Sellers Direct
This guide is about selling a home in England and Wales.
Find out how to sell a home in Scotland and how to sell a home in Northern Ireland.
To sell your home, you’ll need to:
- ● check how much you owe on your mortgage (if you have one)
- ● find out how much your home is worth
- ● decide whether to use an estate agent to sell your home
- ● choose a solicitor or conveyancer who will do the legal work involved in transferring ownership
- ● give potential buyers the right paperwork, including an Energy Performance Certificate for your home
- ● decide on a selling price
- ● accept or negotiate an offer
- ● exchange contracts
- ● transfer ownership and move out (called ‘completion’)
Selling a rented property
If you’re selling a property you rent out to tenants, you’ll also need to:
- check if you need to pay Capital Gains Tax
- give your tenants notice and end the tenancy (if needed)
You can get help from a solicitor.
Selling a property for someone else
There may be extra steps to sell a property if:
- the other owner has lost mental capacity
- you’re selling someone’s home after they die (through ‘probate’)
- you’re selling for someone else using power of attorney
Check what you need to do to sell a property for someone else.
Selling a specialist retirement property
If your home is a specialist retirement property, you’ll need to consider if:
- any charges or exit fees need to be paid
- there are any conditions on the sale of the property
Protecting yourself from fraud
There’s a risk of fraud when selling a home as this involves transferring large sums of money. It’s important to check that you:
- are speaking to or emailing the person or business you think it is
- transfer money to the correct bank account/s
- do not reveal too much personal information on social media
Find out how to protect your property from fraud. You can also speak to your legal professional for help and advice about property fraud.
Overview
This guide is for England and Wales. There are different rules for buying a home in Scotland and buying a home in Northern Ireland.
Using an estate agent or selling the property yourself
If you wish to sell your property you can find a buyer yourself or use an estate agent.
Before making a decision you should consider how much each method would cost and how much time you have available.
If you use an estate agent, it will be more expensive but the estate agent will take responsibility for advertising, showing potential buyers round, and negotiating a price for the house.
If you wish to find a buyer yourself, it will be cheaper but you will need the time to make all these arrangements and deal with any problems.
'Quick house sales'
There are a number of companies that offer 'quick house sales'. A quick house sale provider offers to buy a property or to find a third party to buy it quickly, and usually at a discount.
If you're considering selling your home using one of these firms, you should be careful.
Before it closed, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) completed a study of companies offering quick house sales. It warned people about the risks of using some companies.
For example, a company may reduce the offer to buy your home at the last minute. Or you may not be clear about who is actually buying your home or whether they have the necessary finances in place.
Finding a buyer yourself - What price to ask
If you wish to find a buyer yourself, you must first decide what price you want to ask for the property.
Many estate agents do free valuations so it is always possible to arrange for two or more local estate agents to provide this information. If you want a formal valuation, you could arrange for an estate agent to provide this but you would have to pay a fee.
In addition, you can find out about the cost of houses locally by looking at local papers, estate agents’ windows and similar houses in the area.
Before deciding on a price, you may wish to consider:-
- doing any repairs or decorating if this would make it easier to sell the house
- arranging for a survey if you think there are any major problems that might affect the value of the house, for example, a roof in a bad state of repair.
In Wales, the Welsh Government scheme, Houses into Homes, can provide a loan to enable a property to be made fit for sale. Applications are made through the local authority. More information about the scheme is available on the Welsh Government website at: new.wales.gov.uk.
You should also decide in advance if you are prepared to include any extras in the sale - for example, curtains and carpets. These are known as fittings. A price for these can be included in the asking price or a separate price can be asked in addition.
There are some items that you must sell as part of the house unless you make it clear to the buyer that such items are not included in the sale. These are known as fixtures and include such items as fireplaces and a central heating system.
However, in some cases it is not always clear whether something is a fixture or fitting so it would be useful for you to draw up a list of any items you intend to remove or are prepared to sell to avoid problems later.
It is normal practice for a potential buyer to offer a lower price for the house than the seller is asking.
You might therefore want to allow for this by setting your price a little higher than the amount you would like to get.