With the housing market being so buoyant right now, it would have come across a few people’s minds that selling your own home could be a profitable exercise; obviously it would have to be for the right reasons and that it is something considered, after all, this is a home you’re selling.
If you feel like now is the time to make your next move, or are ready to cash in on your property – it’s important that you sell in the right way to get the best result. There are many options that you can choose to sell your home, is it estate agent or something more, new age. Yes, in today’s internet age, selling your own home has become an easier task; especially when you consider that now you can even check for everything on your phone.
Where to start
One of the big questions is where do you start if you want to sell your own home. There is no right or wrong approach but there are a few key areas you want to cover if you want to sell your home, online and by yourself.
You will need an approximate value of your property. Now, one of the simplest ways you can do this is by checking sites such as Zoopla or even land registry accounts. Online tools such as this one available from Jet Homes will give you a value based on a number of criteria. (Proximity to schools, medical facilities, number of rooms, any extensions, etc they all take precedent).
Pick an agent
You will still need to choose an agent when it comes to selling your home no matter what kind of property it is and no matter the value, in the UK it is a legal requirement. When it comes to choosing an agent though, especially one that sells homes online, you want to pick an agent that has a few years experience in selling properties solely online.
A good way to check is to run a few manual checks yourself, visit the website, sign up to a newsletter (if possible) and look at the general marketing activities. Give yourself an idea of what happens when someone is selling their home online and how they’re doing it and what the agent is doing for them.
Marketing, Marketing, Marketing
Marketing is absolutely key when it comes to selling your home. You can’t skimp on this area and you want to ensure that anyone selling your home is doing the best job of marketing your home, that includes yourself.
The agent you choose should be able to show you any marketing material they have had for any previous homes they’ve sold (hopefully it’s a lot of material!) Ask about email blasts, and any social media activity that can help when it comes to selling the home; are they using twitter or Facebook? Are they active in any groups on LinkedIn. These are the basics that should be covered if someone is using social media to help sell your home.
Be social yourself
You’ve asked your agent if they have any social accounts to help promote your home sale, but have you considered using social media yourself to sell your home? It has become common practice to use social media to share lots of information and it’s not uncommon to use it in this case for the social advertising.
Be sure to have clear pictures, descriptions and even well organised photo albums of your home in a sale state; this will leave anyone posting comments or sharing your home online to really feel part of the selling experience.
These are just some of the basic considerations that you would need to make to when it comes to selling your home yourself; obviously being organised, having paperwork up to date and a variety of other things will help, but if the thought of selling your own home was too daunting, you can see, it’s a lot easier than you may have thought it was.
Have you sold your home in the past? What’s your experience?
This is a promotional post. Image credit: Emily May via Flickr.
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