How to sell your home if the property market crashes.

With recent reports from both building societies and surveyors of a fall in house prices, alarm is spreading amongst most UK homeowners, especially the buy to let brigade and people who are or were planning to sell.

What can you do? With the added disincentive of HIPS (Home information packs), rising fuel costs, rising grocery costs, ……..and Christmas on the way(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)……….what on earth could you do to make your home saleable, and for the right price??

The process of selling your home is a generally exciting and fun experience and the chance to close a chapter in your life and move on to the next bit. People have a variety of reasons for selling their home; downsizing, expanding, relocating, retiring and so on; however this process also takes a lot of hard work. It requires fixing and sorting out all those small issues and problems that you have not bothered to look into for years.

These could include decorative issues, both inside, and contrary to popular belief, OUTSIDE TOO! Yes, the outside of most peoples homes is often neglected, and estate agents will tell you time and time again that “kerb appeal” is often the deciding factor whether someone makes a decision to buy your house or not. 1st Impressions; you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so our advice to you is that if you want to sell your home quicker, if the exterior is free of defects like cracks and mould, loose and cracked render or pebbledash, penetrating or rising damp, and it looks good, the people who turn up to view will be more likely to buy your home than if it was a pristine interior, with all the latest fittings, but the outside looks like a building site!!!!!!

The prospective home seller should be asking themselves, are they looking forward to moving up to a new dream house or facing the uncertainty of moving across the country? Or even moving to another country? There are many emotional issues also that should be considered when moving home, or planning to move home as I can tell you from experience dear reader, it’s a LOT of hassle, a LOT of stress, and often, and LOT of money!

Over the past few years, there has been a multitude of property shows on British TV, such as Changing rooms, Grand Designs, Location location location, property makeover, living in the sun, a place in the sun, and so on. Almost entirely, these shows concentrate on the INTERIOR of a house and not the exterior, the very thing that you should be concentrating on. Let me tell you, from experience if you let the outside go to pot, it will cost you far more to fix then the inside would. Unless you are planning major alterations to the inside of your house, it’s normally down to new carpets and a coat of paint!

A home owner also needs to decide if they are going to sell it all by themselves (FSBO = for sale by owner) or should they contact an Estate Agent. (You know its odd that for years these people were essentially no better than traffic wardens in terms of integrity and popularity, however when we are all making money from property, it’s a bit different isn’t it? I would suggest when the market does crash in 2008, they won’t be so popular!), (No offence to any estate agents reading this by the way). Selling your home yourself can be hugely rewarding and save a lot of money, however if you’ve never done it before, or are not particularly business orientated, an estate agent might be the way to go; However saying that there are some websites that specialise in this so it may be worth checking them out too before you decide what to do.

The process of getting your home on the market, and then the hard bit, actually selling it, will take some time, don’t think it will be easy as it won’t be, and its getting harder, very quickly. The whole process of selling your home will take probably a few months, depending on the state of both the local and national housing markets. In fact with the ongoing credit turmoil in the USA, perhaps we also need to look at the international markets too?

There’s no getting away from the fact that houses are just too expensive. A generation of people, myself included, work hard and pay rent as they cannot possibly afford to buy. In my old street in Plymouth, Devon, the houses in 1999 cost £60,000. They are now on the market for £250,000. Who the hell can afford that? In 1999 if I bought a house for £250,000 it would be a huge mansion! It’s fine if you already own somewhere, but unless your parents are multi millionaires and generous ones as mine are not, as a first time buyer, you don’t have a hope in hell of getting on the ladder; it’s a simple as that

If you are selling your house it should be appealing to prospective buyers. Don’t put them off!

There are many questions that will be considered in deciding if your home will sell easily or if it will be stuck on the market with few or no viewings. You must be REALISTIC. For too long homes have been overvalued. A “for sale” home should be visually appealing and in good condition, so that it will attract potential buyers who may be driving down the street. The house should be attractive to an outsiders eyes.

