How to Sell a Period Home

Period homes are often extremely easy to sell, however, you need to put a little bit of work in to ensure you use the right agent and sell the home at a fair price.

The first research you need to do is to find other, similar period properties that have sold recently in your local area. Depending on how unique your period property is, this could be a relatively easy job, or very difficult and you may have to widen your search to other villages or towns to find a good comparable.

The reason for carrying out this research is that it will help you find the right agents to approach for valuations and you will get a good idea whether it’ll be a tough or easy job to sell your historical home.

Finding Similar Period Homes that have recently Sold

Ideally you will want to find similar properties to your own that have recently sold. By recently, I mean within the last three, six or worse case, 12 months.

If your property is a four bed, Listed property, with an acre of land, then you need to find another property that matches this as closely as possible. If your property is a thatched cottage with three double bedrooms that has recently been renovated, then this is what you want to try and find locally. If there is nothing within a few miles radius, then widen the search to 5-10 miles until you find one.

The property search portals can be really helpful with this kind of search, but make sure you try lots of different ones especially ones such as Prime Location or Period Property so that you hopefully find the best match.

How to Search for Similar Period Homes that Recently Sold

Put a search for your postcode and property characteristics. For example:-

1.   Detached house

2.   Three double beds

3.   Minimum and maximum price, such as £300,000 to £400,000

4.   Always tick the box ‘Include Under Offer, Sold STC...’ as this will show properties that have recently SOLD rather than ones for sale that could well be over priced.

5.   If this delivers too many properties to search, then use an ‘advanced search facility’ if the portal offers one.

To find out more about pricing a property, take a look at my articles - 'Selling a home valuations vary - which one is right?' and 'How do I know what is a fair price for my home?'. 

Need an independent valuer to carry this work out for you? Then contact us at enquiries@designsonproperty.co.uk or tel 0845 838 1763.