A Coronavirus Update for Homeowners considering selling in Loughborough, East Leake or Charnwood.

In this three-minute read, I share four simple ways you can get your property ready for sale if you are thinking of moving when lockdown ends. And we share four things we’re doing to continue serving our clients and to keep everyone as safe as possible.

As some sections of our society are slowly being ‘unlocked’ following Boris Johnson’s address yesterday evening, there is some light beginning to be seen at the end of the tunnel.

The messages we’ve all heard from medical officers across the UK is that if we stay very mindful of the threat of Coronavirus, we can eventually defeat this awful disease.

The Government released their detailed report today at 2pm, however there wasn’t any industry specific guidance for the property world in there but I am monitoring the situation by the hour.

We can’t rush this, the lockdown is a phased process, as outlined yesterday and everyone still has an essential part to play.

We are receiving more and more enquiries from people thinking about selling when this all ends.

The good news is there are some simple things you can do to get ahead and prepare, should you want to sell and move in the future.

By following these steps, you help give your agent the best chance of selling your property quickly, and for a price, you’re delighted with.

Four Steps to Prepare – Help Us

  • Many of you have probably done this one already if you’ve had time on your hands. Declutter.
  • Get any property related paperwork like warranties, guarantees and manuals all in one easy to access place. Organise.
  • There’s never been a better time to do those odd jobs around the home which need doing. Fix the squeaky door, clean the fascia, paint the spare room.
  • It’s spring clean time (ish) and having a fresh-smelling, clean home is good for your mental and physical health – whether you are selling or not. Clean.

And while we’re on the subject of being clean.

Here are four things we will be introducing, but only when the rules around viewings are relaxed. And these will be updated depending on today’s Government announcement.

Virtual Viewings – We’re already doing them, and they will continue to be very popular with prospective buyers in the future. Contact us for more details.

Going Contactless – We’ll be advising sellers to leave doors, cupboards, and gates open where possible to reduce any risk during physical viewings.

Protecting Each Other – We will carry hand sanitiser and other forms of Personal Protective Equipment to every viewing.

Take a (very short) Vacation – We will be asking people to vacate their properties if there is a viewing. This could be to sit in their cars or go into the garden. We feel the use of virtual valuations will mean that prospective buyers having a physical viewing are seriously thinking about buying the property they are looking at.

We’re expecting the local property market to leap back into life once the pent-up demand to move is unleashed when the lockdown and social distancing measures are further relaxed.

And we’ll be ready for it.

But the most important thing for us at Newton Fallowell is to ensure the safety of our team, our clients, and our community across Loughborough, East Leake and Charnwood.

Stay safe. We will get through this and look out for my update tomorrow.

Richard

We are required by law to conduct anti-money laundering checks on all those selling or buying a property. Whilst we retain responsibility for ensuring checks and any ongoing monitoring are carried out correctly, the initial checks are carried out on our behalf by Lifetime Legal who will contact you once you have agreed to instruct us in your sale or had an offer accepted on a property you wish to buy. The cost of these checks is £60 (incl. VAT), which covers the cost of obtaining relevant data and any manual checks and monitoring which might be required. This fee will need to be paid by you in advance of us publishing your property (in the case of a vendor) or issuing a memorandum of sale (in the case of a buyer), directly to Lifetime Legal, and is non-refundable.  We will receive some of the fee taken by Lifetime Legal to compensate for its role in the provision of these checks.