Why you should considering selling your house now

It’s pretty cold out there and we just seem to be assaulted by one storm after the next. Isn’t that just one reason not to even think about moving house?
Of course we can come up with all sorts of excuses to batten down the hatches and stay put, but the reality is that if you have to move house, for whatever reason, then you should seriously consider selling now.

Here are some very good reasons why now is a good time to sell your house:

Lack of competition in the local housing market

There is currently the lowest number of available properties for many, many years. This means that there is far less competition to attract buyers than there would be in the spring, when we are likely to see more houses hitting the market. It also means that buyers may more readily pay what you are looking to achieve.

Buyers want to move to this area

We have plenty of frustrated buyers who would dearly love to hear about fresh properties in Wiltshire and Dorset. Not only is this a popular part of the world to move to, but there are also those who want to stay in the area and get on with the next stage in their lives. Whether they are upsizing or downsizing, moving from town into country or vice versa, we are in touch with them.

Speed – save time

You can beat the rush and save valuable time. In the summer months solicitors, surveyors and local authorities are often overloaded with work. The quieter months allow them to concentrate on less workload, however, and transactions can smooth through just that bit more quickly. For instance the last couple of summers saw Wiltshire local authority searches take up to a couple of months to be returned which often proved critical. At the moment this is more likely to be one or two weeks.

Timing

Putting your property on the market now should enable a move within the next three or four months which means that you will have the majority of the summer to enjoy getting to know your new home. It is a much more pleasant time to physically move, you will have the longer days and better weather (we hope!) to concentrate on any home improvements, and plenty of time to arrange schools for September.

Presentation

Your house can look as good now as it might in the summer months. Photographers are very clever beings and if you use a professional, as we do, then the best aspects of your property can be relayed with skill. True, they can’t conjure up green leafed trees and bounteous borders, but they can really help to sell an attractive lifestyle, which actually is what it is all about.

Appointing a solicitor for conveyancing

You’ve found your perfect home or your agent has hooked you a buyer, now what? For many, it’s only at this stage that they start to think about appointing a solicitor to act on their behalf in the conveyancing process. i.e. the legal business of buying and selling property. However, we would urge buyers and sellers to do this before arriving at this stage.

The reasons why one should be well prepared in advance of agreeing a sale/purchase are many and varied but could save you time, avoid complications, stress and even help to avoid disappointment.

In this article, I discuss how to go about choosing a solicitor. In a future one, I will write about the steps involved in appointing a solicitor and what happens before they can actually get the ball rolling and get a sale underway.

Conveyancing: do you homework!

First of all, be prepared to take a day or two to do your homework and find a solicitor you feel is the right one to do a good job for you. It is worth doing a bit of research and asking friends, relations and agents for recommendations.

How experienced are they? Have they dealt with your type of property before? How well do they know the area you are buying/selling in as some local knowledge can be helpful?

How transparent is your solicitor? Make sure there are no hidden fees and that you have an idea as to what you are going to be charged for and how much.

How proactive will your solicitor be in issuing or chasing paperwork, raising or dealing with enquiries, liaising with their opposite number and progressing matters as speedily but as effectively as possible?

How available are they? Solicitors are busy people but you don’t want your case to be at the bottom of the pile. You want them to be good at communicating not only with you but also with the agents involved as agents have a role to play in keep things moving and everyone in the chain informed.

Solicitors: choose wisely

Do not necessarily go with the cheapest quote. Bearing in mind the sums of money involved and the potential complexity of a transaction, good property conveyancing is too important a service to skimp on a few quid on. The same can be said about choosing the right estate agent but that’s another story!

There several large conveyancing companies that process sales almost on a production line basis. They are usually cheaper than the more traditional local solicitor whose office you can pop into and some are perfectly efficient, particularly if it’s a straight forward sale but others can be like dealing with a call centre manned by inexperienced staff.

Lastly, don’t forget that where there is a mortgage involved, the loan provider will also be a client of the solicitor.

A sale was quickly agreed for this super country home with lovely views across the Blackmore Vale & delightful grounds. If you have a house to sell like it, do get in touch!

This delightful period cottage  always proves popular when it comes available & tenants enjoy living in such a in a lovely rural hamlet. Landlords, we have tenants wanting similar homes!

A quintessential English country cottage in an idyllic rural setting, it attracted huge interest & we could have sold it several times over! We need more of the same to satisfy demand!