SOLD

implications to consider.Should you end up not selling your existing home as quickly as you anticipated, you may be left paying two mortgages. “Bridging finance” may be available for you if you end up in this situation. But it can be very costly paying two mortgages.Agood way around this is to include aclause in the sale and purchase agreement that makes the purchase conditional on the sale of your home first. Not all sellers will agree to this, especially in ahot market wherethey know they could sell their home to someone else.

5Hire agood real estate agent

It costs tens of thousands of dollars to sell yourhome,with areal estate agent. It can be temptingtotry to sell privately.Agents argue they achieve premium pricesand pay theirway

Choosing agood real estate agent could be the difference between selling and not, getting atop price, or just scraping in over reserve. Think long and hardbefore choosing to sell privately.Itcan work, but do you have the time and skills to do a good job?

6

Preparing your housefor sale

When you’reselling ahouse, great preparation will help your chances of finding abuyer and getting the best price Preparation pays off when selling ahome.You’ll need to declutter, depersonalise, and get ready for open homes. In some cases, renovation may pay off.Start by stepping back and viewing the home from abuyer’s perspective.Asking friends, family and real estate agents for honest input can really help. Do you need to renovate to sell? Never assume youneed to do major renovations to sell. Take advice from local real estate agents about how muchthe renovation will add to the sale price.

Anew kitchen or bathroom may be what’s needed to sellata good price. On the other hand, it maynot recoup the money you invest. Buyers often like to add their own touches and prefer ablank canvas to ahome renovated to someone else’s taste. Sometimes elbow grease and decorating canadd proportionately more to the home’s saleability and the price.

Bear in mind renovations always take longer than expected. This will add time to the selling process so start early and give yourself as much time as possible.

7Market the property and hold open homes

Once youhave hired arealestate agent you will needtolistyour propertyand holdopen homes. Manysellers opt to stage their home

8Negotiateand accept an offer

The process ofreceiving offers from prospective buyers varies depending on the methodofsale. It is very important youunderstand the difference between offers made at an auction, deadline sale, multi offers andtenders as theyeach have their ownnuances.

9Exchange and settle

Once youaccept an offer on yourhome you begin theprocess ofsettlement

You’realmost therebut thereare still some hoopsto jump through!

Make sureyou understand the settlement process, especially presettlement inspections.