The Seven Hidden Costs Of Selling Your Home

So, you’ve decided to make a massive upheaval to your life: you’re going to move house. While it’s an exciting time, it’s also an incredibly expensive one. And this doesn’t just refer to buying the new property or filling it with new furniture! There’s quite a few things you need to be aware of during the buying process - as everything from putting your home on the market, to arriving in your new property will have associated costs. 

1. Estate agent fees

If you’ve decided to sell your home through an estate agent, you’ll need to be prepared for the associated costs. Many agents will try to ‘trick’ you with new costs popping up at every stage of the process: instead of buying one service, you’ll often be paying ad-hoc costs for different things. However, there are companies, like Hungry Agents, who can help you save money - rather than make you spend more. So, it’s vitally important that you do in-depth research before signing up with an agent. Yes, you want one with good success rates - but you also want one who’s going to respect you, and not charge you the earth. 

2. Conveyancing

You also need to consider the costs and time frame of hiring someone in the legal profession to manage the legal side of selling. Many property specialist firms will have ‘bundle’ offers, where they’ll do everything you need for one set fee. However, it can be quite expensive, so don’t forget to allocate some of your budget for this. This article has some great, relevant advice for how to choose a conveyancer. 

3. Staging your home

Sometimes your agent won’t deal with this part of the selling process, so if they don’t, you need to be prepared to do it yourself. And even if they are handling it, putting your own touch on your home will always be a good idea. Take a critical look at your house, and be ruthless: is your interior decoration truly selling your home’s best features? Is your furniture subtle enough to show the rooms off? If not, it might be time to redecorate. However, if your budget is on the tighter side and a complete revamp is off the cards, just make your house is tidy, smells nice, and there’s no obvious damage anywhere! This post has some good hints and tips about preparing your home for viewings.

4. Paying a cleaner

Unless you’re willing to spend a lot of money on cleaning products and a lot of time on the actual cleaner, it’s often cheaper and easier to hire a professional cleaning company. That way you know that the house is getting a deep clean, and you won’t have to worry about any complaints. Cleaning companies will often do your carpets too - which is a must before moving. Read this post to help you decide whether you should clean your home yourself, or hire a professional.

5. Redecorating costs

If your house has been on the market for a while, it might be time to freshen it up. You’ll need to weigh the costs against each other: the cost of redecorating, vs the cost of having it on the market longer and possibly not being able to buy when you want. This might be as simple as a fresh lick of paint for the walls - or it might mean installing a new kitchen and putting down new flooring. If your furniture is looking a bit worse for wear and you don’t want to replace it before moving, then invest in neat throws. Here are some tips to help you redecorate on a budget.

6. Hiring removal vans

Once you’ve sold your home, you need to think about the next part: moving all of your belongings. Again, you need to decide whether you want to do it yourself, or hire professionals. Doing it yourself can be cheaper, but you still need to buy all the packaging equipment, pack everything up, hire a van or truck, and then drive it to your new home. Professionals will often do everything: from packing and wrapping, to driving and unpacking. 

7. Making your new home liveable

You might be lucky and walk straight into a property that’s well decorated with good appliances, and a nice kitchen and bathroom. However, a lot of the time, you won’t be this fortunate. So, make sure your budget has an allowance for emergency repairs and redecoration at your new home. You might also want to consider things like curtains: if your old ones don’t fit, will you have enough left over to nip out and buy new ones? Try to do a recce of your new house as close to the moving date as possible, so you can see what you might need to do on arrival.