Stress free sales

HOW TO MAKE YOUR SALE AS STRESS FREE AS POSSIBLE

This article is not meant to put you off selling your home but it is designed to merely make you aware that things can sometimes go wrong and if you are properly prepared and organised you can significantly reduce the risks and make things go a lot smoother!

BEFORE MARKETING

Draw up a list of anything which is to be included in the sale price of the home. Also draw up a list of anything which could be available and what price you want for it i.e. Double bed in bedroom 2 – New two months ago, cost £199.00 from DFS (receipt available) accept £50.00.

Depending on the age of the home some site owners will expect to get 10% of all chattels included in the home.

Inform the site owner you intend to sell and at what price.

VIEWINGS

When speaking to prospective purchasers ensure they are aware of any age, pet restriction etc relevant to the park, which may otherwise waste everyone’s time.  Make sure you give them clear directions and exchange mobile numbers in case there is a last minute emergency or delay.

One thing I come across regularly is the misconception that because you get an offer in the first couple of days that if you stay on the market for longer you will get more. Put yourself in the position of the people viewing your home, if you have been looking for 2-3 months and have just had an offer on your home you will be trying every way possible to find out if there is a home in the location you require. You will be driving round individual parks looking for ‘for sale’ notices in peoples windows, estate agents boards etc. You will also be speaking to people living on the park and the site owners directly and the closer you get to your own completion date, the more aware your become of new homes coming onto the market. This means there is a very good chance the first couple of viewings you get on your home may be the best you will get. Don’t be afraid to ask a few questions, have they been looking long, what made them think of a moving to a park home etc. This will all help you in your decision of who to sell to. Obviously if you are using an agent and they are doing their job correctly, all this will be done for you!

AGREEING A SALE PRICE

Once your perspective purchasers have made you an offer, do not accept or reject it without being in full possession of all the facts. For instance, if you have your home on the market for £84,950 and you get an offer of £84,500 it may sound great, but you may end up being at the end of a very long chain and it could be months & months before they are even in a position to complete and the more people are involved in a chain, the more chances there are of things going wrong! There is nothing worse than not knowing what is going on and unfortunately the more people who are involved in a chain the harder it will be for you to get down to the hard facts about what the delay is and how long it will last. An average sale where there is a mortgage involved anywhere in the chain usually takes 6 – 8 weeks. This could be extended if there is an adverse survey in the chain, or a search shows a problem with boundaries etc. So ideally the longer your potential purchaser’s sale has been going on the better.

Alternatively you may get an offer from someone of £84,000 who is living with relatives and the money is lodged with their solicitor and they could get their hands on it within days, for the sake of £950.00 the difference is there for all to see, there is a lot to say ‘for a bird in the hand’.

CONDITION OF AN OFFER

Once your prospective purchasers have made an offer, discuss what is included in the agreed selling price before you accept or decline, you must be clear on the conditions of your sale now and keep a written record of everything.

HOLDING FEES/DEPOSITS

These are two very different things, we always take non-refundable holding fees instead of deposits. You have to be very careful how much money you request as if you ask for too much you will get into the unfair contract scenario, we usually take £500.00 to withdraw the home from the market for an agreed period of time i.e. 6 weeks. Should your purchaser withdraw from the sale and be unable to complete within the required timescale, they will lose the holding fee. Should you withdraw you will have to refund it. This is something which if you have any doubts about drawing up a contract, get one drawn up professionally by a solicitor or a legal advisor. The most important thing is the date the contract finishes.

Find out if the prospective buyers are going to have a survey done and make sure it is being done by a surveyor who is used to park homes, as obviously they are very different to bricks and mortar. It is useful to have the names and telephone numbers of a couple of reputable surveyors which you could give out.

Regarding potential completion dates, check there are no dates you know you will not be able to complete on and pass them on to your purchaser, check for holidays, birthdays, hospital appointments etc because if you have a chain everyone will need to know and the sooner everyone is aware the better.

SALES CHASING

If you have decided to go into this without using any agents/solicitors you will have to keep in very close contact with your buyers, their agents, and solicitors etc to enable you to check the progress of your sale, because if there is a delay anywhere in the chain it will affect you.

ONCE A SALE IS AGREED

Get organised about what you intend to take with you and what furniture etc you will need to sell before you move. Get buyers lined up, friends and family are always a good start, but do not sell or give anything away until your purchasers have exchanged contracts on their own property as this means they are legally bound to sell to their purchasers and are probably going to be homeless unless they complete on yours! There is usually 1-2 weeks between exchange and completion so have everything ready to go, but leave it till the last possible minute. There is nothing worse than being without a bed, sofa, washing machine, cooker etc should your sale unfortunately be delayed. Label all your boxes with the items inside and what room they are to go into at the other end. Keep a box separate i.e. in your car with the kettle, biscuits, tea coffee etc and you will be the most popular person on the day of completion. Warn your services and telephone people, but again do not give them a final date till your purchasers have exchanged.

If using a removal company get three quotes, you will be surprised at the different prices.

