Discussion
huntsman said:
I am about to sell a house, has anyone here done the marketing and conveyancing themselves? I reckon for the sake of a bit of effort on my part that I can save about 4 grand.
Any advice?
I'm sure the marketing could be done by yourself loads of people do it, if you have enough of a footfall past your house, but I have absolutely no idea how to start doing conveyancing.
I'd second Al's post ...
Marketing isn't actually as difficult as the estate agents make out, the only advantage I see is that they claim to vet buyers.
A few tips though - for the most part, ignore those sale-by-owner portal sites. About as useful as advertising it in your living room, except that since they never seem to remove ads, you'll finally start getting enquiries about a year after you've moved.{personal experience only YMMV)
Your own website - if you've got a digial camera and are OK at web design, these are great. If you'r web design is wobbly, type "free template" into google and you'll have lots to work with.
Take out your own advert in the property section of the local paper, is my advice. We nearly did it, but then our house move was a marathon session of 4 buyers and 6 vendors before we finally got things sorted.
As far as presentation of your home goes, those tv shows are unfortunately right, probably even more so now that joe blow is primed to expect good presentation. In our case 10 grands worth of tidying up (a good chunk of which went on furniture that we took with us), added a conservative 30 grand's worth to the sale price (but you had to have seen the before and after photos - my ex had been welding the bike engine on the living room carpet, the kitchen was 1950's plywood .... )
As far as conveyancing goes, I'd go with a solicitor but check them out - some shouldn't be allowed near a legal document IMO.
Marketing isn't actually as difficult as the estate agents make out, the only advantage I see is that they claim to vet buyers.
A few tips though - for the most part, ignore those sale-by-owner portal sites. About as useful as advertising it in your living room, except that since they never seem to remove ads, you'll finally start getting enquiries about a year after you've moved.{personal experience only YMMV)
Your own website - if you've got a digial camera and are OK at web design, these are great. If you'r web design is wobbly, type "free template" into google and you'll have lots to work with.
Take out your own advert in the property section of the local paper, is my advice. We nearly did it, but then our house move was a marathon session of 4 buyers and 6 vendors before we finally got things sorted.
As far as presentation of your home goes, those tv shows are unfortunately right, probably even more so now that joe blow is primed to expect good presentation. In our case 10 grands worth of tidying up (a good chunk of which went on furniture that we took with us), added a conservative 30 grand's worth to the sale price (but you had to have seen the before and after photos - my ex had been welding the bike engine on the living room carpet, the kitchen was 1950's plywood .... )
As far as conveyancing goes, I'd go with a solicitor but check them out - some shouldn't be allowed near a legal document IMO.
Couple of thoughts on the flipside - feel free to disagree.
i) Quotes for conveyancing vary wildy, and are mostly proportionate to the cost of the conveyancers office space, rather than competence of the individual. I was quoted between £800 and £250 for my sale. I think I paid £280, for which DIYing didn't seem worth the time and risk.
ii) Just my opinion, as I despise estate agents as much as the next man, but you may find that a buyer will want to pay less for your house precisely because there isn't an agent involved, so savings may not be as great as you expect. It's kind of like buying a car privately rather than from a dealer, the customer "expects" to pay more.
AdrianR
i) Quotes for conveyancing vary wildy, and are mostly proportionate to the cost of the conveyancers office space, rather than competence of the individual. I was quoted between £800 and £250 for my sale. I think I paid £280, for which DIYing didn't seem worth the time and risk.
ii) Just my opinion, as I despise estate agents as much as the next man, but you may find that a buyer will want to pay less for your house precisely because there isn't an agent involved, so savings may not be as great as you expect. It's kind of like buying a car privately rather than from a dealer, the customer "expects" to pay more.
AdrianR
Thanks all, when me and the fiancee buy our house together I'll use a solicitor as I perceive the risk to be higher, I reckon I can do the conveyancing my self, I've got all the paper work from when I bought it and there is some good material online and some good books. My dad is a property negotiator so he'll help. I'll pop it on some websites, put a board up, advertise in local papers etc.
I'll keep you posted.
I'll keep you posted.
Good idea.
Conveyancing isn't difficult per se (mainly a lot of form-filling), what you're paying a solicitor for is his/her experience in knowing what questions to ask, what the right answers should be and how to resolve the situation when the answers aren't what you would like them to be!
A suggestion I'd make is to instruct a solicitor/conveyancer local to the area where the property is. Saves a massive amount of time if they already know what the potential pitfalls are and are on first name terms with the other side's solicitor!
Conveyancing isn't difficult per se (mainly a lot of form-filling), what you're paying a solicitor for is his/her experience in knowing what questions to ask, what the right answers should be and how to resolve the situation when the answers aren't what you would like them to be!
