How to sell your home privately
Estate agents charge 1% to 1.5% plus VAT for three things: a valuation, marketing, and handling viewings and offers. All three can be done by you, and the legal work is done by a solicitor either way. Here is the whole process.
What the agent actually does, and what you keep
On a £350,000 sale a high street agent charges £4,000 to £6,000. For that you get a valuation (often optimistic, to win the instruction), a listing on the portals, photos, a board, and someone to answer the phone and show people round. The conveyancing, the survey and the mortgage are nothing to do with them. Sell privately and you keep the fee; what you take on is the marketing and the viewings.
1. Value it honestly
Get three agents round for free valuations (they will come, and you owe them nothing). Take the middle figure, then look at what similar homes actually sold for on the Land Registry, not what they were listed at. Overpricing is the number one reason private sales stall. Pricing it right goes into detail.
2. Get the paperwork ready
Instruct a solicitor now, not when you have a buyer. Ask them to prepare the contract pack early: title deeds, the property information form (TA6), the fittings and contents form (TA10), an EPC (£60 to £100, legally required before marketing), building regs certificates, guarantees, and the lease pack if leasehold. A ready pack takes weeks off the sale.
3. Photograph it properly
The single biggest difference between a listing that gets viewings and one that doesn't. Photos that sell is a ten-minute read that will save you weeks.
4. List it
Here, free. Then share the link: Facebook (your own page, local groups, our group), WhatsApp to everyone you know, a board outside if you like (£40 online). Tell the neighbours; they often know someone who wants to move in.
5. Viewings
Take a name, phone number and email before anyone comes. Have someone with you. Tidy, light, warm, and let them look; do not follow them round talking. The full guide.
6. Offers
Ask for it in writing (an email is fine) with their position: cash, mortgage agreed, chain. Ask for the agreement in principle from their lender. Never take it off the market for an offer with nothing behind it.
7. The legal bit
Once you accept, both solicitors take over. Exchange of contracts is the point it becomes binding; completion is the day you hand over the keys. Six to twelve weeks is normal. Your job is to answer your solicitor's questions the same day.
Where private sellers go wrong
- Pricing at the top agent valuation and refusing to move for three months.
- Dark, cluttered phone photos taken in ten minutes.
- Not asking a buyer's position before agreeing a price.
- Taking a deposit or "holding fee" directly. Never. Money goes through solicitors.
- Not telling the solicitor early.
This is general information for people in the UK selling or buying privately, not legal or financial advice. Property law differs in Scotland and Northern Ireland; always use a solicitor.
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