STEPS TO SELLING A PROPERTY
Are you planning on selling your property – what are the steps you should take now?
If you have a mortgage on your property there is a strong chance that your title deeds will be with your bank or they may be still with the solicitor who acted for you when you purchased the property.
Contact us to arrange an appointment by phone/in person or by virtual meeting such as Zoom. We can arrange to take up your title deeds from
your bank or previous solicitor. We will draft up the necessary forms and can either meet you in person or send the form to you electronically or by regular post for signature and return.
Please note the banks generally require a hard-copy of this document called an authorisation.
It is important to do this early and ideally before you have actually put the property on them market or a buyer is found. It can take banks up to six weeks to send out title deeds from the date they receive the authorisation which can result in a delay in the sale or the sale actually falling through because of this delay.
We will be able to give you an estimate of our fees at this stage.
Once title deeds are received, we can then review title to the property to confirm it is in order. We will be able to confirm our fees estimate once we have reviewed title.
Do you want to take the contents of the house with you or are they included in the sale? You should consider this at this stage. If the property only is being sold you will have to sell the property with ‘vacate possession’ which means the house should be fully cleared out including the attic and only have fixtures and fittings left when the sale closes.
Once title has been reviewed and it is confirmed same is in order you should then instruct an auctioneer to place the property on the market. They will advise you on the best method to sell the property. You will need to agree the auctioneer’s fees at this stage too or should request details of their fee from them. Many auctioneers’ fees are based on a percentage of the sale price.
When the auctioneer finds a buyer for the property and the price has been agreed by you the property is now ‘sale agreed’. This means that both parties are have agreed that the sale should proceed but either party may pull of the sale until such time as contracts are signed and deposit paid. Until contracts are signed the sale is SUBJECT TO CONTRACT/CONTRACT DENIED. You should also try and agree a closing date at this stage. A trouble-free sale normally takes 4/5 weeks as a rule of thumb.
If you are selling a property which is not your family home (house you rented out, shop unit or other commercial building) then Capital Gains Tax may arise on the sale and if you have an accountant you should talk to them at an early stage. How much tax is payable will depend on the what you paid for the property/value you inherited the property and what price you sell it at. Capital Gains Tax is payable on the difference between the two with a number of allowance which your accountant will be able to advise you on more fully. Other property taxes that will need to be paid up to date are the Local Property Tax, NPPR and Commercial Rates.
Thinking of Selling a property – why not get a quick quote for legal fees?
Please complete the short form below if you would like a quote from John C. O’Donnell & Sons, Solicitors, Galway. We will send you a full schedule of the various fees that must be covered plus a breakdown of legal fees.