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Selling
Whether you’ve never sold a property before or if it has been several years since you last moved home, this simple 12 step guide runs you through what to expect once you’ve instructed Curchods Estate Agents to sell your property, so you know exactly what will happen and when.
For more information on anything in this post, please feel free to give your local Curchods branch a call, or fill in the enquiry form at the end of this page.
Believe it or not, we start work for you before you have even instructed us to sell your home.
When the valuation appointment is booked, we will gather some information from you about the property. We will also begin researching for evidence of similar properties, nearby, that have recently sold as well as current properties that are currently on the market. This means that by the time we visit your property we have a good basis for our valuation figure.
We will look at our buyer database to identify possible interested parties before we visit your home, so when we meet you for the first time, we can provide an indication of the likely demand for your property before it goes on the market.
Directly after carrying out the valuation appointment, we will make detailed notes about the property while it is fresh in our valuer’s mind, so that if you choose to instruct us as your estate agent, we have a headstart on creating the marketing materials.
When you put your home on the market, the first thing to discuss with your estate agent is which agency contract is best for you. Once decided you will receive your Agency Agreement contract by email to sign electronically. The contract documents are sent electronically to save you having to make a journey to post or physically return it back to us – this time-saving method is particularly convenient for our overseas clients.
As an environmentally responsible company, something we are very proud of is the removal of printed contract documents from our offices, which has helped us reduce our carbon footprint and continue on our goal of operating paperless offices.
Money Laundering is the method by which criminals change money obtained illegally so that it has no obvious link to its criminal origins. Money Laundering can take many forms, but in the property sector, it often involves buying a property using the proceeds of crime, before selling it on, thus giving the criminal an apparently legitimate source of funds.
In order to comply with Money Laundering Regulations and Legislation, we are required by law to carry out a basic check to verify the identity of all purchasers.
We use the personal details that are provided in the Agency Agreement contract, along with your date of birth and present address to complete Anti-Money Laundering checks for all clients and purchasers.
We take extreme care of our clients’ and purchasers’ personal data, adhering to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) at all times.
We believe estate agents should be licensed to practice, both to protect the consumer and to encourage and maintain the highest standards within the property sector.
Being an NAEA Propertymark licenced estate agent gives you, as a consumer, confidence that we will fulfil our legal obligations and adhere to all the necessary legislation when selling your property, including the Consumer Protection Regulations (CPR).
Upon instruction, we will send you a form to fill in electronically where we will ask you to provide information about your property. In the most straightforward property sales, the information that you will be asked to provide may be quite basic (the asking price, location, number and size of rooms and whether the property is Freehold or Leasehold). However, depending on the circumstances of each sale, material facts could include the length of the lease, the level of charges payable under a lease, known ambiguities concerning title, significant issues or occurrences at the property, major structural defects, status of connection to mains services/utilities; as well as things which could have an impact on the property, such as potential developments, planning issues, highways issues, conservation areas, etc.
We have an obligation to obtain this information as early in the marketing process as possible, which is why this questionnaire is sent at the outset. We encourage you to return it promptly to ensure the process runs smoothly as we progress to finding a buyer for your property.
When you sell your home you will need a conveyancing solicitor.
More than 50% of our clients now use our in-house conveyancing service, largely because our solicitors work on a no sale, no legal fee basis – if your move does not go ahead, you will not pay them a fee.
This is not the norm with the vast majority of solicitors – we also offer a fixed fee so you won’t be billed by the hour. Fees are set from the outset and confirmed in writing.
Our solicitors are open 7 days a week, including evenings, so they are available to speak to you when it suits.
By instructing a conveyancing solicitor at the start of the process it means we can complete the necessary pre-contract paperwork and save valuable time once a buyer is introduced. We typically see people who appoint our in-house solicitors, make a 10-14 day time saving on reaching exchange of contracts.
For more information on our home conveyancing service, you can read our Guide To Home Conveyancing.
If you need a mortgage and you’ve not already sought financial advice we will refer you to one of Curchods Mortgage Services financial advisors. At Curchod’s Mortgage Services Department, we are independent of any one lender and our advisors are fully qualified with many years experience to advise, research, prepare and submit your mortgage application.
Once your Agency Agreement contract is signed, we will book an appointment for one of our professional photographers to visit your home.
For every property we offer For Sale and Let, we commission professional photography to guarantee you the best chance of finding a high quality buyer.
Photography and floorplans are returned 48 hours after the appointment for you to review before marketing begins.
Before marketing can begin it is a legal requirement that an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) has been ordered for your property. We have professional suppliers that can provide an EPC.
We do the necessary research on our client’s behalf to find out if the property has a valid EPC in place. If your property hasn’t had one prepared in the last 10 years, the energy assessment will be conducted at the same time as your photography at a cost to you of £99.00 +VAT.
As soon as you instruct us to place your property on the market, we will agree a convenient time for the whole sales team from your local branch to visit your home.
Having our sales staff visit ensures the whole team is familiar with your home, thus allowing them to convey its appeal first-hand and also enables them to personally match interested buyers with your property.