How to correctly value your home in a downward market

It is common that home sellers want to truly acquire the top price for their home, however they also need to consider that pricing too high, and being greedy, will scare off, or turn-off potential buyers. Remember in a downward market, your prospective buyer will not be sure that if they pay £200,000 for it, it will be worth £250,000 the following year. This is no longer the case. This also applies to people raising money by remortgaging. That is not going to happen much any more. This may also cause the property to languish on the market for a long period, and reducing the asking price at a later date may cause potential buyers to think if there is something wrong with the home.

Here are some factors to consider in setting up the right price for your home:

- The location. People pay extra for nice views, good local schools, amenities etc. People pay LESS for ones next to main roads, industrial areas etc.

- Economic conditions. If prices are dropping, be realistic and set your price a bit LOWER than similar houses in the area.

- Supply and demand in the local housing market. A tricky one as homes are still in demand. Maybe the labour government should not keep letting people into this country as there is not the extra homes being built to accommodate an increasing population?

Saying that, as large developers have focussed solely on city centre flats of late, there are thousands unsold and empty with prices plummeting, in fact price drops have been reported on flats for the past few months, it would seem that houses are about to catch up.

- Local schools. Irrelevant if you don’t have kids, but always a good selling point. Your prospective buyer may have kids and find this important, so point it out in any details of sale.

- Average home prices in the local area. A tricky one with the current situation.


- Homes extras (like swimming pool, feature fireplace, central heating, Jacuzzi, air conditioning etc). People like this but a savvy buyer can see through this. You may love your outside hot tub but your buyer may hate it and feel that the extra 3 grand you put on the price of the house is not worth it as they don’t want a hot tub!

In assessing the correct value of the home, you probably would need to seek the advice of a reputable real estate agent or property appraiser. Brokers can help prepare a market analysis for you, which would also show the recent selling prices of local properties comparable to your own but again be careful! The market is slowing, be realistic and beware of over enthusiastic agents, they may be just looking to get a sole agency agreement which can backfire on you if the house doesn’t shift. However on a more positive note, they can also aid you in adjusting for the unique features of the home you’re selling, plus they can advise of any work that could be done, even a coat of paint in the hallway, can make a difference in the saleability of the house. If any of your friends or family have used a local estate agent they were happy with, why not try them first.

Remember if your house sells, you will be paying these people a lot of money in commission.

All in all, I would recommend that you take the following action if you want sell your home.

1) Decorate! Make the house look nice, both inside and outside. If its beyond your abilities, get a builder in to do it, or if it’s the outside, an exterior specialist like a wall coatings company (Never paint again being a prime example) and they can send around a team who will refurbish the outside and make it look amazing in usually less than a week.

2) Tidy up! You may live like a pig (!) but the fact of the matter is that if someone is looking around your home and they can’t stand to be in there for more than 5 minutes as it stinks of cigarettes or fried food, they are not going to buy!

3) Clear the garden or yard up. Get rid of rubbish outside.

4) If you own pets, that smell can put people right off, especially if they have an allergy. It’s nothing personal, but the pong of a full cat litter tray, fur on everything or a smelly dog can, in this market, make your house completely unsaleable.

5) Fix any outstanding issues such as cracks, rotten windows or fascias, loose or blocked gutters etc. Get the house in at least fairly good condition. When the market turns down, buyers can be more choosy.

What will they buy? A house they can move straight into, or a house that needs a team of builders to sort it out at great expense for several weeks before they can move in?

6) Get all paperwork related to the house sorted, and these should go in your HIPS home information pack, which in the UK is now a legal requirement for most houses. Paperwork included, for example, could be a guarantee from a wallcoating company, a window company, any damp proofing you have had done, any chimney sweeping certificates etc

7) Research the market, don’t be greedy and ask for top price, if and when the market crashes, you may be lucky to sell it at all.

Article by Guy Bell, editor of NPA

THIS IS AN ORIGINAL ARTICLE, DO NOT COPY IT.

UPDATE: 26th September 2008, well it looks like the market is getting worse now, repossessions are up, rates are up, and mortgages are as rare as hens teeth! Where is it all going to end?!

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