Are You 90 Days Away From Selling Your Home?
Thinking about selling your home in the next three months? You don’t need to be ready for a For Sale board just yet. From understanding what your property could achieve to tackling the right jobs and getting organised behind the scenes, starting early can make your eventual move much easier.
There comes a point when “we might move one day” starts becoming “perhaps we actually could move.”
You find yourself checking what homes are available in the area you'd like to move to. You start wondering what your own property might be worth. Perhaps you're doing the mental arithmetic around your mortgage and equity, or noticing jobs around the house that you'd want to tackle before anyone came to view.
If that sounds familiar, you may already be at the beginning of your move.
And, if selling within the next three months is a realistic possibility, there's plenty you can do now without committing to putting your home on the market.
Around 90 days before: find out what your home is really worth
This is the number that makes everything else more meaningful.
Knowing the likely selling price of your current home helps you understand how much equity you could have available and, ultimately, what your next move might look like.
Online estimates can be interesting, but they can't see the condition of your home, the improvements you've made, its exact position or how it compares with properties buyers are viewing locally.
That's where a proper valuation becomes useful.
And having your home valued doesn't mean you have to sell. It simply gives you a realistic figure to plan with.
Once you know that number, looking at your next home becomes rather more useful too.
Around 60 days before: decide what actually needs doing
This is where sellers can accidentally create themselves a very expensive to-do list.
Once you've decided you might sell, suddenly every scuffed wall needs painting, the garden needs landscaping and the kitchen you've happily lived with for eight years apparently needs replacing.
Stop before ordering the new worktops!
Most homes don't need a major makeover before going onto the market.
Small jobs can certainly help. Freshening marked paintwork, fixing a dripping tap or broken handle, clearing clutter and making the entrance look welcoming can all improve first impressions.
But spending thousands on improvements purely for a future buyer is a different matter.
Before embarking on anything substantial, ask an estate agent. We see what buyers respond to every day and can tell you which improvements could help - and which we'd leave well alone.
Around 30 days before: get sale-ready behind the scenes
Remember our advice about paperwork before paint?
This is when that preparation really starts to pay off.
Begin gathering documents relating to your property, particularly anything connected with extensions, alterations or significant work you've had carried out.
If you're selling a leasehold property, there may be additional information you'll need from the managing agent or freeholder.
It's also a good time to think about choosing your solicitor or conveyancer rather than waiting until you've accepted an offer.
And if you have a mortgage, find out whether there are early repayment charges and whether your current deal may be portable to another property. A mortgage adviser can help you understand how your existing borrowing fits into your next move.
None of this commits you to selling. It simply means that if you decide to go ahead, you're not starting from scratch.
Then ask yourself: are we ready?
After a few weeks of preparation, you should have a much clearer picture.
- You know approximately what your home could sell for.
- You understand what you could afford next.
- You've dealt with the little jobs worth doing.
- Your paperwork is taking shape.
And you've had time to watch what's happening in the Reading property market without making a rushed decision.
You might decide you're ready to go.
You might decide you'd rather wait until after Christmas, spring or even next year.
Either is perfectly fine.
The advantage is that you're making that decision based on what you know rather than what you guess.
Your move can start before your home is for sale
If you've already started checking property prices, browsing your next home and wondering what yours could be worth, you probably aren't just idly curious anymore.
You don't need a For Sale board outside tomorrow.
But you might be ready for the first step.
Thinking of selling your Reading home within the next 90 days?
Talk to WhiteKnights and arrange a free, no-obligation property valuation. We'll help you understand what your home could achieve, what - if anything - we'd recommend doing before you sell, and what your next move could look like.