Want To Move Before Christmas? Here are 5 tips for a quick, easy move!

2023 may feel like a distant reality, but December is looming closer with every day, encouraging home-movers to hurry if they want to move before Christmas. That’s why Centrick have compiled the five best tips for home movers hoping to move before the festive season!

Tip One: Find A Buyer You Can Trust

If you need to sell a property before you purchase your next home, it’s important that you find a reputable purchaser that you can trust, especially if you’re looking to move before Christmas. Inexperienced purchasers, or those that simply don’t have their finances and solicitor ready to go, are likely to cause delays that will inevitably impact the progression of your sale. Trust your instinct: if something doesn’t feel quite right, consult you selling agent. They will have the experience to determine whether you’re being led on by your buyer, and can give them a gentle nudge to keep the sale progressing swiftly.

Tip Two: Find A Responsive Solicitor

There’s nothing more frustrating than finding the perfect buyer, producing the perfect marketing materials, and agreeing on a brilliant sale price, all for your solicitors to be woefully unresponsive. Although we’re sympathetic to the undeniable stress that our conveyancers and solicitors deal with, it’s important that you are able to efficiently communicate with your legal representatives and obtain updates on the progression of your sale as and when you require them. We recommend asking your chosen selling agent for their recommendations for solicitors that offer a supreme service that can help expedite your sale – it can be very beneficial to instruct a solicitor that is familiar with your selling agent, as this existing relationship can ease communication and get you well on your way to executing a successful move before Christmas.

Tip Three: Use A Local Agent

Using a local agent comes with a wealth of benefits: they’ll be trusted by local buyers, easy for you to locate and contact, and will be complete experts in your neighbourhood. This will prove invaluable when it comes to marketing your property for sale, as your local agent will know just the right points to cover on your property listing to appeal to the right buyers. Local agents are also able to pinpoint what’s trending with buyers in your area, and will likely have a list of clients they have already worked with that may be interested in purchasing your property. This is especially true if your property would make a good rental home, with portfolio landlords always on the look-out for their next investment. Some potential purchasers may have such a good working relationship with their local selling agent that they are given previews of properties that are about to go live on the market, and could even snap up your home before it’s officially listed: it doesn’t get much faster than that!

Tip Four: Be Honest

There’s little point in listing your property for sale whilst covering up all of the little (or sometimes large) problems that your home carries. Whether you’ve tactfully moved furniture to cover damp and cracks, you haven’t disclosed a leak, or you have a suspicion that you have the dreaded Japanese knotweed: it’s vital that you disclose any issues to your agent and investigate them thoroughly before proceeding with your sale. These problems can extend sales completion processes from a few months to years as conveyancing and surveys become difficult to navigate.

Tip Five: Don’t Leave It Too Late

In order to carry out a successful move before Christmas, you can’t anticipate that everything will go according to plan. Listing your home too late leaves little room for error or manoeuvre, making it far more beneficial for sellers to list their home sooner rather than later in order to allow room for negotiation and in case any problems arise. What’s more, with estate agents, solicitors and conveyancers having their scheduled annual breaks around Christmas and New Year, it’s important to remember that not much movement in terms of your sale may happen towards the end of the year. So, with sales taking an average of 150 days from ‘offer accepted’ to ‘exchange’, it might be time to get listed before the tree goes up!

Ready to move before Christmas arrives?

Centrick are proud to be your local residential property experts: with an abundance of properties on the market across Birmingham, Solihull, Nottingham and beyond, we’re sure to have your dream home for sale! To find your next perfect home, check out our variety of listings here, or browse our range of new developments across the UK. Got a question for the team? Simply fill out the form below, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible: