The following is a short guide to the process of selling a property, in plain English and uncomplicated legal terms.
Preparation for Sale
Title Deeds
When you decide to sell your home, you should instruct your solicitor to draw down your title deeds from your bank. It is from your Title Deeds that your solicitor drafts the contracts for sale, so it is vitally important that your solicitor writes to your bank before we put the property on the market, so that the deeds are available to draft the sales contract immediately when we sale agree your house. It can take the banks up to six weeks (sometimes longer) to deliver the title deeds, and recently, we have come across a lot of cases where the title deeds have been lost by the bank and need to be re-constituted. Some of the Vulture Funds are absolutely disastrous in that regard, because they have purchased the mortgages (or loan book as they call it) from one of the pillar banks for around 35c to 40c in the €, and all they want is their pound of flesh. They have no interest in re-constituting the deeds and we have even come across a case where one of the Vulture Funds (name dafter a condiment) insisted on the client paying for the title deeds, that they lost, to be re-constituted! We have had a number of sales fall through because the title deeds could not be produced in time, so step number 1 is, make sure you have your title deeds before you put your property up for sale, Solicitors can be very laisse faire about this and often tell clients that it is time enough to look for drawdown of the title deeds when the home has gone sale agreed. That is simply not true and could cost you the sale of your house.
Instruct your solicitor to draw down the title deeds before your house goes on sale.
Extensions or Alterations
If you have built on an extension, even if it is exempt planning because it is underneath 40sqm in size, or if you have carried out some alterations to the interior of the property, like removing interior walls, you may need to get a certificate of compliance with building regulations, or an Opinion of Compliance. It is always better to have these certificates in advance and give them to your solicitor, so that your solicitor can provide them to the other side. If your extension or alteration was supervised by an architect or engineer, they should have provided you with a Certificate of Compliance with building regulations at the time. If you did not obtain that Certificate of Compliance at the time, then you will have to obtain an Opinion of Compliance to satisfy the purchasers solicitor, so its best to get it done before the property goes for sale, you are going to need it anyway.
You should also ensure that you have a Building Energy Regulation Certification because we need to include the BER rating on all advertisements, as required by law. When we receive your instruction to sell your home, we will agree with you a list of items to be included in the sale.
Hogan Estates Marketing
Our marketing campaign includes the following;
1. Advertise the property on www.myhome.ie
2. Advertise the property on www.daft.ie
3. Advertise the property on www.hoganestates.ie
4. Advertise your property on www.propertypal.com
5. High quality, bright and well composed photographs for websites.
6. Floor plans
7. Matterport Virtual Tour (see links to some of our recent examples below)
8. High impact Hogan Estates ‘FOR SALE’ sign if appropriate.
9. Brightly lit window display in Hogan Estates office window.
Matterport.
5 TymonFarm
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=2U9Maou4Vo8
Wellfield
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=jiU7dYJxzjK
186 ButterfieldAvenue
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=kGtD8CidBp6
59 IdroneDrive
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=qPyLanzydNx
As Hogan Estates conduct the viewings of your property, some of the prospective purchasers will make an offer to buy your property at a certain price. Hogan Estates will convey that offer to you along with advice on whether to accept the offer or to hold out for a better offer. Hogan Estates will negotiate on your behalf to get the best possible offer for your property.
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When you decide to accept an offer, the purchaser is usually asked to pay a deposit of 2.5% of the purchase price but you should be aware that in the event of the sale not completing this deposit is refundable. The purchaser will probably arrange a structural survey and their lending institution will most certainly arrange a valuation of the property. At this stage you should also advise your solicitor that you have accepted an offer to sell your property. A list or inventory of contents to be included in the sale will also be prepared by Hogan Estates and forwarded to your solicitor.
Contact UsHogan Estates will write to your solicitor and ask them to send contracts and a copy of the title deeds of your property to the purchaser’s solicitor. When contacts have been agreed between both parties’ solicitors, the purchaser will sign the contracts in the presence of his solicitor and they will then be forwarded to your solicitor for signing by you. At this stage, the purchaser must also pay the balance of the 10% deposit required. In other words, if they have previously paid a booking deposit of 2.5% of the purchase price, they must now pay a further 7.5% of the purchasing price. When these contracts are signed, there is no going back. You now have a legal and binding agreement.
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A date which is convenient for both parties will be agreed for the completion of the sale. This is commonly referred to as a ‘date for closing’. Both solicitors will meet on the mutually agreed completion date and exchange contracts. The purchaser’s solicitor will also give your solicitor a cheque for the balance of funds which is 90% of the purchase price. Your solicitor will transfer any funds held by him in relation to the sale to you after deducting his fees and outlays. All that is left for you to do is to take meter readings and hand over the keys and of course, browse the Hogan Estates Website for the home you have always wanted.
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