Home Owner Selling -
The Post Sale Period
You've reached the last leg of your home owner selling journey. The contract has been signed, sealed, and delivered, and the unconditonal period has been reached - all without problems.
It's now time to celebrate your home owner selling success and start making plans to finalise the sale, which include moving house.
WORDS OF CAUTION! It's important that all conditions have been met. This should have been followed up by your lawyer/conveyancing firm once the contract was signed, and if any problems or delays occur, they should contact you immediately.
Things can still go wrong, even after your contract has gone unconditional. If any problems do occur at this stage of your private home owner selling journey, it is usually (but not always) to do with the reschedule or delay of the settlement date. Keep in touch with your lawyer/conveyancing firm, so you know where you stand legally and know the options available to you.
What things should you now consider in light of your home selling?
1. Removalist - a removalist should have been booked at the time of signing of the contract. This is something you don't want to leave until the last minute when moving house. If any changes occur, i.e. change to settlement date, then keep your removalist up-to-date with any changes.
2. Garage Sales - once your contract has gone 'unconditional', it's now a good time to start organising to sell off any unwanted items. Garage sales are an easy, convenient, and inexpensive way to get rid of household items. Any funds from the sale will come in handy, and the sale of unwanted items will help decrease the amount you have to pack when moving house, and save you further money.
3. Mail Redirections - you can usually leave this close to settlement. However, don't leave it too late, as you'll be busy with other things close to the date. Also, Australia Post usually require a number of days before re-direction can be initiated. Organise this at least 1 week
before settlement date.
4. Cancel your Utility Connections - This includes your electricity and phone connections.
If you know where you will be residing, you can notify the relevant departments of your forwarding address, otherwise, ensure that these are cancelled by settlement date. You don't want to be paying for services you are no longer using.
5. Storage Facility - If you don't have a permanent address organised, then you may need to store your contents somewhere until you do, depending on your plans. Do your homework and check out storage options including what size storage, the cost, location, security and conditions. Also, ensure you are aware of minimum storage times, if any, e.g. six months minimum storage, etc.
6. Cleaning - Cleaning is a courtesy that should be given to the new owner, and leaves a feeling of goodwill between both parties. If you don't have the time, then you can hire a domestic cleaner to do it for you. Just make sure you inspect your home to ensure it has been cleaned to a satisfactory standard.
7. Handing over the Keys - This is usually done on the day of settlement. To ensure a smooth handover, details should be organised with the buyer prior to settlement. Your lawyer/conveyancing firm should have contacted you once settlement has been successfully completed, so you can complete the handover.
8. Notification of Change of Address - Once you know what your new address will be, remember to contact important organisations of the change. These may include your bank, insurance companies, newspaper deliveries, magazine/catalogue subscriptions, charity
organisations, accountant, Australian electoral commission, etc.
Home Owner Selling - Dealing with a NO SALE
Unfortunately, this can and does happen. No matter your efforts, for whatever reason, you may have not been able to sell your home.
At this stage of your private home owner selling journey, you need to decide what to do. Options private home sellers consider are:
* permanently remove their home from the sale market.
* temporarily remove their home from the sale market.
* rent out their home
* list their home with an agent to try to sell
(if they haven't as yet done so).
Whatever option you choose, try to remain objective about the whole process and stay positive. As hard as it may sound, there is a reason why you haven't managed to sell your home, and it may not always be apparent to you.
Take stock of what exactly has happened. You will feel a myriad of emotions, however, try to approach it logically and firstly look at the facts. Gather all the information from your home owner selling experience. Sit down and look at the process and the results as honestly as possible.
Most important of all, if you think and feel that you did the best you could, give yourself a pat on the back that you gave it your best shot! Take from your home owner selling experience the most valuable lessons about what you did right and what you could have improved upon.
This will open your thinking to the option of selling privately in the future, and give you an excellent head start, if and when you use private home sales again.
Try not to colour all future decisions based on this one unsuccessful experience. Just because you weren't successful this time, doesn't mean the private home owner selling process won't work for you in the future. Maybe it was the wrong time and market; maybe you were overpriced or you
overcapitalised. This is where you really need to be as honest as possible about your experience. Remain upbeat, assess the situation, make your decision and then move forward without regret!
I hope you can take many valuable lessons from your private home owner selling experience. Best wishes for your future, whatever that may be and keep moving up and onward with positive expectancy!
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