A suggestion I'd make is to instruct a solicitor/conveyancer local to the area where the property is. Saves a massive amount of time if they already know what the potential pitfalls are and are on first name terms with the other side's solicitor!
If you have a mortgage then the lender will insist on instructing solicitors and there is a stage in the handover of money that is very hard to do without solicitors acting for you.
As a solicitor myself I know that 95% of what I do could be done by anyone with a bit of common sense but every once in a while something comes along that would escape the notice of anyone not experienced in the field. The crucial bit is being able to spot them. Some issues are genuine legal problems but others are more about knowing what market practice is.
It is easier to do the work on a sale than it is on a purchase and if you were selling a flat I would strongly recommend not doing it yourself but the real difficulty is the mismatch of you against the conveyancer on the other side. Without experience you are in danger of being led a song and dance by the other side and having them convince you that nobody in their right mind would pay full price for your property because of the "legal problems" - how do you know if they are really problems?
Anyway, thats the legal stuff.
Using agents is another matter. I haven't sold a property but I do rent one out and I never use agents, I just advertise it in Loot. So far we are on letting number 4 and the longest period we have had to advertise for is 3 weeks - at £20 per week. If I were to sell my place I would certainly have a go myself and do the following:
1. get details of comparable properties to set a realistic price
2. get a "pseudo" board made up so that it looked like an agents board (plywood on a pole should do it) so that anyone driving passed would see it. Paint it white and put "FOR SALE" in the same sort of style as agents use and make sure the phone number is clear
3. Do a set of details with all the stuff agents put in about room sizes, facilities, pictures etc
4. Try to get it onto a website with pictures - especially if you can get hold of one of those cameras that does the rotating view of the room (we decided to buy our new house from seeing images done with one of those even before we had been inside the place)
5. Get it into the press with a picture if possible (haggle hard, local papers will usually do big discounts on headline prices, especially if you book a couple of months at a time)
We usually get pestered by agents offering to let our property for us and I have stopped being polite to them but even with my experience of seeing the industry from the solicitors side I honestly cannot see what agents do that anyone with a bit of nouse couldn't do for themselves. Good ones can get the price spot on straight away but good research will cover that.
As a solicitor myself I know that 95% of what I do could be done by anyone with a bit of common sense but every once in a while something comes along that would escape the notice of anyone not experienced in the field. The crucial bit is being able to spot them. Some issues are genuine legal problems but others are more about knowing what market practice is.
It is easier to do the work on a sale than it is on a purchase and if you were selling a flat I would strongly recommend not doing it yourself but the real difficulty is the mismatch of you against the conveyancer on the other side. Without experience you are in danger of being led a song and dance by the other side and having them convince you that nobody in their right mind would pay full price for your property because of the "legal problems" - how do you know if they are really problems?
Anyway, thats the legal stuff.
Using agents is another matter. I haven't sold a property but I do rent one out and I never use agents, I just advertise it in Loot. So far we are on letting number 4 and the longest period we have had to advertise for is 3 weeks - at £20 per week. If I were to sell my place I would certainly have a go myself and do the following:
1. get details of comparable properties to set a realistic price
2. get a "pseudo" board made up so that it looked like an agents board (plywood on a pole should do it) so that anyone driving passed would see it. Paint it white and put "FOR SALE" in the same sort of style as agents use and make sure the phone number is clear
3. Do a set of details with all the stuff agents put in about room sizes, facilities, pictures etc
4. Try to get it onto a website with pictures - especially if you can get hold of one of those cameras that does the rotating view of the room (we decided to buy our new house from seeing images done with one of those even before we had been inside the place)
5. Get it into the press with a picture if possible (haggle hard, local papers will usually do big discounts on headline prices, especially if you book a couple of months at a time)
We usually get pestered by agents offering to let our property for us and I have stopped being polite to them but even with my experience of seeing the industry from the solicitors side I honestly cannot see what agents do that anyone with a bit of nouse couldn't do for themselves. Good ones can get the price spot on straight away but good research will cover that.
Thanks Bill, you make some good points, 'I' am selling and 'WE' are buying together, I intend to use a solicitor/conveyancer to buy as I think the risk is higher.
I have spoken to my mortgage company, I've explained I am self conveyancing and they have agreed to send me the deeds in advance and that I can have a settlement figure for completion day so discharge the mortagage same day.
There is one issue with the house, its underpinned, I have the guarantee for the work, it was paid for by Abbey Nat who still insure the property and are prepared to continue doing so.
I have spoken to my mortgage company, I've explained I am self conveyancing and they have agreed to send me the deeds in advance and that I can have a settlement figure for completion day so discharge the mortagage same day.
There is one issue with the house, its underpinned, I have the guarantee for the work, it was paid for by Abbey Nat who still insure the property and are prepared to continue doing so.
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