Property industry leaders and estate agents have joined together to call for an extension of the government’s wildly popular stamp-duty holiday. Currently, the scheme ends 31st March, but the high demand for properties has created delays in the system because of the vast amount of people looking to complete a sale before the deadline.
Search agents, mortgage intermediaries, conveyancing, surveying, energy assessors and removal companies are all feeling the pressure because of the rush to complete, and there are calls to the government for a 6-month deadline. Zoopla’s stats are showing 140,000 more buyers in the queue than October 2019.
With this in mind, here at Home EA we thought we’d put together some guidance on doing as much as you can in your control to maximize property completion before 31st March when you’re selling a property.
Keep your House in Order
With covid-19, it’s essential that you have the correct health and safety protocols in place in your home to ensure that viewings can go ahead and you aren’t excluding anyone from being comfortable enough to view.
Make space in your property for easy access, remove clutter, make sure everyone’s adhering strictly to all social distancing measures and vacate the property when a viewing is taking place.
Good Marketing
Not everyone will be able to view at the moment and with the time sensitive nature of the stamp-duty holiday, people will be looking to maximize their time. With this in mind, having high-quality marketing materials attached to your property, such as photography and video content means that you can cut out time-wasters and the people that come to view your property are more likely to be serious, committed buyers.
Booking in a physical viewing at the moment will equate to a more interested buyer than usual and could mean higher offers and a quicker sale, so make the most of your marketing.
Faithful Prices
There’s always a temptation to overprice and see what happens with a property and sellers could be more likely to do this at the moment because they know that buyers will be saving on stamp duty. But when you think that most viewings happen in 20 to 30 days of the listing going live, because of the buzz that can be created with a new property, it’s not worth the risk of not capitalising on that buzz and then having to lower the price of the property and miss the initial rush of viewings.
Be realistic with your prices.
Correct Paperwork
One of the most laboursome parts of a property sell is the amount of paperwork involved, so it’s well worth making sure that you’ve got everything that you need before you’re ready to sell, otherwise it’ll cause avoidable delays. A Property Information Questionnaire is essential and you’ll also need copy of other paperwork covering:
- A copy of the lease (if the property is leasehold)
- Freehold documentation (if it’s a freehold property)
- FENSA certificates for replacement windows
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
- Copies of building restrictions
- Building regulation certificate when alterations have taken place
- Gas Safety certificate for new boilers
If you’re looking for any advice or expertise, get in touch with our experienced team today.
