Selling Your House

The advertised price of a home is not necessarily what you will have to pay. It's normal to offer an amount some way below the asking price. If the house is selling for £90,000 and you can afford to pay £85,000, you might want to offer £80,000. If the bid is rejected you can always go back and offer a higher price.

You make your bid through the seller's estate agent. The agent relays your bid to the seller and carries their reply back to you.

In areas where property prices are rising very fast you may even find yourself gazumped. Gazumping is when another buyer comes in with a higher offer at a late stage in the process and clinches the deal. It can be very frustrating to be gazumped, but don't get sucked into a bidding war and don't let emotion cloud your reason. If you can't strike a deal at a price you want - walk away.

Ideally you will have arranged a mortgage before you find a house you want to buy. This will prevent delays. However, if you haven't already done so, arrange a mortgage as soon as possible once your bid has been accepted.

If you haven't found a solicitor before you make the offer, you must hire one straight after. You need a solicitor to deal with the legal aspects of buying and selling property. A good solicitor is a sound investment. Get quotes from several and be sure you know what the quote covers.

The home you have just made an offer on may look, well, as safe as houses, but you don't know what problems may be lurking behind the wallpaper. You need a surveyor's report to point out any problems. Your mortgage lender will arrange for a qualified valuer to do the survey, which you pay for. Provided the lender is satisfied the property offers enough security for a loan, you will be offered a mortgage.

This is the legal term for transfer of ownership of the home. It is undertaken by your solicitor and the seller's solicitor and involves ensuring the seller has the legal right to sell the property, checking that no-one has right of way through it and that there are no land disputes.

The two most important stages in conveyancing are the exchange of contracts - between the buyer and seller's solicitors - and completion. When exchange takes place the buyer usually puts down a 10% deposit. After this the seller and buyer are legally committed to the deal. If the buyer pulls out, for whatever reason, they lose their deposit. Conversely, the seller cannot accept a higher offer.

After exchange, a date will be fixed for completion – it usually takes place within four weeks. At completion, the deal has been done and a transfer of ownership has taken place. You get the keys to your new home.

The whole process is made even more complex because you are a single link in a chain of buyers and sellers. While you are just trying to buy or sell one property from or to one other person, a whole network of deals is being done around you, and your deal cannot proceed unless all the other transactions succeed as well.

If you are selling your current home and buying a new one, you need to make sure that you are exchanging contracts on your purchase and sale at the same time. Otherwise you may find you've committed to buying a home without having sold one, or have sold your home without having one to move to. Neither scenario is good for your blood pressure.