Sell Your Ipswich Property Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cost of selling my property?

There are 3 elements that go to make up the cost of selling a home in the UK.

• There is the cost of the EPC or Energy Performance Certificate. You must have at least commissioned an EPC prior to the marketing of your home and Jonathan Waters can organise this for you.
• Your estate agent's commission fee. This is charged at a % of the sale price + vat at the prevailing rate.
• The legal fees for the conveyancing work. These fees will vary from firm to firm and are paid directly to the solicitor.

For more information on the cost to sell your home, please contact us for a free market appraisal.

Will there be any additional marketing costs?

At Jonathan Waters all of the standard marketing expenses such as preparing property particulars and listing your home on property portals are included within our commission fee. This is unlike many other estate agemnt who are now charging up front marketing fees which are payable whether the house is sold or not. With Jonathan Waters Estate Agents the only upfront charge is for the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which costs approximately £75 including VAT. If you complete successfully through Jonathan Waters, they will refund that £75 fee on completion.

Where can I find my title deeds?

The title deeds to a property are the proof of ownership. If your property is mortgaged the title deeds will be held at the bank or building society that you have arranged your mortgage with. If you do not have a mortgage on your property, your deeds should be lodged with your solicitor.

Is it worth redecorating prior to selling my home?

If there is an area of your home that you feel could do with a fresh coat of paint to make it that bit more appealing to buyers we would say go ahead. This may increase the speed at which you sell your Ipswich property. It is not essential however since many buyers will want to redecorate with their own colour schemes. If you do redecorate, we recommend choosing neutral colours that will appeal to the widest number of people.

Will Jonathan Waters estate agents accompany all the viewings on my home?

If you give us a key, we will gladly accompany viewings whilst you are out at work during the working week or on saturdays where at all possible.It may be however that some buyers can’t view your property during our office hours, in which case we may call upon you to show them around during an evening or occasionally at the weekend.

Do I have to be there when you are showing someone around?

No, and in many cases it is preferable that you are not, simply because the viewer feels more comfortable when the owner is not around. Also when there are fewer people in the house it makes your home look bigger.

If I accept an offer for my house, do I have to take it off the market?

This is the usual practise and is often a condition of the offer. It will however depend upon your preference.

Do I have to pay stamp duty?

You only have to pay stamp duty on the house you are buying, not the one you are selling and even then it is only if you are purchasing a property of £125000.00 or more.

When do I have to move out?

You are legally obliged to vacate the property on the day of completion which is agreed between your solicitors and the solicitors acting on behalf of the buyer.

Will I be liable to pay Capital Gains Tax?

If the home you are selling is your main home there will be no Capitol Gains Tax to pay as long as you satisfy certain legal conditions. If it is not your principal residence however, then it is quite likely that Capitol Gains Tax will be payable.

Moving Made Easy - Jonathan Waters Complete Moving Package

Visit Jonathan Waters, your one-stop property shop.

At Jonathan Waters we can provide you with the complete range of property related services all under one roof. We can value, market, advertise and sell your home for you, give you access to mortgage services, recommend solicitors and liaise with them to progress your sale. We can also help you find a removals company. So make your move easy and let our team of professional staff do the work for you.

Value your property

You can request a free market appraisal valuation of your home from one of our highly experienced valuation staff - between us we've been valuing property in the Ipswich area for over 62 years, we therefore have a healthy understanding of local market trends and fluctuations in the area.

Market your property

We take a very personal approach to marketing your property and do so based on our unrivalled knowledge of the property market in your area. We will help you to secure a highly motivated buyer for your home, from our huge database of properly qualified, waiting applicants and ensure the sales process runs smoothly from start to finish.

Our marketing service includes the following:

