What is your primary goal?

...(and I don’t mean price) 

Quick question…

Are you clear on what you are trying to achieve by selling your property (ignoring the ‘price you need’ for the moment)? It could be… 

Settling in the village of your dreams?

Closer to work to reduce your commute?

Having more space?

To be in catchment of a highly regarded school?

To avoid being repossessed?

Being nearer to your children or grandchildren?

Having a more relaxed lifestyle on the coast?

Slightly increasing your mortgage for a substantially bigger home?

or maybe to release equity? 

This ‘primary goal’, or ‘end goal’ is very important, because in my experience, many people focus on the now, a little too much and actually miss opportunities to reach that goal. Clearly the price you want to achieve for your property is going to be relevant to the whole move but most of the time, the price is usually the secondary goal. 

Take this example, I had a property on the market many years ago in Coalville and the owner was facing repossession within 3 months’ time if the property wasn’t under offer. The client came to me ‘wanting’ to achieve £225,000 (but needing to achieve £215,000) for his house to cover the mortgage, expenses and to give him £10,000 extra at the end. 

£225,000 seemed like a fair price given the research I had carried out, so I explained to him that it will depend on what buyers were willing to pay but I would do all I could to get him that price.

We marketed the property and 4 weeks later I received an offer and managed to negotiate it up to £220,000. Given his situation, with repossession looming, I felt this was a good offer as a sale at that figure would keep the bank at bay, settle all outstanding debt and avoid him being repossessed (although he would only get £5,000, not £10,000) – so I advised him to take the offer. 

Unfortunately, the client wasn’t so keen as he ‘wanted’ £225,000 so refused the offer. It’s always the clients’ decision so we continued to market the property. A little while later, I had a call asking me to take the property off the market as he had been repossessed!

This client’s goal at the start was to avoid being repossessed. As we know, the repercussions of repossession can be very damaging but he let his secondary goal (wanting £10,000 left over at the end) get in the way, and as a result he won’t be able to own a home again for a long time.

The advice here is to make sure you are crystal clear on ‘why’ you are wanting to sell and keep that goal at the forefront of your mind throughout the selling process.