Ten Steps To Selling Your Home In The New Year

In December, property buyers and sellers transform into office party animals and Christmas shopping junkies.

But with the festivities forgotten and with the dawn breaking on 2011 the property market starts afresh in the New Year. A renewed impetus of listings and buyers searching. For sale boards straightened and R I G H T M O V E typed eagerly into millions of browsers once again, perhaps on that new Macbook or iPad that Santa brought.

So what should you do as a property seller to get ready for the seasonal upturn?

1. Think carefully about the price that you ask for your property. Have it valued by agents but don't just choose the highest value as the one that is the most accurate. The opposite will often be true. So get three valuations and divide them by three to find the average figure. That will provide an accurate marketing price rather than one that will simply see you sitting in ads for months. As so many vendors are right now.

2. Choose your estate agent carefully. If you are registered as a buyer have they kept in touch? Are their properties displayed on lots of property portals and not just Rightmove? Old fashioned '9 to 6′, and closed on Sundays opening hours?

Ring a few to find out their fee. If they try to justify a percentage, ask them why it costs more to sell a pricier home? If they quote you a commission that equates to ?thousands then ask them to justify why it's so much money. And not just by explaining away the cost of their expensive High Street offices. Ask them to clarify what exactly they do for the ?3000 or more that they may be asking of you.

Are they Property Ombudsman Scheme members for your peace of mind?

Watch out for long sole agency tie ins, additional cancellation notice periods and multi agency penalties of up to 3% of your sale price even if they DON'T sell your home.

If you decide that paying someone to put your home on a few websites and using 'high quality card' for sales particulars isn't worth the price of a Cartier watch, then have a look at some an online estate agent.

3. If your home has been sitting on the market for a while, reduce your asking price before the market kicks back in, in January. Look at nethouseprices.com and check to see what properties nearby have sold for. SOLD prices are a test of value, not over inflated asking prices.

4. The number of properties that are listed for sale by agents and that look like they have seen better days is astonishing. Hide rubbish bins, take cars off of the drive for the photo, clean up messy bedrooms and cluttered kitchens. Repair paintwork that looks damaged. Make the house look as bright and neutral as possible for each visit by potential buyers. First impressions count, even if your ultimate purchaser will inevitably alter the decor to their own taste.

Open windows beforehand and banish the dog or cat somewhere else whilst you're showing people round. I was bitten by a dog on a viewing once. It kind of put me off...

5. It's crucial to have a for sale board. Even in these times of emoov.co.uk online estate agents they still account for around 10% to 15% of all sales.

6. DON'T list your property with lots of agents. Buyers seeing your home come up in lots of search results will simply make them think that there is something wrong with it.

7. Make it clear that you are flexible on price. 'Offers in excess of...', and 'No offers' are tactics that are not appropriate to a buyers' market such as we find ourselves in.

8. Be prepared to go into rented accommodation temporarily. If you receive interest from a good quality buyer who can proceed swiftly with little or no chain behind them, be flexible and don't put them off by insisting upon taking ages to find a suitable property to buy. Or they will just buy elsewhere.

9. Freshen up the photos and property listing write up. ESPECIALLY if the main picture is one showing your house covered in snow and the weather conditions improved some weeks before.

10. Do change estate agents after a few weeks. Once an agent has listed lots of other homes subsequently, yours will be forgotten about. A fresh agent will add focus and energy.

So... Price your home correctly, put it with a good agent that offers wide exposure and doesn't charge high selling fees. You will then sell no matter how tough the market.

Happy January...

Russell Quirk is founder of eMoov.co.uk emoov.co.uk online estate agents. Russell has many years property experience having been Managing Director of a five branch estate agency firm between 1999 and 2009 and which, apart from its core activities of sales and lettings, expanded into financial services, property development, land brokerage, recruitment and also specialised in providing project opportunities to social landlords and housing associations.