You can sell through an estate agent, at auction or to a house-buying company. Each asks you to give up something different, and we set out what before anyone asks you to sign.
Ordered from the highest likely price and the longest wait to the fastest and most certain sale.
You want open-market exposure, you can allow time for marketing, and you can carry the risk of a chain.
Check before you commit
You want a fixed timetable and a committed buyer, and the property suits a bidding sale.
Check before you commit
You need certainty or speed more than you need the last few per cent of the price.
Check before you commit
Each company's fees, contract terms and public record, read from its own documents and the public registers.
Agency, legal, mortgage redemption and removals, worked out separately, with the assumptions you can change.
What agents charge, how VAT and a minimum fee change the figure, and when the fee falls due.
What conveyancing costs when you sell, and the disbursements a quote can leave out.
Each stage of a sale with the published figures for how long it takes, and the latest date to list for your deadline.
How it works, the reservation fee the buyer pays on top of the price, and how long you have to complete.
A fixed fee against a percentage, what each includes, and when a fixed fee is owed even without a sale.
The House Desk calculator
Enter a postcode to see recent sales of similar homes nearby, from HM Land Registry, then what an estate agent, an auction and each named cash buyer would leave you with at that price.
Land Registry is a public service, so this usually takes a few seconds.
Estate agent
Auction
Paid by the buyer, so it comes out of the bids you get
Cash buyer
Every firm we have checked, and what each one publishes, is on our company reviews.
It cannot tell you how long a sale takes, because Land Registry records completions rather than listings. England and Wales only. The full method, and where every percentage comes from.
Recent sale prices around your postcode, taken from HM Land Registry.
Your price, less every selling cost and the mortgage, from your own quotes.
One figure, run through an agent's fee, an auction's costs and a cash buyer's discount.
Three questions, about 30 seconds. Your answers stay in your browser.
Question 1 of 3
Your best fit
What you give up:
Why this route
Close second: Property auction.
Selling in Scotland works differently, with a Home Report and offers over a closing date. The guides note where Scottish rules differ.
Leave your details and tell us how you would like to sell.
While you wait, the guide covers what to check before you agree to anything.