Selling your home

Independent Estate Agents specialising in residential property sales in St. Margarets village and surrounding areas

The Selling Process
Selling your most treasured possession can be a very daunting prospect, but with the guidance and professional experience of a local estate agent the whole process can be a smooth and exciting experience.

Our aim will be to achieve the best price possible within a timescale to meet your needs.   There are many reasons for moving home and Churchills Estate Agents have both empathy and knowledge to support you every step of the way.

Whether you are a first time seller or a seasoned homeowner, we leave no stone unturned to give you total support and maximum exposure to buyers.  Our aim is to exceed all our clients expectations, see our testimonials to hear what our valued clients think of our service.
We can also recommend excellent companies for your financial and legal needs whom are both customer service focused and aim to support our clients throughout the process as much as we do.

Holding your hand from valuation until completion one step at a time

Step 1 – Valuation
Before marketing your home you will need to appoint an agent to act on your behalf.  Churchills will provide an honest and realistic assessment of the value of your home in order to achieve the best possible price in the current market.  We will tell you when the best time to commence advertising your property in order to maximise interest from serious buyers to get you moving as quickly as you need to.  We will not over value or over promise to gain your business as this only leads to disappointment in the end.

Step 2 – Advertising your home
Once you have decided to get the ball rolling we will organise professional photography of your beloved home, so we would always advise to de-clutter your home and try to think like a buyer and make sure your home looks at its best.  You will also need to commission an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) before you can market your property, we can arrange this for you as well.  Churchills will then maximise exposure to buyers on major property portals such as Rightmove and Findaproperty alongside our own website, local press and in our prominent office location in the heart of St Margarets village.   We will also prepare full colour property details.  At this stage we would also advise instructing a solicitor to prepare your selling documents in advance as this can save time once a sale is agreed.  We can recommend excellent local solicitors to work on your behalf.

Step 3 – Viewings and offers
The next step is to present your home to interested buyers.  We aim to financially qualify our buyers before introducing them to your property to ensure they are serious and in a position to proceed should they make an acceptable offer.  All viewings will be pre booked and accompanied by one of our friendly team and you will receive feedback and updates regularly along with any constructive advice to improving presentation throughout the process. 

As soon as we receive an offer we will re-qualify the buyer’s financial position as this can change within days in the current mortgage market. If they are selling a property we will also liaise with their selling agent to confirm they are able to proceed.  We will then present the offer to you with the price offered, the timescales requested and any other conditions mentioned.  All three factors should be taken into account when considering an offer.  We will then guide and advise you to help with the decision making process and to achieve the best possible deal. 

Step 4 – Agreeing the sale
Once we have agreed an acceptable offer for the sale of your home we will draw up the Memorandum of Sale including solicitors for both parties.  This is not legally binding until you exchange contracts. Your solicitor will send draft contracts to the buyer’s solicitor and seller’s information pack to yourself to fill in.  Your buyer will request a valuation and/or survey from their mortgage lender.  If you have a secure cash buyer they may commission an independent valuation and/or survey.  The solicitors will then usually raise enquiries, which will be questions for you to answer about maintenance, planning permissions, service charges and fixtures and fittings if applicable.

Step 5 – Exchange
Once the conveyancing process is complete the solicitors will ask both parties to sign their contracts and agree dates for exchange and completion. On the day of exchange the buyer’s solicitor will transfer the deposit (usually 10% of the selling price) to your solicitor and exchange contracts.  At this point you are legally obliged to sell and your buyer is legally obliged to buy your home.  You will have agreed a date for completion (moving date) so you will need to organise removals for the day of your move in advance.

Step 6 – Completion
On the day of completion the buyer’s solicitor will transfer the remaining completion funds to your solicitor.  Once this is confirmed as received you will need to give the keys to the property to ourselves to hand over to your buyer when you have finished moving out on the day.  We will telephone all parties to confirm completion on the day, this is usually from late morning to early afternoon.  Not often at 9am as sometimes expected!

The property now belongs to your buyers and the sale is now complete – Congratulations!

How much is your property worth?

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