The 7 Things Southampton Home Sellers Should (and Shouldn’t) Do in 2022

 

Did you know 10,910 Southampton homeowners are considering selling their Southampton home between now and the summer of 2023?

Reports in the press suggest 1 in 5 homeowners are considering moving home in the next 18 months.

This will change the dynamics of selling your home in Southampton, meaning there are certain matters that you, as a Southampton homeowner, should do before placing your property on the market to ensure you get the best price, reduce the hassle and even more importantly, when you do sell, ensure the move actually takes place. Why is this important?

 

1 in 3 Southampton house sales fall through between sale agreed and the keys being handed over

 

Also, nationally, the average length of time a property is taking from sale agreed to key hand-over is 19 weeks ... and the longer the sale takes, the greater the propensity for the sale to fall through.

So, if you are thinking of selling your Southampton home, here are 7 things you should consider (plus some tips for those Southampton homeowners currently on the market)…

 

1.    Get your ducks in a row

Although it may seem apparent, having everything in place for the time you come onto the Southampton housing market can really take weeks off the time between sale agreed and key handover and even avert the house sale collapsing. 

For example, if you have had any building works done on your house, ensure you have the relevant paperwork now. That could be ensuring you have the Completion Certificate from the local authority for that extension you had a few years ago. Yes, you had planning permission, but are you aware you need a Completion Certificate from Southampton City Council as well?

If you haven’t got the required building regulations or planning consent for any work (including changing your windows), that can really harm the price you achieve for your Southampton home, or it could even finish the deal altogether.

Also, if your Southampton home is old (say 150 years plus) or even listed, you should think about spending a few hundred pounds and get a survey done on your own house, especially if you have been in the house for more than 10 years.

This will highlight any issues that need to be rectified (and be shown to potential buyers) in case they start to nit-pick. If you need recommendation of a good Southampton chartered surveyor – drop me a line.

 

2.     Carpet ‘photo’ bombing

First impressions are everything, and you only get to make a first impression twice.

Yes, I said twice, once with the photographs and the second time when the potential buyers view your Southampton home.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so ensure your agent photographs the best rooms from the best angles. The most important photograph is the front shot of your Southampton home, so always ask to see the photographs before your property goes live on to the market to make sure they show your property in the best light possible.

The second ‘first impression’ is when viewers view your home. Often the thing that lets the side down here is your carpets. If your carpets are more than 10 years old, then seriously consider replacing them with something inexpensive with some decent underlay or give them a good professional clean.

In this Facebook world, your Southampton home needs to look as good as it can to appeal to as many Southampton buyers as possible.

 

3.    Make it a potential home for your buyer, not a shrine to you

There was a house in the East Midlands called “Disaldu” (as in “This will Do”) that had been on the market for four years with six estate agents. As soon as it changed its name, it sold in a week. Be careful about over personalising your Southampton property as that could be off-putting to possible home buyers. 

Try not to be too daring with styles and colour schemes in your bathroom and kitchens, as your buyer won’t want to spend another £25,000 changing your neon pink kitchen units to something a bit more mainstream.

Southampton homebuyers often hate to change something which has just been finished but is not to their personal taste. Now I am not talking about magnolia everywhere as there is room for some flare, yet be aware it’s a fine balance between your personal tastes and making your home attractive and selling it in the largest mainstream market possible.

Finally in this section, is your Southampton home cluttered or untidy? Many people won’t be able to see past the jumbled house and overflowing bookcases. If you are unsure, drop me a message and I can pop round your Southampton home when I am passing for 5 minutes if you want an impartial opinion.

 

4.    Highlight the potential of your Southampton home – but not too much

If you were considering extending your Southampton home with a garden room, loft conversion or extension, then getting a local architect technician to draw you up some outline plans to demonstrate the development potential of your Southampton property could be worth spending a few hundred pounds on.

Yet at the same time, be careful not to extend to make your Southampton house more sellable. I have seen a handful of Southampton homes be over-developed (i.e. almost over extended), making the house too big for its plot. It’s all about balancing the house with the size of the plot. Again, if you are uncertain in any way, drop me a line and I can give you some impartial advice (even if you aren’t moving for another 12/18 months).

 

5.    Don’t let your garden grow on you

Since the lockdown began in spring 2020, our gardens have become one of our most cherished features. Southampton homes with decent sized gardens have attracted a premium. However,

over-fussy and poorly planned gardens can also be detrimental to the value of your Southampton home, rather than add value to it.

 

6.    Offices, offices, offices

Working from home could be here to stay for a few years. With this new age of home-working, even if you don’t work from home, maybe set up a study area. It might even be worth investing in one of those office pods for your garden.

 

7.    Make sure the price is right

The bottom line is, if a Southampton property isn’t selling it probably means the asking price is too high. Yes, even in a market such as this….

 

33.5% of Southampton properties have been on the market more than 3 months

 

Putting your Southampton home up for sale at too high an asking price is one of the most harmful things you can do as a seller. This approach regularly costs homeowners between 3% and 5% of their potential price agreed.

If you decrease your asking price at a later date in order to achieve a sale on your Southampton house, you probably won’t get what you might have done if it had been realistically priced from the beginning.

I am aware of a bay-fronted 4-bed detached property in Southampton which, in the summer just gone, began with an asking price of £735,000 yet ended up selling for only £645,000. It should have achieved £675,000 with a £684,500 initial asking price (even worse, they missed out on the property of their dreams because that one, being realistically priced, sold before they dropped their own price).

The sturdiest and most important property market response is always in the first couple of weeks of exposure. Many Southampton homeowners waste this optimum sales time by being too hopeful on their asking price.

If you are on the market in Southampton and believe you should reduce your asking price, be courageous with your reduction. Make one substantial change of at least 5%, not a series of salami price changes of a 1% here or 2% there.

So, if you are currently on the market and feel you aren’t getting anywhere and think it could be your asking price, then again, drop me a line at brian.linehan@belvoir.co.uk