When we say ‘traditional’ we mean the standard way of instructing an estate agent to sell your house. But do you know of all the fees that you’ll have to pay to sell your home, many up front? Do you know how much it will cost to sell your house? Moving is a stressful period in your lift and in order to make the process easier, the more prepared you are the better! So having a plan and a budget will help make your life easier – particularly when it comes to unexpected costs. So we’ve prepared a quick guide to help you understand what costs and fees you may have to pay!
Estate agent’s fees to sell your home
The most obvious cost is that of the estate agent. They will usually charge a percentage of the home’s sale price to sell your home. An average commission is around 1.5% – so if you sell your house for £100,000 you’ll pay £1,500. Alternatively there are fixed-fee estate agencies. Their fees can work out to be roughly the same as an estate agent, but you’ll know exactly what that will be ahead of time. Something to watch out for, particularly with the fixed-fee or online agencies are the ‘additional’ fees over the advertised price online. Quite often they’ll say £600-£1000 fixed fee, but those fees often don’t include many services. Here’s a few things to check if your estate agency includes in the price:
- Photography
- Assisted viewings
- Marketing on all the local and national online portals
- Sales brochure/materials
- External sales boards
- Home Report/EPC
The more you cut back on the ‘optional’ extras, the less of a chance you’ll have to sell your home to the highest bidder. Read our post about things to be aware of if your property isn’t selling and why things like photography are so important.
Energy survey and home report
It’s a legal requirement that you have to provide an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and Home Report (in Scotland) to any potential buyers if you want to sell your home.
The EPC will give a simple summary of the energy-efficiency of your home. You can arrange to do this survey yourself, but the agent can also do this for you if you prefer. The EPC can cost around £80-£120, or if you’ve lived in the house for under 10 year and haven’t done any energy efficiency upgrades, then your old one may still be valid. More than often this report is done as part of the overall Home Report.
The Home Report can cost you between £300-500. This is a document which give potential buyers more information about your house prior to submitting an offer. The report is a really detailed survey carried out by a qualified surveyor, one who is regulated by RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors). The survey documents the condition of each aspect of your property within the report, broken down into 3 categories.
- Category 1 = no immediate report is required
- Category 2 = repair or replacement requiring future attention, but estimates are still advised
- Category 3 = Urgent repairs or replacement are required now. Failure to deal with the issues may cause further problems to other parts of the property or cause a safety hazards. Estimates for repair or replacements are required now.
It’s advisable to try to fix any 2’s or 3’s prior to putting on the market – your estate agent should be able to advise before you pay for the report what might be classed as a 2 or 3 on your report.
Getting your house on the market
Knowing if there are any 2’s or 3’s on your home report may require you to do some work in your house before you sell your home. The costs for any of these could be substantial if it’s a roof, structural works etc. Be prepared that if you don’t address these then you’ll certainly not be offered the same amount of money by a purchaser of a house in much better condition. Speak with your agent to find out if some renovations will make a big difference to the market value. For example, if your kitchen is a bit dated, will it make a big difference to the price offered or the value of the house? In some areas this makes a critical difference, in others not so much.
What do you do if you don’t have the money to do these refurbishments? You can either try to sell your home as it is, or you can possibly look to team up with a company that offers an ‘assisted sale’ like ourselves. This is where we agree how much you’ll get from the sales proceeds and we complete the works required and take payment directly from the additional sales value.
Also remember that a simple deep-clean, refresh of carpets and paint can make a difference if your home is just a little ‘lived-in’. Put aside a little cash to have professionals do this job.
Solicitor’s fees to sell your home
You’ll need a solicitor to handle the complex legal documentation that surrounds your sale. If there are any complex legal situations surrounding your property then it’s worth letting your solicitor know in advance. It’s also worth shopping around for a solicitor to handle your sale – not always using the in-house services of the estate agent. It’s always best to get recommendations and find out from each how they cost their services. You can expect to pay around £1000-£2000 for the sale of a house. Often the purchase legals are less, but for sales there is more documentation and work required from the solicitor.
Removal and cleaning costs
It’s easy to forget about the cost of actually moving out! If you’re moving far, or have a lot of furniture, removals can run into the thousands. They can also offer a packing service so that you’re not having to worry about putting everything in boxes yourself. You can hire a van and do the box-shifting yourself, but it can be a tough slog so make sure to have plenty of helpers on hand! Also consider whether you’re going to clean the property yourself or get some professionals in to follow-up after you.
Mortgage fees
Many mortgages offer a ‘portable’ option which means they’ll allow you to transfer the product to your new home, but if you’re not able to do this then you’ll have to closely look at your ‘exit fees’. These vary a lot and can even be up to 5% of what you have left on your mortgage – that could be £2,000 on a £100,000 mortgage. Check with your bank or mortgage provider before you consider selling – sometimes a matter of a few months could save you a bucket of cash!
How can we help?
So depending on the options you chose, the cost of selling your home can have some significant up-front fees. If you want to discuss with us the sale of your house without any of these fees then get in touch. We can purchase homes that are in need of a lot of TLC and the price we give you will the be the amount that goes into your bank account. We cover all the legal fees and of course there are no estate agency fees. We can also organise clearances and help you understand the mortgage implications if you’re in a fixed-term contract.
Or call us on: 07441 39 39 09
