeowner, you might be thinking about taking advantage of property sales hotspots that keep cropping up throughout the UK, where prices are rising and demand for houses and flats remains high. But deciding to sell your property can potentially be very stressful.

There are many varied factors to consider, including how much to seek as an asking price for your property, knowing the steps to follow to get your home sale-ready, having to deal with the possibility that you might get an offer and it will fall through at the last minute, and more. Not to mention the various costs that can occur through many steps of selling, which can further add to the feeling by some homeowners that the entire process is rather overwhelming.

All of these situations and other typical issues that can arise when selling a home can make the process complicated and riddled with stress, which in turn could negatively affect you mentally and physically. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way, because there are some simple tips and tricks that you can follow in order to make the sale of your home as stress-free as possible.

• Get your home in its best possible condition before selling

The way that your home looks can make or break whether you receive any offers from buyers, and if nobody is showing any interest in your flat or house then this can be very stressful. Yet they might like the size and shape of the property but be turned off by its condition, and this can happen with minor problems such as an overgrown garden to major issues such as dry rot.

To prevent this from happening and ease the sale process, you should invest money and time to fix any problems that you can. If the outside of your home has broken roof tiles, chipped paint or anything else that could be considered an eyesore, you should repair it so that the exterior of your property makes a great first impression on buyers. Similarly, if there are visual flaws inside then you’ll also want to address those before people see them when they are on viewings.

• Be honest with yourself about your home’s asking price

You might have very ambitious ideas about how much your house or flat is worth, and this can sometimes cause stress if you pick an asking price that far exceeds what you’ll reasonably be able to get. If you set the price too high, then you might not get any interest from buyers. And if you set it too low then you could only break even or possibly even lose money on the sale.

Ask around estate agents, fast cash property buyers and home auctioneers for free quotes about how much they think your home is worth and look at the average value across the various prices you’re quoted. Use that to help guide a reasonable asking price for your property that balances profit with achievability in order to avoid any hassle with this aspect of selling.

• Develop a budget that covers all aspects of the sale

The asking price that you want to set for your home is just one of the many different monetary figures that you’ll have to consider when selling the property. Sometimes people get stressed out about moving because they feel like they are being surprised with new fees and other expenses every week, which build up and can sometimes feel overwhelming.

But it’s simple to avoid this kind of situation with some advance planning, by preparing a budget for the sale of your home regardless of which method of selling you would like to use. For example, if you want to sell using an auctioneer or an estate agent then ask specific companies upfront to disclose all of their fees, including commission and any other charges. This will let you develop an honest budget that covers all possible expenses for selling your house or flat.

And also account for post-sale expenses when crafting your budget, such as the cost of hiring a removal company to transport your belongings from your existing property to your next home. This is something that a few homeowners forget to plan for in their moving budget, and it can creating a stressful end to a move even after the joy of successfully selling a property.

• Prepare for surprises including sales falling through

Selling your home can be an unpredictable experience, particularly if you choose to find a buyer through an estate agent or trying your luck with a property auction. Selling via an estate agent can take many months or possibly even more than a year before you receive a serious offer. And selling through an auctioneer is a gamble because you never know if your home will receive any bids, or just one bid at the minimum reserve price — the lowest value at which you’re willing to sell your home, even if means that you won’t make much profit.

You can reduce your stress by accepting a certain amount of uncertainty when selling your home. A further element to consider in advance is the fact that some property sales fall through, particularly those done through estate agents. If you choose this method of selling and get an offer, consider it far from certain until contracts are signed and exchanged. Buyers are allowed to walk away up and until that point, and you have to accept that this might happen. By knowing the potential is there for a sale to collapse, it won’t be as stressful if it does happen.

And other possible surprises can happen during the time you’re waiting to receive a serious offer. It’s entirely possible, although unwelcome, that there could be an accident at your property that damages part of it and you’ll need to spend money and invest time in fixing whatever issue arises. The best way to prevent such an incident becoming highly stressful is to set aside some money if possible that you can use to urgently fix any such problems if they occur.

• Consider selling your property to a fast cash buyer

One option you have for removing stress from the home selling process is to contact a fast property cash buyer. These companies are able to give homeowners a streamlined, no-stress and hassle-free way to get straightforward, speedy and competitive offers for selling their houses and flats.

They can consider buying almost any type, shape and size of home – unlike some estate agents or auctioneers who might not know the best way to sell certain properties, for example those with structural problems or other complications. If you are selling a house with solar panels, LDN Properties have a specialist knowledge in this area, as well as property with many other types of problem.

A further stress relief of selling this way is that the reputable fast buyers never charge any fees when buying properties. That means you get to keep the full proceeds of whatever price they offer for purchasing your home, without having to worry about commission or other fees.

• Start packing early once you’ve secured a buyer

You might think that you can relax once you have a buyer who has signed and exchanged contracts and paid you the sale proceeds, but that’s not the case. Many homeowners forget to start packing up their belongings for the move to their property until too close to the move-out date, which means they have to start packing everything in a stressful hurry.

To avoid this outcome, make sure that you clearly know the date on which you are expected to vacate your current home and on which you can move your belongings in to your next property. As soon as those dates are confirmed you should start to pack up everything in your existing house so that you or a hired removal company can take it all out quickly on the moving out day. This will help to ensure that the last step of the sale process also goes smoothly.