Find out from the site owner as early as possible how they would like their 10% commission paid, will they want a telegraphic transfer on the day from your purchasers, or a personal cheque from you etc. You will be surprised how each site owner is different. Be aware if your site owner requests a telegraphic transfer (or CHAPS payment) you must check how your bank deals with these, most of the major banks are fine and you can access your money immediately, however for some of the building societies they require a different sort codes for paying in and they can hold on to your funds for up to five working days. This is obviously going to be a problem if you are trying to buy somewhere else and need the money on the same day. Most banks will do telegraphic transfers up till 2.30pm however if the money is coming from a solicitor this can sometimes be done as late as 5pm so make sure you ask. Also the prices of the telegraphic transfers can be anything from £10.00 to £50.00 so makes sure you ask.

SETTING THE DATE

Try not to move on a Friday, as nice as it may seem to have all weekend to settle in and especially not the last Friday of the month because if something does go wrong you will have to wait till the following Monday to sort it out. Try to go for a Thursday, most houses complete on a Friday which means if solicitors up and down the country are sending money through the banking system on a Friday yours should go quicker on a Thursday, you will also find removal companies etc quieter mid week and some actually offer discounted rates.

Once you have a date remember to inform all the service providers, gas, electric, water, council tax etc. You are responsible for ensuring all the bills are paid up till the minute you move out, so this may involve you having to read meters on the morning of the day you move out. (It is always nice if you can leave instructions for your purchasers so they know where the meters are to make it easier for them when they move in). The ground rent is paid up till the day you move out so if you pay in advance you will be refunded the overpayment and the new purchasers will pay from the day they move in, up till the end of the usual payment date, i.e. from mid month to end then they will pay monthly.

COMPLETION DATE

Make sure you have all the phone numbers of everyone you could possibly need to speak to on the day and they in turn have yours. This includes site owners, warden, removal companies etc. You may also need your banks details and should you have one of those automated banks make sure you have registered with them well in advance and have pin numbers, passwords, blood type and inside leg measurements ready (well they do seem to ask a lot of questions!). Make sure you have made arrangements at both ends for keys, are they with a neighbour, estate agent etc. Please make sure if you are leaving them with a neighbour that they do not give them out on any condition unless you have authorised them to do so, even if this means a furniture lorry parked on your drive.

Once you have set your date and all parties are agreed, make a contingency plan. This is something you hope you will never need, but trust me if you have one ready it will make your life a lot easier should there be a problem. If you are moving a long way this should include the address and telephone number of at least three B & B’s or hotels. If you have pets make sure you find out where the nearest cattery or kennels are. Find out what your removal company charges if you have to put your furniture into storage overnight and if they will need the van the next day. This would only take you a couple of hours maximum to find out and record the information, but imagine if you were trying to do this with all the additional stress of it being moving day!

COMPLETIONS AND TRANSFER OF YOUR MONIES

Telegraphic transfer is by far the most straight forward transaction (instant transfer of money from one bank to another) and subject to your bank or Building Society you will have access to your money on the same day as the funds go through, as if it were cash. If you have never done one before make sure you ask your bank, they usually ask for an account number, bank name and address, sort code and the name, as it is written on the account, of the person who’s account you wish the money to go into. This you will need to give to you buyer or their solicitor if that is how you are having your money paid to you.

Should your buyer not wish to pay the telegraphic transfer fee they could pay by personal cheque or bankers draft but they will take 4-5 working days to clear so allow for that when setting your completion date. Please be aware bankers’ drafts are not cleared funds and they can still be stopped in certain circumstances.

Nobody can predict exactly what time the monies will go through. If the money is coming from a solicitor and there is a mortgage involved the solicitor has to wait for the mortgage companies to send it to them before they can send it up the chain. I usually say to people to expect the money to go through about 2.00pm, it can go through much earlier but there is nothing worse than arriving with your furniture lorry at 10am and having it sit in the driveway till 4pm. This also gives you plenty of time to be informed if anything is going to go wrong.

Once you have been told the money has been sent from your purchasers bank or solicitors it can take up to a couple of hours for it to get to your bank, I usually recommend you ring your bank every 30 mins, don’t wait for them to phone you.

DON’T PANIC
 
If you have taken my advice on the sales process and taken every precaution necessary it is unlikely anything should go wrong on completion day, but if it does at least you will be ready for it. In an ideal world you would stay in your own home till the monies have gone through and then if there is a problem you just live on fish and chips for one night. But if you are moving a long way it may be impractical to stay, as you may have had to pack a lorry and set off early if you have a long trip ahead. My company has been running for over 5 years and I have only had 2 homes not complete on the date. In the first case the first time buyers had taken a loan out between exchange and completion and it had shown up on a search. It was due to complete on the Thursday and it went through on the Friday at 9am and the other was because the mortgage company released the money too late to get it all the way up the long chain, again it went through at 10am the next working day so it can happen but it is very rare. Again it does help if you have a solicitor transferring monies as at least you do have a point of contact.

So in summary be prepared to sell, read back to my article in Spring 2005 issue on how to prepare your home for sale in order to achieve the best sale price. Then have everything prepared for completion and I hope you have just a little less stress leading up to and on completion day. GOOD LUCK.

Whilst the foregoing is the writer’s opinion, that opinion is based upon a considerable amount of experience in the subject as a Director of SWPH Ltd.

© Karen Corbett @ South Western Park Homes LTD 2005