It comes as no surprise that selling your home is a stressful experience and if you have never sold a house before, it can be incredibly overwhelming. There are various factors to consider when putting your house on the market, such as finding the right estate agent, cleaning and potentially painting rooms in your current home, as well as arranging viewings for potential buyers.
These tend to appear at the top of most moving guide priority lists, however, one thing that is often overlooked or completely forgotten about, is documentation. During the process of buying or selling a property, there is usually mountains of paperwork to be completed or that needs to be readily available. Whilst there are obvious pieces of paperwork you will need, there are some that you may not have realised were needed.
If you are currently in the process of putting your house on the market, here are some of the documents you will need on hand to show estate agents and potential buyers.
ID and Proof Of Address
ID and proof of address are one of the more obvious pieces. It is needed by solicitors to prove that you live in the current address. The most common forms of identification include a driving license, passport, as well as a recent bank statement or utility bill. If the mortgage is in two names, then ID and proof of address will need to be provided by both names listed.
Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)
A common question many have is ' What is an EICR report?' In short, an EICR identifies damages, defects or conditions to electrical appliances which need to be improved. Otherwise, they run the risk of potential danger to the property. Although this one is not a requirement, having an updated EICR report that shows no issues or things to watch out for, will provide potential buyers with a clearer understanding of your property. It will help to form an idea of what work would need to be done to the property if they decided to place an offer.
Energy Performance Certificate
Providing an energy performance certificate is a legal requirement every seller must share with potential buyers. It provides an overview of how energy efficient a property is to run, giving a rating from A, which is very efficient with the cheapest energy bills, through to G, least efficient with the highest bills. Similar to the EICR, seeing an energy performance certificate can offer potential buyers an insight into how much it could cost to run the property.
Ensure You Have The Documents On Hand
When it comes to selling your house, having all the essential home documentation up-to-date and on hand ready to share, could help in swaying a potential buyer's opinion on whether they will place an offer. You may encounter some buyers who are willing to walk away from a deal or delay the process if you are not prepared. In turn, this could help you to sell your house quicker, especially if you have done a few touch-ups to brighten the place up a bit more.
Ensuring that you have all of the documentation that you will or might need readily available will help in creating a stress-free move, which means you can focus your attention on packing and moving into your new home.
