When selling their home, what most people think about is the money they will make. However, what they often forget is the costs they will need to pay out to actually sell and then move. In fact, such expenditure can amount to quite a bit of money. Although, there are strategies you can use to keep them to a minimum. A topic you can read more about in the post below.
Decoration
Everybody knows that to sell a property it needs to be in excellent decorative condition. Of course, this then creates a bit of a problem for folks whose homes aren’t up to scratch when they want to put them on the market, but that also don’t have a vast budget for decoration.
Happily, there is a relatively simple if slightly more time-consuming way around this, and it’s simple to do the work yourself. In fact, painting walls, hanging wallpaper and doing other general decorative work can cost a fortune if you choose to have someone come in and do it for you. However, with a simple google, or search on Youtube, you can find a step by step guide on just about how to do anything at all.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that DIY decoration is free, as you will have to pay for the equipment and resources that you will need. It is also likely to take longer and cause more disruption to your day to day life while such jobs are being done. However, this is a trade-off that many people are willing to make to ensure that they keep decorating costs to a minimum when they are looking to sell their home.
Repairs
The DIY approach is also well worth trying when it comes to repairs as well. Although, this does come with a proviso that you only attempt work that you are confident in doing, and can do safely.
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In fact, anything that concerns water, plumbing, electric, or the structural integrity of your home is worth getting professional in to do. Not only because they will do a better job, and so add value to your property, but also because you could be endangering your personal safety as well.
Of course, there is an alternative option, and it’s finding a house buying company to purchase your property without the need to perform any large scale repairs. In fact, by doing this, you can save a significant amount on the cost of major repairs, as well as help your home purchase to go through as quickly as possible. Something that for many people can make using a buying service a double win.
Agents Fees
Next, if you have a home on the market and are looking to reduce the costs involved with this, it may be time to look at what your agent is charging you. In fact, many traditional real estate agents work out their fee on a percentage of the selling price of your home, something that means you can lose up to 10% once the sale has gone through.
To that end, it may be worth looking at alternative ways of selling your home, one of which is to use an online-only agent. The difference here is that they don’t have any office overheads to pay out and so can afford to charge less once the sale has gone through.
In fact, you will find that many online-only agents charge a fixed price no matter the final sale amount that your property reaches. Something that can make this an especially wise economic decision for owners whose home are at the higher end of the price spectrum.
There is also another alternative to consider when it comes to reducing your agent’s cost when selling a home and that is to do without one altogether.
What this means is opting for a private sale, where you sell directly to the other party involved. Of course, doing so means that you won’t have the support of an agent in finding a buyer, or in moderating the sales process. Something that means if you are unfamiliar with the procedures involved you may be left vulnerable to mistakes and problems.
Of course, even when selling privately, you will still need to involve an attorney to ensure that everything stands legally when you are done. Therefore you will still have this cost to consider.
Legal costs
Talking of legal costs, this can be one of the most significant and most unexpected fees that those selling their home have to pay. In fact, most people can expect to spend at least 2-4% of the selling price on this.
Happily, there are some ways to minimize this cost, and one is to wait until it is a seller’s market until you sell your home. This being something that will ensure that the buyer has less leverage to insist that you pay these fees.
Additionally, if you do find yourself in a position to pay legal fees when selling, it’s always better to find an attorney that is not based in a large or capital city. The reason is that their rates are likely to be much smaller, meaning you can make a substantial saving on this part of selling your home.
On moving day
Sadly, the costs involved don’t stop when you have actually sold your house, as you will also need to pay a removal team to take the contents from your old property to your new one as well. That is unless you can find a way around this such as hiring a van and doing the moving yourself.
Of course, by doing so you will make moving day a lot more hard work, and you also open yourself up to issues of insurance if anything is damaged or broken on the journey to the new place.
However, with massive saving to be made here, and still further costs to be considered such as mail forwarding and new furniture when you get to your new home, it may well be worth the tradeoff to keep your expenses to a minimum.