• We will advise you on the appropriate methods and timing of your house sale and make recommendations regarding the type and area of advertising and photographic presentation, best suited to your type of property.
• We will erect a “for sale” board as this helps to notify the buying public that your home is available for sale.
• In order to correctly price your home for sale, we will undertake a comprehensive appraisal of all competing properties currently being marketed and we will provide an in-depth evaluation of comparable property that has recently been sold in your area.
• Your property will be marketed from our two office locations. Our busy town centre location sees a constant flow of applicants as does our even busier east Ipswich office, on the ring road at the Foxhall Road roundabout.
• When we first receive instructions to market your property, we will immediately place it on our own website at www.jonathanwaters.co.uk. Within 48 hours it will also appear on www.rightmove.co.uk and many other property websites and portals including; propertyfinder, primelocation, findanewhome, findaproperty, virginmedia, msn, sky, aol, yahoo, tiscali, channel4, orange, timesonline, thelondonpaper, uknetguide, zoopla, thinkproperty, hotproperty, upmystreet, ukpropertyshop, kelkoo, myvillage, home, and many more.
• To get more traffic to your part of our website, the part with your home details on it, we can utilise rightmove’s upgraded or premium listings facility. Here, highlighted properties are tagged in a different colour to make them stand out from the crowd.
• We were one of the first agents to introduce floor plans on our particulars and interactive floor plans on our website and this service is available, across the board, regardless of property asking price.
• We subscribe to the evening standards “stop press” advertising facility. This means that we can feature your property within just 48 hours of receiving your instruction to sell.
• We maintain a database of 200+ waiting applicants and keep in regular contact with them so that we can react quickly to any changes in the market place or changes in their position.

Progress your sale

Once we have agreed a sale on your behalf, that’s when our team of dedicated “sales progressors” get to work. It is their job to monitor your sale from start to finish, dealing with any issues that arise and sorting out any problems that may come to light.

Our sales staff have between them, 165 years of local property experience. There are not many problems they haven’t encountered and sorted, there are not many markets they haven’t seen.

Mortgage services

Jonathan Waters' specialist mortgage advisors can provide advice and information to assist you with all of your mortgage needs.

Organise a solicitor and removals firm

We have been selling homes in and around the Ipswich area for many years now and, as a result, have built up good, working relationships with many of the local conveyancing solicitors and removal firms. We are happy to recommend these service to you should you need one.

Interest rates stable in September

Fiona Wilson from the Mortgage Advice Bureau comments on the Bank of England’s decision to retain the Bank Base Rate at half of one percent for the eighteenth consecutive month.

“Few will be surprised to see the Bank Base Rate maintained at 0.5% for yet another month. Although the economic growth rate was recently revised upwards to 1.1%, inflation has just started to fall back so it was no surprise to see the bank retaining their cautious, wait and see approach!

It is expected that some government departments will face significant reductions in their budgets. This will result in job losses and a tightening of belts as individuals’ disposable incomes are squeezed as the planned tax rise kicks in early next year.

Now that the summer holidays are largely consigned to a photographic memory, we have seen a substantial increase in the choice of mortgage products available with lenders. Mortgage product numbers in the first week of September were at a year to date high of more than 4,700 deals, an increase of approximately 1,000 products in a little under two months and also surpassing product numbers available at any point in 2009. This is good news for borrowers as a greater choice means more competitive products for anyone looking to buy or those looking to remortgage.

The price of the average 2 year fixed rate mortgage in September as reported by Moneyfacts is 4.55%, down from almost 5% (4.93%) at the end of 2009 and the average 5 year fixed deal has continued to reduce, now down to 5.56% from more than 6% (6.15%) in December 2009.

As a result of fixed rate deals having reduced in price over several months, it seems their appeal to borrowers has increased with more than 60% of buyers opting to fix.”

Fiona Wilson is from the Mortgage Advice Bureau working with Jonathan Waters Estate Agents, for further information on how the latest base rate decision affects you, please call Fiona Wilson on 01473 721133 or 01473 281188, or via our website

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

A fee of up to 1% of the mortgage amount may be charged depending on individual circumstances. A typical fee is £95.

Sell your home by Christmas and beat the VAT increase!

From the 4th of January 2011, VAT will rise from 17.5% to 20%. The change will significantly affect both a buyer’s and a seller’s costs to move, with increased VAT impacting not only estate agency fees and conveyancing costs, but also potentially the cost of surveys, land registry and search fees. Moving costs too are likely to increase, as are the price of redecoration and furnishing and these increases are not far away.

It takes on average 13 weeks to complete a house move, once a sale has been agreed. So sellers putting their home for sale at the end of August / beginning of September still have time to beat the VAT increase if they act quickly! It is also worth bearing in mind that many companies will not increase their prices immediately following the change in the law, so even if your move does not complete until January or February you may still save money on certain aspects.

The market is still very buoyant so there really is, no better time to sell. And from a buyers viewpoint, if you act quickly, with a bit of luck you could still be in your new home by Christmas.

Contact Jonathan Waters Estate Agents today to sell your Ipswich or Clacton property

Mortgage Interest Rates Still Competitive

Jonathan Waters Estate Agents comment on the recent Bank Base Rate decision:-

“Yet another month has gone by with no change to the Bank Base Rate (BBR). Once again the Bank of England (BOE) have taken the view that the economy is still too fragile to start to raise rates back towards more normal levels.

