The road to SOLD!: Navigating your property sale from start to finish 🚦🏁
#CAVENDISHEXPERTS in Lettings, Sales and Property Management in Nottingham | Cavendish Residential | One Fletcher Gate NG1 1QS | 0115 941 0656 | www.cavendishproperty.co.uk
Selling a home can feel daunting. There are valuations, viewings, offers, solicitors, surveys, enquiries, chains, exchange and finally... moving day! 🔑
The good news is that with the right preparation, good communication and experienced people around you, the process can be made considerably smoother.
So, where do you start? 🆘
We've put together our Cavendish guide to the entire selling journey, from getting your home ready for photographs to handing over the keys.
🏡 STEP 1: Choose the RIGHT Estate Agent
Don't simply choose the agent who gives you the highest valuation or quotes the lowest fee.
You're appointing somebody to market what is probably one of your largest financial assets, negotiate on your behalf and help keep a complicated transaction moving.
Look at their experience, marketing, communication, local knowledge, track record and, importantly, whether you actually trust them to represent you and your home properly.
🧹 STEP 2: Get your home MARKET READY
First impressions count, both online and when buyers walk through the door.
Before photography and viewings:
✅ Clean thoroughly. And then look around once more!
✅ Declutter and show off the SPACE, not your possessions.
✅ Consider whether particularly bold décor could distract buyers.
✅ Let the light in: open curtains and blinds and make rooms feel bright and welcoming.
✅ Don't forget storage. Buyers WILL notice cupboards, wardrobes and storage space.
✅ Make bathrooms feel clean, calm and uncluttered.
✅ Tidy gardens, entrances and outside spaces. The viewing starts before buyers reach the front door.
✅ Deal with obvious maintenance issues rather than allowing buyers to start mentally compiling a list of jobs.
The objective isn't to make your home look unlived-in.
It's to help a buyer imagine themselves living there. 🏠
📂 STEP 3: Get SALE READY
One of the best opportunities to save time can come before you've even found your buyer.
Consider instructing your solicitor or conveyancer early and start gathering the paperwork they're likely to need.
Depending on your property and circumstances, this might include:
📃 Title and ownership information.
🏡 Your Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).
🪟 FENSA or CERTASS certificates for replacement windows.
✍️ Planning permissions for alterations or extensions.
🧱 Building Regulations approvals and certificates.
📜 Guarantees and warranties for relevant works.
🏘️ Party wall agreements, where applicable.
📎 Leasehold information, if you're selling a leasehold property.
🔧 Relevant information relating to alterations, services or works at the property.
Your solicitor will normally ask you to complete the appropriate Property Information Form (TA6), together with additional forms relevant to the transaction. Leasehold sellers will usually also complete the TA7 Leasehold Information Form.
The earlier information is gathered, the greater the opportunity to identify missing paperwork or potential complications before they start holding up your sale.
📸 STEP 4: Launch your property
Now the fun bit! Photography, floorplans, property description, portals, database marketing, social media and viewings all come together to introduce your home to the market.
Your agent should then monitor the response carefully. Are buyers clicking? Are they enquiring? Are they viewing? What feedback are they giving?
Marketing a property shouldn't simply mean uploading it to a portal and waiting. The response from the market provides valuable information about price, presentation and positioning. 🔍
🤝 STEP 5: You've received an OFFER!
Great news, but don't look at the number alone.
£5,000 more isn't necessarily the better offer if that buyer isn't realistically able to proceed.
We want to understand:
🔹 Does the buyer require a mortgage?
🔹 Do they have an Agreement in Principle?
🔹 What deposit are they proposing?
🔹 Do they need to sell another property?
🔹 If so, is that property actually under offer?
🔹 Are they part of a chain?
🔹 Are they a cash buyer and, if so, can that position be verified?
🔹 How quickly are they hoping to move?
This is where an experienced estate agent earns their keep.
Price matters, but so does position... 🧘
⚖️ STEP 6: Offer accepted... now the LEGAL work begins
Once you've accepted an offer, the property is normally marked Sold Subject to Contract and the conveyancing process gets properly underway.
Your solicitor or conveyancer prepares the contract documentation and sends the relevant paperwork to the buyer's conveyancer.
The buyer will usually progress their mortgage arrangements, searches and survey or valuation as applicable.
Their conveyancer reviews the legal information and may raise enquiries with your solicitor.
This is where having your paperwork organised from the outset can really pay dividends.
🔍 STEP 7: Surveys, searches & ENQUIRIES
This can sometimes feel like the quietest part of the sale to the seller, while behind the scenes quite a lot is happening.
Questions may arise concerning matters such as:
🔹 The property's title.
🔹 Boundaries.
🔹 Alterations and planning permissions.
🔹 Building Regulations.
🔹 Rights and restrictions.
🔹 Leasehold matters.
🔹 Guarantees or warranties.
🔹 Information revealed during the buyer's searches or survey.
Some enquiries can be answered immediately. Others may require documents or information from third parties.
Good communication between seller, buyer, estate agents and conveyancers becomes particularly important here.
🔗 STEP 8: Don't forget THE CHAIN!
Your sale doesn't necessarily exist in isolation.
Your buyer may have a property to sell. Their buyer may have another property to sell. You may also be purchasing somewhere yourself.
Suddenly, one transaction becomes four, five or six connected transactions, all trying to reach the finishing line together.
This is why sales progression matters.
At Cavendish, we believe an estate agent's job doesn't finish when the SOLD board goes up. Keeping in contact with everyone involved and understanding where the chain has reached can be crucial in helping a transaction progress.
✍️ STEP 9: EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS
Once the legal work is sufficiently progressed, the parties are ready and the necessary arrangements are in place, contracts can be exchanged through the conveyancers.
This is the big legal milestone.
Once contracts have been exchanged, the agreement to sell and purchase becomes legally binding.
A completion date will normally have been agreed as part of that process.
Now you really can start packing the boxes! 📦
🔑 STEP 10: COMPLETION DAY!
The buyer's solicitor transfers the completion monies through the legal process.
Once completion has taken place, the sale is complete and the keys can be released to the new owner.
🏡 Keys handed over.
📦 Moving van loaded.
🤝 New owner moves in.
CONGRATULATIONS... YOU'VE SOLD YOUR HOME! 🎉
🌸 The Cavendish perspective
A successful sale isn't simply about finding someone willing to make an offer.
It's about getting the property ready, launching it correctly, finding the RIGHT buyer, checking their position and then keeping the transaction moving all the way from offer to completion.
There can be plenty of twists and turns along the way.
That's why we believe the best estate agents don't simply sell properties.
They progress sales.
📩 Download our HOME BUYING & SELLING GUIDE here 📩
Thinking of selling?
Whether you're ready to move now or simply wondering what your property might be worth, we'd be delighted to have a conversation. Email Head Valuer Lisa (lisa.dahl-parsisson@cavendishproperty.co.uk) or complete the form opposite ➡️).
📸 Lisa Dahl-Parsisson, Head Valuer at Cavendish Residential 📸
☎📧🗨
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#CAVENDISHEXPERTS in Lettings, Sales and Property Management in Nottingham | Cavendish Residential | One Fletcher Gate NG1 1QS | 0115 941 0656 | www.cavendishproperty.co.uk
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