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As you probably know, any property marketed for sale now
will need a HIP
(apart from a few exceptions listed at
bottom of page).
There are many stories about who can provide the HIP and how much it costs so we’ll
try to make things nice and straight forward here. The simple truth is, anyone can
compile a Home Information Pack. The only part of the pack that requires a specialist
is the Energy Performance Certificate, this must be supplied by an accredited Domestic
Energy Assessor.
Many Estate Agents are offering the HIP for free if you use their services to sell
your property, now I think we all know that an Estate Agent isn't going to do anything
for free so how does this work?..... Well, they will supply your HIP for 'free'
if you agree to sign a 'Sole Agency' contract for a set period, usually about 12 weeks.
The idea being that they hope to sell your property within this time knowing that
you cannot sell through another agent because you are tied in to them. If they do
sell your property then the cost of the HIP is obviously covered in the several
thousand pounds you will have to pay them in commission. If you consider this to
be 'free' then all is well.
Let us assume that they haven't managed to sell your property within the time period
of the contract, then what?...... Well, you will either sign up for another period
of 'sole Agency' with them or you might want to employ the services of another agent
to give you more chance of a sale.... understandable in the present housing market.
So what happens now.... you will have to sign a 'Multi Agency' contract, this allows
you to use as many Estate Agents as you wish to sell your property, but you already
have a HIP with the first agent, so you won't need another one, will you!.....Let
us assume your second agent is more fortunate and finds someone that is interested
in your property, the potential buyer wants to see the Home Information Pack for
your property but that has been commissioned from a HIP provider, paid for by the
first Estate Agent and branded in their company name. Will your second agent want
the buyer to see a HIP with the name of your first agent on it? Will your first
agent let you show the HIP (that they have paid for) to a buyer from the second
agent..... It’s all becoming a bit of a mess.
This is a point that you will need to clarify with your Estate Agent before you
sign up for a 'FREE' Home Information Pack.
Looking on the bright side, let us assume both Estate Agents are having a good day
and agree to the potential buyer seeing the HIP but then the buyer makes an offer
that you accept, you are now selling your property through the second agent and
they will be making thousands of pounds by introducing you to this buyer, what
about your first agent, will they simply hand over your 'FREE' HIP even though they
have paid for it?..........err, Highly unlikely.
So now you have to pay your second Estate Agent several thousand pounds for introducing
you to a buyer and you will most probably have to pay your first agent several hundred
pounds for your Home Information Pack, did you find out how much the HIP would cost
you should this scenario occur? .......Probably
a lot more than you thought!
Another point to clarify before signing up for a 'FREE' HIP.
Basically the Home Information Pack is being used by some Estate Agents as another
tool to tie you in with them until someone sees your property and decides to buy
it through them, because unless
you are advertising your property on a site such as ours, the buyer has only the
estate agents contact details and not yours.
You can avoid all this by having your Home Information Pack ready BEFORE you approach
an Estate Agent. We can recommend a company that have been doing searches for many years
and will compile a HIP with out the EPC for about £150.00 (you will need to check
current prices), we can provide your EPC from £100.00 this will give you a HIP for
approx £250.00, this is probably a lot less than an
estate agent will charge you if you don't sell through them and have to pay for
the HIP they were giving you for 'free', If you
don't want to compile the HIP yourself we can do it for you but it will be slightly
more expensive.
(We are not connected to the search company in anyway and make no money from recommending them).
We or you supply your
HIP and you place an advert on this site.
The advantage of using this option is that you will have your HIP in place and a website link on your advert that will allow anyone interested in your property to view your HIP online. This makes it easy for potential buyers to view your advert, photos
of the property and the HIP all in one place, saving you the hassle of making the
HIP available to numerous people. And of course when you sell your property yourself
(privately) you don't pay any commission to an Estate Agent so you will also save thousands
of pounds.
We understand that you might want to use at least one Estate Agent and that is not
a problem, because you now own
your HIP you will not have to sign a 'Sole Agency' contract.
This puts you back in control again, lets
you use more than one agent and you advertise to sell your property privately, this will also 'shake them up a
bit' as they won't want you to sell privately because they'll loose out on all the
commission. Having said that, even if you are in a
'sole agency' contract, you can still advertise on this site and sell privately,
we are not estate agents so it will not affect a 'sole agency' contract.
As you know 30% - 50% of sales are generated by FOR SALE boards outside the property,
Estate Agents love these boards because it brings people interested in your property
to them, it's easier than working to find you a buyer, they simply sit back, wait
for the phone to ring, show the interested party round your property then charge you
thousands of pounds for doing it.
Why let them do that? If you have an advert on this site then we will have a 'FOR
SALE' board made up showing your telephone number, then when someone is interested
in your property they can visit this site, see your advert, photos and HIP. They
can then either telephone you from the number on the FOR SALE board outside your property or email you
direct from your advert, you arrange a viewing, show them around, accept an offer and exchange solicitors details with the buyer. The solicitor will deal with all the legal work involved and arrange surveyors
etc. just as they do when you use an agent. An Estate Agent serves no legal function
in the property selling and buying process, they only introduce buyers to sellers
and vice-versa.
Why pay thousands of pounds when you don't have to?
Why use an Estate Agent for your HIP when you can compile it yourself, they
will only buy it from a third party, put their name on it and charge you extra for
it.
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