Did you know 3,029 Neath homeowners are considering selling
their Neath home between now and the summer of 2023?
Reports in the press suggest 1 in 5 homeowners are
considering moving home in the next 18 months.
This will change the dynamics of selling your home in Neath,
meaning there are certain matters that you, as a Neath homeowner, should do
before placing your property on the market to ensure you get the best price,
reduce the hassle and even more importantly, when you do sell, ensure the move
actually takes place. Why is this important?
1 in 3 Neath house sales fall through between sale agreed and the keys being handed over.
Also, nationally, the average length of time a property is
taking from sale agreed to key hand-over is 19 weeks … and the longer the
sale takes, the greater the propensity for the sale to fall through.
So, if you are thinking of selling your Neath home, here are 7 things you should consider (plus some tips for those Neath homeowners currently on the market)…
1. Get your ducks in a row
Although it may seem apparent, having everything in place
for the time you come onto the Neath housing market can really take weeks off
the time between sale agreed and key handover and even avert the house sale collapsing.
For example, if you have had any building works done on your
house, ensure you have the relevant paperwork now. That could be ensuring you
have the Completion Certificate from the local authority for that extension you
had a few years ago. Yes, you had planning permission, but are you aware you
need a Completion Certificate from Neath Port Talbot Council as well?
If you haven’t got the required building regulations or planning
consent for any work (including changing your windows), that can really harm
the price you achieve for your Neath home, or it could even finish the deal
altogether.
Also, if your Neath home is old (say 150 years plus) or even
listed, you should think about spending a few hundred pounds and get a survey done
on your own house, especially if you have been in the house for more than 10
years.
This will highlight any issues that need to be rectified (and be shown to potential buyers) in case they start to nit-pick. If you need a recommendation of a good Neath chartered surveyor – drop me a line.
2. Carpet ‘photo’ bombing
First impressions are everything, and you only get to make a
first impression twice.
Yes, I said twice, once with the photographs and the second
time when the potential buyers view your Neath home.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so ensure your agent photographs the best rooms from the best angles. The most important photograph is the front shot of your home, so always ask to see the photographs before your property goes live on to the market to make sure they show your property in the best light possible.
The second ‘first impression’ is when viewers view your
home. Often the thing that lets the side down here is your carpets. If your
carpets are more than 10 years old, then seriously consider replacing them with
something inexpensive with some decent underlay or give them a good
professional clean.
In this Facebook world, your home needs to look as good as it can to appeal to as many Neath buyers as possible.
3. Make it a potential home for your buyer, not a shrine to you
There was a house in the East Midlands called “Disaldu” (as
in “This will Do”) that had been on the market for four years with six estate
agents. As soon as it changed its name, it sold in a week. Be careful about over
personalising your Neath property as that could be off-putting to possible home
buyers.
Try not to be too daring with styles and colour schemes in your
bathroom and kitchens, as your buyer won’t want to spend another £25,000 changing
your neon pink kitchen units to something a bit more mainstream.
Neath homebuyers often hate to change something which has just
been finished but is not to their personal taste. Now I am not talking about
magnolia everywhere as there is room for some flare, yet be aware it’s a fine
balance between your personal tastes and making your home attractive and selling
it in the largest mainstream market possible.
Finally in this section, is your Neath home cluttered or untidy? Many people won’t be able to see past the jumbled house and overflowing bookcases. If you are unsure, drop me a message and I can pop round your Neath home when I am passing for 5 minutes if you want an impartial opinion.
4. Highlight the potential of your Neath home – but not too much
If you were considering extending your Neath home with a
garden room, loft conversion or extension, then getting a local architect
technician to draw you up some outline plans to demonstrate the development
potential of your Neath property could be worth spending a few hundred pounds
on.
Yet at the same time, be careful not to extend to make your Neath house more sellable. I have seen a handful of Neath homes be over-developed (i.e. almost overextended), making the house too big for its plot. It’s all about balancing the house with the size of the plot. Again, if you are uncertain in any way, drop me a line and I can give you some impartial advice (even if you aren’t moving for another 12/18 months).
5. Don’t let your garden grow on you
Since the lockdown began in spring 2020, our gardens have
become one of our most cherished features. Neath homes with decent sized
gardens have attracted a premium. However, over-fussy and poorly planned gardens can also be detrimental to the value of your Neath home, rather than add value to it.
6. Offices, offices, offices
Working from home could be here to stay for a few years. With this new age of home-working, even if you don’t work from home, maybe set up a study area. It might even be worth investing in one of those office pods for your garden.
7. Make sure the price is right
The bottom line is, if a Neath property isn’t selling
it probably means the asking price is too high. Yes, even in a market such
as this….
30.9% of Neath properties have been on the market more than 3 months!
Putting your Neath home up for sale at too high an asking
price is one of the most harmful things you can do as a seller. This approach
regularly costs homeowners between 3% and 5% of their potential price agreed.
If you decrease your asking price at a later date in order
to achieve a sale on your Neath house, you probably won’t get what you might
have done if it had been realistically priced from the beginning.
I am aware of a modern 4 bed detached property in Neath which,
in the summer just gone, began with an asking price of £285,000 yet ended up
selling for only £247,500. It should have achieved £260,000 with a £264,950 initial
asking price (even worse, they missed out on the property of their dreams
because that one, being realistically priced, sold before they dropped their own
price).
The sturdiest and most important property market response is
always in the first couple of weeks of exposure. Many Neath homeowners waste
this optimum sales time by being too hopeful on their asking price.
If you are on the market in Neath and believe you should
reduce your asking price, be courageous with your reduction. Make one substantial
change of at least 5%, not a series of salami price changes of a 1% here or 2%
there.
So, if you are currently on the market and feel you aren’t getting anywhere and think it could be your asking price, get in touch and we’ll be happy to discuss your next steps.
