Anyone who’s ever sold a house will know the process of actually doing so isn’t easy. Unlike listing an item on eBay, putting up a brief description and watching people bid on it until it sells, the process of selling a house is a lot more intricate.
Selling Your House on a Budget: How to Sell and Save
Between choosing an estate agent, paying a myriad of fees and haggling with potential buyers, actually offloading your property not only takes a lot of time, but costs a fair amount of money.
Fortunately, there are some ways you can save a lot of time (and heartache) when you’re putting your house on the market. Indeed, from simple pricing strategies to decorating tips, there are many things you can do to improve your chances of selling while saving yourself money in the long run.
A major consideration for all prospective property buyers is the amount they’ll have to pay in stamp duty. Although the government has shifted the goalposts in recent years, the fact remains that any residential property valued over £125,000 is subject to stamp duty charges. Of course, the size and location of your property will be the main factors dictating the price you advertise at. However, smart sellers will try to manipulate things to avoid costly stamp duty charges.
Indeed, if you’re able to set your price below a certain level, then it could significantly reduce the amount of stamp duty the buyer has to pay. This may not seem like it would save you much money, but it actually will. If a buyer is able to pay less in extra costs then they are more likely to be interested in buying your house. If this is true, then it stands to reason that a well thought out price will earn you more prospective buyers, increase the speed of a sale and, importantly, reduce things such as estate agent advertising costs.
As it stands, these are the rules on stamp duty and the ones you should consider when setting your price:
You pay 0% for the first £125,000, 2% on the portion up to £250,000, 5% up to £925,000, 10% up to £1.5m and 12% on anything above that.
Using an Third-party
Another way to reduce the amount of time it takes to sell your house and reduce the costs at the same time is to use a third-party service. House buying companies , such as Fast Sale Today, allow you to sell your house fast with relatively little effort. Instead of having to fill out endless forms, pay crazy fees and arrange viewings, these companies will literally take the property off your hands and give you a set fee for it.
It doesn’t matter where you are or what state the property is in, these companies will give you cash within a month for your property. Naturally, the major benefit of using this system is the speed. Without any complicated chains or haggling buyers, you can offload your property extremely quickly and get a fair price for it.
Selling Your House on a Budget – Selling it Yourself
If you’re not keen on letting someone handle your sale, or indeed if you don’t want to sell to a company, then you can always go it alone. Self-selling has become much more common in recent years and can save owners thousands in costs and fees. However, the process isn’t easy and shouldn’t be entered into lightly.
One thing to note is that you will have to do a lot of the legwork yourself. That means taking pictures of the property, organising viewings, setting the price (after some research) and arranging the financial transaction. Although none of this is extremely difficult, it is time-consuming and can be a lot for some to handle. However, if you are willing to put in some hard work then it’s possible to save yourself £4,000+. The average selling site will charge around £500+ for a listing and that’s it. Compare this to the fees that you would incur selling a house (for example a £250,000 would cost around £4,000 to sell) and it’s clear to see why thousands of people are now doing it all themselves.
