Nearly everyone is living in fear at the minute not only with the coronavirus and lockdown, but also with other factors like riots and social media hacking going on. 2020 has not been the greatest year so far. However, if we don’t act now, the world economies will collapse and that is when we will really be living in fear. Many countries, such as the UK and USA are standing back on their two feet and the economy is slowly healing. But everyone is questioning if the housing market is stable and if it will be stable for the next few months.
We have narrowed down the possibilities; positives and negatives; and every outcome of every option that you have when it comes to selling your house during lockdown. Here are 5 important things you must know when it comes to selling your house during lockdown.
- Selling your house fast
Everyone wants to sell their house fast, but it can be very hard to do during coronavirus, as a lot of things are delayed or not allowed to take place. One example of things that cannot take place are house viewings, which makes it very hard for you to sell your house. Typically people like to see something for they buy it. There are ways around this however, for example you could take plenty of photos and videos, or even a 360 tour, which is becoming more popular nowadays.
- House prices are going up
According to many articles and valuable sources, house prices are expected to rise by 1.9% in the next few months. Does that mean you should wait to sell your house out to get the best price? You would think it would depend on if you prefer a faster sale or a better price but, on both ways, you should sell now. You may ask, why would you sell now when house prices are going up over the next three months? Well, not only are house prices going up, but so is everything else. A great inflation is upon us, everything is going to more expensive. People are going to be paying a higher tax. It will be a dangerous time to sell your house as two things could happen: It doesn’t sell because no one can afford to move to a new house, or it will be made to drastically fall in price just to sell. There is no point in taking a risk so big it could destroy he value of your home. Play it safe!
- Staying Safe
A very obvious point is to make sure you stay safe. Whenever you need to sign a contract or meet a solicitor etc wash your hands, wear a mask. Follow all the government guide lines and you will be 100% safe. Only do things related to selling your house that are completely necessary. If you can call the solicitors or house buyers etc over zoom or skype, it is a lot safer then actually meeting them face to face.
- Viewing and moving out
Viewing houses is not yet actually allowed by the government yet but likely will be in the next few weeks or months, as everything else is starting to reopen. It makes it very hard for you to sell your house or buy a house when you or the potential buyer isn’t allowed to see what they’re buying. Some ways around this is to take plenty of photos and videos of your house, or even a 360 tour. If you do this, you still need to clean and stage your house as if someone was actually coming up to the house. It isn’t the best thing in the world but it’s all you can do really. Another point of difficulty is moving out. It makes it very hard to switch houses with the person who is moving out of the house your buying, whilst the person moving into your old house is coming etc. It makes the whole process very difficult to avoid people, but there are ways to avoid people during this process. For example, choosing times for moving. Make a group chat and discuss when each person needs to have all their belongings out of the house etc. This should make it all a bit easier.
- Negotiating
A very important question is: should you negotiate house price during all of this? The real answer is debatable. House prices will fall, because people cannot borrow as much mortgage, and they can only pay the lowest price. This obviously makes it very hard for you to negotiate prices. You need to look at what your house is valued first, which will help you work out what they will likely pay with their likely small mortgage. You should only negotiate if you know you can. If they are offering less than what you think the largest mortgage the bank can loan, then ask them for a better price and same vice versa for when you buy a house from someone.
In conclusion, the times we are living in is making it very hard to make any answers for any question. The truth is anything could happen, making it hard to prepare. But if you are ready and prepared for a different number of possible outcomes then you will do better than those who are only prepared for one or none.
Good luck, and happy selling.
