My BRB Mortgage › Selling a home

Selling a home, step by step

Selling is the same transaction viewed from the other side, but the decisions are different. A seller controls two things that matter: the condition in which the property meets the market, and the price at which it does so. Almost everything else is a response.

Preparation that pays for itself

The work that changes outcomes is the work that removes doubt. Buyers discount for uncertainty far more heavily than they reward improvement, so a documented repair, a serviced heating system, a resolved boundary question or a cleared gutter line has an effect out of proportion to its cost.

Substantial renovation immediately before a sale rarely returns its cost. It is undertaken to taste, on a short timescale, without the benefit of living with the result, and the next household frequently has different preferences.

Pricing as a hypothesis

An asking price is a statement about which buyers should come and look. Set well, it attracts the whole cohort of households currently searching in that band; set high, it addresses a cohort that is comparing the property with better ones and finds it wanting.

The strongest argument for pricing into the market rather than above it is mechanical rather than psychological: attention is concentrated in the first weeks, and a property that misses that window competes afterwards against its own listing history.

Marketing, honestly

Photographs, a floor plan and an accurate written description do most of the work. Wide-angle distortion, omitted rooms and absent measurements do not survive a viewing, and a viewing that contradicts the listing produces a buyer who now doubts everything else.

Disclosure obligations vary, but the practical rule is stable: a known defect disclosed early is a negotiating item, and the same defect discovered late is a reason to withdraw.

Reading offers

An offer has a price and a probability. A slightly lower offer from a buyer with finance arranged, no property to sell and a flexible date is frequently worth more than a higher one that depends on three other transactions.

Where several offers arrive at once, the useful discipline is to compare them on identical terms — same closing date, same inclusions, same conditions — before comparing the numbers.

Chains and timing

Where a seller is also buying, the two transactions must be sequenced. Completing the sale first provides certainty and cash but may require temporary accommodation and a second move; matching the dates avoids that but makes each transaction hostage to the other.

Long chains fail at their weakest link, and the weakest link is rarely the one under discussion. The practical mitigation is information: knowing how far each party in the chain has actually progressed rather than what each intends.

Through to completion

After acceptance, the seller's remaining work is largely responsive: producing documents, permitting access for inspection and valuation, agreeing any adjustments, and meeting the closing date. Delay is normally caused by paperwork that could have been assembled in advance — permits for past work, warranties, boundary agreements, and evidence of title.