Houso

Millions of us are interested in moving!

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar 

  1. You want to move, but you haven’t found the right place to move to, so you haven’t listed your own.
  2. You have found the right place to move to, but you can’t sell your home, or 
  3. You listed your home and you accepted an offer but now you can’t find the perfect next place, or the one wanted before has now sold!

    F*****g property ladder! Don’t worry we have seen all these solutions and have built a solution for you. 

List off market on Houso, years or months in advance of when you “need” to move and gather a waiting list of buyers expressing an interest in your home. Your building a database of buyers, you’re seeing how desirable your property is, and all the while you would normally be sat on the sofa not even knowing about it – it’s a dating app for houses, with a sprinkling of Airbnb and a bit of ebay – oh and it’s totally FREEEEE!

Selling your home should be an exciting time, but often the task can feel somewhat daunting, and is often laced with imperfections in the process, Houso is here to help you all.

Whether you are upsizing or downsizing, relocating or a first-time buyer. Property app Houso allows you to sell your home effortlessly and straightforwardly, it also gives you full control of your sale. There are no contracts, no commission and no upfront fees (we really don’t like this pay upfront model – where’s the incentive!?!)

You can upload your property to the app in as little as 3 minutes. Today our team would like to share with you tips to help you sell your home.

Finances

How much do you owe your mortgage lender?

You may already know how much you owe on your mortgage; however, it is a good idea to call your mortgage lender for an update and a quick chat.  There might be some fees that you have forgotten about that need to be factored, and it would be good for you to know the level of equity that you have in your home at a certain sale price

How much is your property worth?  How much should you sell it for?

A home is worth what someone is willing to pay, and someone is willing to accept, there are many factors that will influence this such as personal circumstances and reasons for the move.  However the property will still need to stand up to mortgage lender scrutiny.  

The very best way of establishing a value is to commission an RICS approved Charter Surveyor to give you a report, this will detail sale price, and any works that need to be done and assign a value to this.  It will be a very comprehensive pack, that will be of benefit to you and your purchaser and can save a lot of time wasting down the line.  

There are many online valuation providers, but they lack that human touch and insight, they are good for collating the prices achieved locally, so look at those homes, study their floorplans and pictures and be harsh with your home to see how it compares and where the price difference lies.

Agents – Obviously agents have historically done valuations, and these are very handy, but obviously if you are looking to sell privately and save the fees then there is the moral factor of asking them to pitch for the business.  Houso would love to work with local independent agents, so if you like the off market idea but would like some professional support that is more than possible.

Always go with your gut and don’t be lured into signing with someone who promises higher sale prices and then chips and chips the price to the level that one of the other agents suggested anyway – you lose that first launch impetus – and it shows on Rightmove that you have dropped the price – luckily there is no listing history on Houso so if you reduce your price it just shows up in a new persons search criteria. But all of the above will still come back to the first line about a happy medium between two parties.

Other Selling costs

 

  1. Agency fees – Not with houso obviously save some thousands
  2. EPC – your home might have one, if not £35 and they last for 10 years
  3. Floorplan – Well worth getting done, but can DIY and save some cash
  4. Pictures – Phones have mega cameras so up to you, just take loads!
  5. Solicitors – Price varies on quality of what you choose. 
  6. Removals and Storage

 

Houso is soon to release a full referral network to help you find the best people local to you, support local business, they keep us all moving.


Preparing Your Home For Viewings

 

  1. Declutter – be ruthless 
  2. CLEAN
  3. Clean again with COVID on the scene to stay, a clean fresh home will be far more appealing to a buyer than somewhere dirty
  4. Sort the garden – cut the grass, move the cars, plant some flowers nothing extravagant, but you want someone to love your home and buy it so go to the effort
  5. Keep it this way, a viewing could present itself at short notice, so as tough as it is try to keep on top of things. We have kids so we know how daft that statement is… but still!

With Houso, potential buyers can leave feedback. This way, you’ll know exactly what went wrong or right and know how to handle future viewings. So if you pitched the house at too much money and you are getting lower star ratings, alter the price and see whether anything comes, no shame in it on Houso – no one will know!

 

Receiving an Offer

 

Expect people to come round a couple of times, and maybe want to bring parents or trusted friends its normal, give them the space to have a wander around, go to the next level of cleaning if it’s a second viewing.

Offers can be made through Houso, and countered and rejected, remember a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, so always leave something financial in it for the next owner, no one likes to feel ripped off.

Never pull out of a deal, be honest with the buyer, set your time frames and expectations, and get them to do the same – there are too many people out there who let the whole chain down and that is what we are trying to sort out with our property app.

 

Other Things To Consider When Selling Your Home

 

Houso will soon release ‘HomeVault’ where you can upload all your legal documents and household docs including warranties etc to keep them in one safe place. This allows yourself (the seller), the developers, agents and all involved storing all legal documents in one safe place.

To complete a sale, you require a solicitor or conveyancer to handle to the legal side of the transfer of ownership from you to the buyer. Commonly, these fees are fixed; however, it is a good idea to find out what is included in case your solicitor or conveyancer asks for more than you initially expected.

Currently once you’ve selected a conveyancer or solicitor, you’ll need to complete quite a few forms. We at Houso would strongly advise getting these forms before you even accept an offer, get the contract pack ready, download the forms from our website and get cracking and pop them in HomeVault it will save an age, and make you a far more attractive seller if you are “Contract ready.”

When you draw up the contracts, it is important to remember that until you exchange those contracts that nothing is fully guaranteed. It is normally 6 to 8 weeks between accepting an offer and getting the contract ready for exchange –Often the longest part of the whole selling process. Houso is going to be working with some wicked partners in the future to speed this along! Stay tuned!

Buyers can sometimes ask to renegotiate during this period if any current or potential problems are discovered – or if they are just naughty no reason at all.  Just remember they are vested in your home, they have spent money on the Solicitors too, so if it is a genuine reason for a reduction then discuss it and come to an agreement.  If they are just doing it because they can, report them on Houso and it will show up on their buyers log – no one wants to deal with this lot so report them and move on!

 

Exchange, Completion, and Moving Out

 

Once everything has been agreed and all of the paperwork is completed, the buyer and seller are now legally committed to the deal. Completion is when the property officially changes ownership, you have exchanged finances and keys.

Commonly, people book off a few days to arrange for moving homes, the longer notice that you give a removal company, the more you can negotiate costs. Removal costs are generally dependent on the number of goods and the distance it all needs moving.  Remember to cancel your bills and insurance! Some utility companies will want proof of sale. Inform your bank, credit cards and the DVLA that you are changing address.

Sell your home for free with Houso – it takes just 3 minutes to list your home! Download our property search app Houso today on Android or iPhone to get started.