How to sell your house online

Taking the decision to sell your house or flat online seems the most logical for all modern day home movers, especially in such financially difficult times. Selling a house online, rather than through a costly high street estate agency, has been made easy by House Simple and our tiered services packages. With the opportunity to save thousands of pounds on your house sale, and with approximately 95% of home buyers starting their search on the internet, you no longer need to depend upon unreliable high street agents to achieve the sale of your property.

Using an online estate agency

Selling your house or flat on the internet is the most cost effective and hassle free way to move. By ditching the traditional high street estate agency you will avoid surprise costs cropping up, wasted time and pushy phone calls. You don’t have to sit back nervously to let the suited and booted estate agent deal with everything for you, as House Simple now give you all the tools and support you need to sell your home online using our bespoke home-selling package. You can choose between basic services or a range of sophisticated add-on services and marketing tools, yet still save thousands of pounds over the high street.

So how do I sell my house on the internet? When looking for a place to start marketing your property online, you should look for the following qualities from a website when you search ‘sell house online’.

What to look for from an Online Estate Agent website

· Check the website demonstrates membership of The Property Ombudsman scheme (TPOS). This is your guarantee of a high quality service willing to take your house sale seriously. Being a member of the scheme is voluntary but shows that an agency is committed to good customer care.

· Is the cost of selling your home online transparent, check the small print.

· Does the website outline the fee structure clearly?

· Does the company help you to decide how much your property is worth? Setting a realistic asking price will help to sell your home online quickly. Getting professional valuation guidance is the most reliable way to help choose a suitable asking price.

· Does the cost of selling your home online include professional photographs, a floor plan and description in order to market the property?

· Does the website have a telephone support service? No matter how good a website is, it’s always good to be able to talk to a real person when you are looking for support and advice on selling your home.

· Does the service include the negotiation and progression of sale to completion?

· Does the website market your property using the top property portals? Rightmove, Zoopla, Findaproperty, Primelocation and Globrix are the most visited property search engines for online buyers. If you are paying an online company to market your home, they should at the very least include your advert in these portals to ensure maximum exposure to potential buyers. Housesimple lists on all the top property sites and in total approximately 400 property portals.

· Does the site help you to negotiate with potential buyers? You may feel confident to sell your house privately, but when it comes down to number crunching, it’s great to have an expert negotiator on hand to help you achieve the best possible sale price for your property and to act as a mediator between you and potential buyers.

Getting started selling your home online

The first step to selling a house online, after choosing the right company, is for the chosen company to create an inviting advert for your property. First impressions count and House Simple know this. In our online house sales packages, we give you the following resources to entice potential buyers into booking a viewing:

· Professional photographs taken with a wide-angle lens and the best cameras designed to bring out the space and light in your property

· Accurate measurements to provide potential buyers with a professional floor plan

· A professionally written description created by experts in selling property online, describing each room and the features that will sell your house, and

· An Energy Performance Certificate or EPC which must be in place before selling a house.

Achieving a sale from your online house advert

Once your property has been advertised online you will need to be ready to start conducting viewings with potential buyers. House Simple will take all phone calls and emails from people wanting to view your property and make arrangements for potential buyers to visit your property at a pre-arranged time to suit you. Make sure you are ready for the viewings.

Being prepared for viewings

· Be tidy.
First impressions count. Keep your property tidy so that viewers aren’t distracted when they are taking a look around.

· Be friendly.
Although you may be fed up with strangers coming into your house, remember these are the people that may buy your property. A friendly face is welcoming and makes people feel at home, and certainly more likely to return for a second viewing.

· Be there.
Make sure you are always at home when a viewing is arranged, without exception. If potential buyers make an appointment that isn’t kept, they are very unlikely to return. If you can’t be present for viewings, House Simple can arrange for a professional home guide to show your potential buyers around for you.

Seeing your online house sale through to completion

Successful viewings will lead to offers on your house. Make sure you respond quickly to phone calls and emails regarding any offers. House Simple will contact you with feedback from viewings and offers immediately, meaning there is no lost time when you sell your house online.

As your property will already have been professionally valued as part of our online house sale package, the chances are that any offers you receive will be realistic and close to the asking price. House Simple will help you with the negotiating process and sales progression.

You should already have a conveyancer in mind when you start to market your property. House Simple provide a professional conveyancing service that utilises online systems to deal with the legal paperwork involved in an online house sale, and on average brings the time from offer acceptance to completion down by 14 days. Your conveyancer will help you through to exchange of contracts and to organise the transfer of funds to and from your vendor or mortgage company, without you needing to get involved or spending hours on the telephone. Call us now on 0845 603 9909 to not only save thousands of pounds but a lot of time throughout the process of selling your property online with House Simple.