Selling your home with Melissa Berry
Selling your home is probably considered by many to be one of the most traumatic experiences in life, but with our vast experience of wealth and knowledge, we will always endeavour to make the whole process of selling your home as easy as possible, making the transaction run smoothly and professionally from initial instruction through to final completion, ensuring we keep you informed of the progress every step of the way.
Market Appraisal:
We will happily arrange for one of our valuers to call at your property to offer you a FREE market appraisal of your home, there is no obligation to this appointment and ‘hard sell’ is definitely not our game. We will take all relevant information relating to your property, which together with modern technology, our wealth of experience and indepth knowledge of the local area will help us assess a true market value for your property. We will always give you what we consider to be a realistic achievable appraisal on your property, but should you wish to market your home at an alternative price we will gladly take your instructions. We will also advise on presenting your property, to generate as much interest as possible. Remember: First impressions do count.
Marketing:
Once you are ready to instruct us in the sale of your home, we will arrange to have photographs and measurements taken, so that we can prepare relevant marketing materials which will all include detailed and free of charge floor plans, and as many professionally produced photographs as deemed necessary. At this stage we also need to sort an energy performance certificate for your property (this is a legal requirement and must be provided within the first seven days of marketing your property). We can arrange this for you, for a nominal fee or it is something you can arrange yourself. (EPC Reports * ) After we have created the marketing materials for your property we will ask you to check them over to ensure they are not mis-leading and more importantly, you are satisfied with them and they are totally reflective of your property. Once you are happy with them we will make your property live across our own website and across the numerous property portals we use.
Rightmove suggest that most properties generate between 60% & 70% of its overall interest within the first 48 hours, so for that reason we want to maximise your property to its full potential by giving every new instruction ‘Featured Property’ status on Rightmove, for which there is no extra cost.
Viewings:
All viewing arrangements are made to suit your individual circumstances, they are all confirmed at the time of making the appointment and also on the day of the appointment, by email or telephone. We will happily accompany any viewings, but as no-one knows your property better than yourself, perhaps you may be the best person to do this. We will arrange all viewings to suit you. It is part and parcel of our service to obtain feedback after every viewing, which we will always relay back to you, so that you are aware of your viewers thoughts. We would like to point out that when we make any viewing appointments we take full details of every viewer, so we know who we are dealing with. In the interests of safety and security, should anyone ever knock on your door, that you are not aware of, please refer them back to our office.
Receiving Offers & Qualifying Buyers:
Any offers that are received to purchase your property will be put to you within 24 hours of receipt, we will always qualify the potential buyer to the best of our ability and will only consider moving forward with the applicant if they are in a ‘position to proceed *’ to an unconditional exchange of contracts. This means that we will check all the information they supply to us, i.e. if a purchaser is a cash purchaser we will require sight of finances available, if they are looking for a mortgage we will need sight of a mortgage agreement in principle together with proof of deposit available. In essence if we are going to agree a sale on your property we have to ensure 100% that we are happy with their ability to proceed.
Solicitors:
Once we are happy with a buyers ability to proceed, we will request details of both solicitors, so that we can forward a memorandum of sale to all parties, this is a document confirming what has been agreed i.e. price and any special conditions, together with details of vendors, purchasers and both solicitors, on receipt of this documentation, the solicitors can start the conveyancing process. If you do not have a regular solicitor, we have a number of solicitors based in the immediate area that we can recommend to you, but we would always suggest you obtain a quotation for their services prior to instructing them.
Conveyancing:
People constantly ask how long will the conveyancing take, the answer unfortunately is a little like ‘How long is a piece of string?’ As the norm we would normally suggest about 13 weeks, but from here on its all very much down to both sets of solicitors, but to ensure you know exactly what is happening throughout the whole transaction, we will ring all parties involved on a regular basis and will always ensure that both you and your purchaser are always fully aware of exactly what the situation is.
This part of the sales process can be quite frustrating as there are now a number of people involved with the transaction, because of this we treat this as one of our priorities in the sales process and we will speak to all parties on a regular basis to ensure the transaction runs as smoothly as possible, keeping you informed every step of the way.
Exchange of Contracts:
As we near the end of the conveyancing process we will arrive at a date to ‘exchange contracts’, this is the first time the transaction will become legally binding, at this stage both solicitors will agree and ‘set in stone’ a completion date. The completion date can be on the same date as the day of exchange but usually solicitors like to complete 5 working days after exchange, this allows them time to request finance from purchaser, building societies etc and ensure all loose ends are tied up.
Completion:
Completion Day - this is a date agreed by all parties where the property legally changes hands, the owner moves out and the purchaser moves in. There is no specific time for this to happen, it is usually down to circumstances, but generally before 3pm. The vendors solicitor will usually inform ourselves that completion has taken place and then we will inform all parties accordingly. We will usually negotiate between both parties with regards to exchange of keys etc.
If you are considering selling your property and want any clarification on the above points or more importantly you would like a Free market appraisal, please do not hesitate to give us a call.
Energy Performance Certificates:
An Energy Performance Certificate or EPC, is a guide for potential buyers and tenants when viewing a property, that shows them how energy efficient the property is. It comes with an outline of the cost of heating the property and also offers recommendations on how to improve the energy efficiency of the property. The survey should be carried out by an accredited domestic energy assessor. Melissa Berry, as a sales, lettings and management agent can arrange this for you at minimal cost, or you are free to arrange your own, but it must be available within 7 days of your property being placed on the market for sale or to let.
An Energy Performance Certificate is required every time a property is put up for sale or offered to let. The EPC report includes energy efficiency rating, which uses a grading scheme, with A being the most efficient through to G being the least efficient. Also, as stated above, estimated costs of running the property will give an indication of heat and power usage. Finally, the report provides a summary of energy performance related features. This is useful if you want to undertake work to improve a home’s efficiency.
An energy performance certificate is valid for 10 years from the date of inspection and if you visit: epcregister.com you can check if there is one already available for your property.
There are a small selection of buildings which do not need an EPC, but chances are you will need one. These include places of worship and holiday accommodation, but you should carry out thorough checks before deciding whether you need one or not.
