Marketing your property

In order to instruct your agent to market your property, you will need to provide some basic information to get the ball rolling.

• Your signature: Confirm the pricing and the service that the agent will provide you and then you will need to sign their terms of business. It is important to read them thoroughly and understand what you are contractually committing to.
• Confirm your identity: Your agent will need to confirm your identity when they take you on, as a client both for their own security and also to comply with the Anti Money Laundering legislation. You will need to provide photographic ID such as a drivers licence or passport and a document confirming your proof of address.
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC): You are legally required to have an EPC in order to market your property unless it falls under one of the few exemptions, the main one being is that it is listed or officially protected. Your agent will be able to organise it for you. EPC’s are valid for 10 years, so there may be one already available for your home if you have moved in the last 10 years.

TIP: Your agent will want to put up a sale board. If you live in a leasehold building you will need to check whether sale boards are allowed as they are restricted in some buildings. There are also parts of the country where the local authority has banned the use of ‘For Sale’ boards and your agent will be able to advise you if this is the case.

How your property looks online

The online profile of your property will be one of the main sources of interest. A successful property listing should:

• Have at least 6 or 7 photographs including an external shot of the property
• Include photographs taken on a sunny day, ideally by a professional photographer.
• Avoid images that are very specific to a time of year, for example.
• Christmas. A picture of your Christmas tree in Spring is not going to help sell your property
• Don’t include images that just show a piece of furniture, as they could be from any property
• Include a comprehensive description including the dimensions of each room
• Include a floorplan showing the scale and layout of the property
• Avoid including images of your personal photographs on the mantelpiece

Helping your agent to help you

The more information that your agent has at their fingertips, the more likely they are to be successful. As part of their valuation process they will ask about the property, the neighbourhood and by gathering the information in advance it will help them in the process. You will also need to provide a lot of this information during the conveyancing process.

Key items to gather:

Property outgoings and how much you pay for:

• Council tax
• Energy bills
• Water charges
• Buildings and contents cover insurance

If the property is Leasehold:

• How much are the annual service charges?
• How frequently are they paid?
• Is the managing agent good?
• How long is left on the property lease
• Are there any major works due in the next few years?

If you have had building work completed

• What was the work?
• Was planning permission required?
• Did you get a certificate from the Building Control office confirming they had been done to standard?
• Does any of the work carry a guarantee – for example, damp proofing – and do you have the paperwork?

Property safety

• Do you have the installation certificates for the electrical and heating systems?
• When was the boiler installed?
• When was it last serviced and do you have a service record?
• If you have chimneys, when were they swept and do you have a certificate?

REMEMBER: For your property to be visible on Rightmove you will need to work with an agent who has an active membership with us. To check if an agent advertises with us, use our Find An Agent search.