What's the WORST thing about selling your house?

We have been asking our sellers what they hate about selling their house. Here is what they told us... do any of them sound familiar to you? Leave us a comment and let us know what you dislike the most.

“Estate agents. Pure and simple. They ask for loads of money but don’t seem to be doing much at all to try and help me sell my house. It’s been on the market for eighteen months and I’ve already lost out on the house I wanted to move to. I really feel like they don’t care.” Joanie G

 “Having to keep the house spotless for the viewings. We don’t want to turn anyone down, and we’re in the house all day, so sometimes the estate agent calls us up and asks to bring someone round right away. We have to agree, so we have to keep the house tidy all the time, and my husband has to run out with our dog as we’re worried our boisterous Doberman will put people off!” Helen V

 “The worst thing for me is not knowing that it will go through. Our sale has fallen through twice now. Once on the day before we were due to move. I’ve stopped getting excited when we accept an offer now as it just never actually seems to happen.” Kate F

 “Having people traipsing round my house making comments to each other. I know shouldn’t but I take it personally when they say the décor is outdated or call my beautiful bathroom pokey!” Janet F

“All the waiting is the most stressful part. In the past all my houses have sold quickly. Selling is always stressful but this time has been much worse. There’s not been much interest and I know other people who are trying to sell too and it seems to be the same for everyone. The market is incredibly slow and everyone is having to wait ages before they find a buyer.” Ian C

“The biggest issue I had was when my next door neighbour put her house up for sale for ten grand less than ours. The houses are virtually identical, so obviously someone is going to opt for the cheaper one, but we just can’t afford to go that low, so we’re going to probably have to wait for hers to sell first before anyone will buy ours.” Claudia D

“The lack of interest. Our house is pretty nice, it’s in good condition, but we’ve had no offers and only a handful of viewings. It’s depressing! We just can’t work out what the problem is, we’re not getting any real feedback” Katy S

If selling your house is becoming a struggle we may be able to help. Contact the team at Fastmove today and let us make you an offer!

Buying a Home: Where to Start?

If you are a first time home buyer or haven’t purchased a home in many years, getting the process of buying a home started can be a challenge.  There are many steps involved in buying a home that most first time home buyers are not aware of.  Listed below are a few tips that will help prepare you for the obstacles along the way. 

How’s your credit score? 

If you plan on financing your new home, you will need to ensure that your credit score is up to par.  A bank will not loan you money if you have a bad credit score or not credit score at all. Be sure that you can prove that you are reliable and able to pay for a loan.

Sell your existing property first 

If you already own your own home then you really need to try and sell this property before even looking for a new home. You can often have the house of your dreams slip through your fingers becuase your own home has not yet sold and you are stuck in a chain. If you need to move fast to secure that dream house then consider selling your property at slightly less than market value to a cash for homes buyer, who can usually complete the same within a fortnight.

Choose a home

While it is good to get preapproved by a bank before you begin searching for a home, you can’t actually start the process until you have chosen the home. Focus on finding a home at a good value so that your monthly payments will be less.  Have a price range in mind so that you know what homes you can afford. 

Contact a buying agency

If you don’t know where to start, a buying agency has people ready and willing to assist you with your needs.  A buying agency will also be able to show you current homes for sell and help you make a good decision as to how much you should pay for homes on the market.  

Do you have enough money saved?   

It takes money to buy a home.  A down payment and closing costs will be an important part of the process. Many people have to save for years before they are able to buy a home. Be sure that you have plenty of money saved up before you make the choice to buy a home.  It will be hard to buy a home with little or no money in the bank.  

Buying a home is a big step 

The financial responsibility is often too much for some to bear.  Listed above are a few tips on buying a home.  From choosing a home at a good value to ensuring that you have enough money saved to make the purchase, these tips will help you get started with the home buying process.  Consider contacting a buying agency to give you all the details on how to purchase a home. 

Selling Up – Estate Agent or Private Sale?

What benefits do you really get when you use the services of a professional estate agent? Why don't more people just sell their own homes? What makes it worth four percent of the sale price of my home to have someone list it for me? These are some of the questions that you may be asking yourself if you are thinking about selling your home. If you have ever experienced having an estate agent list your home, only to have it sell the first day that it is on the market, you really get an understanding for these questions. 

There are two ways to look at the above circumstance. You paid the estate agent to do very little, as they did not have to spend hours working with clients, showing the home, advertising and doing open houses, or you can take this as a positive and say that the agent did such a great job promoting your home for you that it sold immediately and the additional work saved you valuable time and money.

It is possible to sell a home yourself, but estate agents have access to the multiple listing service, which provides the information on your home to millions of people. This listing service is available primarily for estate agents to use.

You also get advertising in a variety of real estate magazines and online sources. Your home will get lots more exposure when you choose to work with an experienced and professional agent that specialises in your home market place. 

Another benefit of working with agents is that you don't have to be available twenty four seven to take inquiry phone calls, home viewings and open houses. Your time is valuable so you will want balance out how much time you are likely to spend on showing your home.

Some people have managed to sell their home successfully using only simple local newspaper listings, though this is not a common outcome. There are many ways to go about selling your home. Buyers typically prefer to work with professionals when it comes time for making offers and actually making the home purchase. If you need a fast sale then you might want to consider selling to a cash homebuying company, who can in many cases complete the sale within seven days.

With all of the pros and cons at hand, you will want to decide whether you are interested in selling your home using a variety of for sale by owner services or whether you are going to hire a professional estate agency to represent your interests. Either way the sale of your home can be a relatively painless experience. The key to succeeding no matter which direction you choose to go is a high level of preparation. Prepare your home, your marketing, your advertising, and your paperwork plan for when the inevitable offers begin to roll in. The sale of your home is a major life change, and with just a bit of forethought it can be simple and effective.