This is now unlikely to change in the short term with the Governor of the Bank of England recently commenting that he could see rates remain low for the foreseeable future.

This provides further support to the housing and mortgage markets and should help ensure that both borrowers looking to move home and those who want to remortgage, continue to see very competitive mortgage interest rates.

Mortgage product availability remains at close to the highest levels seen this year in spite of the seasonal dip in activity that generally takes place over the summer months, with many high street lenders continuing to review their products to attract borrowers.

Borrower preferences have seen a further move towards fixed rates with 6 out of 10 borrowers choosing fixed rates in July, which is something of a shift from several months ago when variable rates were more popular.

Interest rates are often a topic of conversation and differences of opinion have always existed amongst economists, bankers and politicians in relation to interest rate setting policy. However, interest rates are unlikely to fall any further and those buyers and borrowers that want to move either their home or their mortgage currently have access to some excellent products.

For further information on how the latest base rate decision affects you please call Jonathan Waters Estate Agency in Ipswich on 01473 721133.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

A fee of up to 1% of the mortgage amount may be charged depending on individual circumstances. A typical fee is £95. (or insert fee statement)

Sell your Ipswich Property – contact us now for a free valuation and to discuss your move!

Sell your Clacton Property – contact us now for a free valuation and to discuss your move!

The question everyone will want an answer to!

Fiona Wilson from the Mortgage Advice Bureau comments on The Bank of England’s decision to continue their policy of holding the bank base rate at 0.5% for the 17th consecutive month.

“Now that the new coalition government have put forward their emergency budget and plans to tackle the public deficit, the effect of these proposals will mean less disposable income through rises in direct and indirect taxation for most people. The Monetary Policy Committee may have felt that raising interest rates at this time would potentially stop what is currently very modest growth in the economy.

The last month or so has continued to see lenders trimming their mortgage rates to prospective borrowers with Moneyfacts reporting the average 2 year fixed rate now standing at 4.51%. Recent lending patterns have suggested that borrowers are increasingly opting for fixed rates over variable deals with more people choosing fixed rates in June 2010.

As always the question everyone will want an answer to is - when will interest rates rise? Once again the answer is no-one really knows, from our understanding the opinion currently is that following the announcements concerning public finances and the likely impact that this is going to have on public sector jobs, incomes interest rates are likely to stay lower for longer, but that does not necessarily mean that rates will not start to creep up slowly!”

Fiona Wilson is from the Mortgage Advice Bureau for further information on how the latest base rate decision affects you, please call Jonathan Waters Estate Agents on 01473 721133 or visit www.mortgageadvicebureau.com/jonathanwaters for further information and advice.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

A fee of up to 1% of the mortgage amount may be charged depending on individual circumstances. A typical fee is £95.




MAB 3724

A Reasonable Budget for Property

“A Reasonable Budget for Property”

There have been mixed messages surrounding Tuesday’s budget, with most criticism predictably coming from those now sitting on the opposition benches.

Whilst everyone was expecting tough measures, those announced are unlikely to have a major impact on the recovering property market. The Stamp Duty tax break for first time buyers up to £250,000 remains in place, which is good news. The two main changes concern Capital Gains Tax and VAT.

CGT is rising with immediate effect from 18% for basic rate taxpayers to 28% for higher rate taxpayers. This nevertheless remains well below the 40% it used to be until just three years ago. This is unlikely to affect the majority of homeowners as in the UK, unlike many other countries, we enjoy tax exemption from any appreciation in the value of our principal residence.

However, second home or buy-to-let owners will need to take this new regime into account when deciding whether or not to sell. An important consideration is that any gain is actually added to income for CGT purposes and could well tip a basic rate taxpayer into the higher rate bracket.

The good news is that this change is immediate. Had the chancellor decided to implement this from eg. the next financial year, there would have been a flood of properties entering the market in order to avoid the hike, thereby undermining prices.

VAT is to rise from 17.5% to 20% from January. This 2.5 point rise is again unlikely to affect property prices as it will only apply to certain costs of sale such as removals, solicitor’s fees, and estate agency fees. The actual figures involved are relatively nominal, and are unlikely to prompt people to sell as a direct result. At xxxx agency we’ll be absorbing the difference for all our selling clients for a whole year in any event!


©Copyright 2010 Richard Rawlings except as excluded under licence.