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Sell my house fast: what each route really takes

Every company answering “sell my house fast” advertises a number of days. The measured figures, dated and sourced, are slower, and each week saved has a price.

By Haroon Ali Updated Covers England and Wales, with Scotland noted
On this page
  1. How quickly you can sell
  2. Work back from your date
  3. Is a quick sale worth it?
  4. Selling quickly without the discount
  5. Selling a flat quickly
  6. Offers that are not what they look like
  7. Homes the fast market avoids
  8. What we could not confirm
  9. Questions people ask
  10. The best route for your deadline

The short answer

The quickest answer to “sell my house fast” is a company buying with its own money. Several say they complete in seven days.161718 The Office of Fair Trading's 2013 study found those sellers typically gave up 10 to 25 per cent of market value.1 On Rightmove in 2026, open-market homes averaged 216 days from listing to the listing coming down.4

Quick house sale times: how quickly can you sell a house?

A sale to a company buying with its own money is advertised at seven days, though the Office of Fair Trading found three to four weeks more typical in 2013.1 A traditional auction completes 20 business days after the hammer.11 An open-market home on Rightmove took 216 days in 2026 from listing to the listing coming down.4

The House Desk set each route's advertised speed beside its measured speed, reading every figure on 23 September 2026.

Advertised speed against measured speed, by route
RouteWhat it advertisesWhat has been measuredWhen you are actually bound
A company that buys your house Seven days is the common claim161718. One site says three days and an offer in fifteen minutes19, another says seven days with one purchase in twenty four hours20, another advertises seven to twenty eight days from first contact21 The Office of Fair Trading recorded, in 2013, advertised times such as seven days against a more typical three to four weeks1 Exchange of contracts, and not before8
Traditional auction Completion usually within 28 days of exchange12 The standard conditions set completion at 20 business days after the contract date unless the special conditions say otherwise11 The fall of the hammer, which binds the buyer on the day11
Modern method of auction The seller page we read publishes no completion timescale at all14 The terms set completion no later than 56 days from the day the buyer's solicitor received the draft contract13 Not on the day. The buyer pays a non-refundable reservation fee and then has weeks to exchange13
Estate agent, open market Varies by agent 62 days from listing to sold subject to contract and 154 more before the listing came down, 216 in total4. 104 days from under offer to exchange in April 20265. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government uses about 120 days after an offer is accepted6 Exchange of contracts. Until then either side can walk away, and about one sale in three does not complete6

Rightmove measures its own listings and sells advertising to estate agents. Connells is an estate agency and conveyancing group measuring its own network. Neither is a neutral count of the whole market, and both are the best published figures there are. The companies whose timescales are quoted are profiled in full: Good Move, Upstix, We Buy Any Home, We Buy Any House, Express Offers and Property Solvers.

Location moves those numbers a long way on the same Rightmove measurement.

Days from listing to the listing coming down, by area (Rightmove, 2026)4

  • London: 70 to a sale agreed, 174 after 244 days
  • Wales: 66 to a sale agreed, 155 after 221 days
  • Great Britain: 62 to a sale agreed, 154 after 216 days
  • Scotland: 29 to a sale agreed, 98 after 127 days
Each bar adds Rightmove's two published figures for the area, our own sum. Rightmove counts only its own listings.

To see how quickly houses are selling in your area, look at what has sold on your street this year. A national average will not tell you.

A company buying with its own money is the only route where nobody else has to be found, financed or persuaded, which is why it can be quick. An auction is fast at the back and slow at the front, because your lot has to be catalogued and the legal pack prepared before the next sale date.15 The open market is the slowest and pays the most.

Work back from your date, not forward from the adverts

Start at the date the sale has to meet, count the weeks backwards, and the route usually chooses itself. Behind “I need to sell my house fast”, “I want to sell my house urgently” or “how can I sell my house quickly” there is almost always a date rather than a preference. It might be a completion you are chained to, a repossession hearing, a probate deadline or a job abroad. If the date is yours to pick, look first at the busiest and quietest months for sales.

If nothing is forcing the date, start with the tips that cost nothing, because the fastest route's discount is not free.

  1. 01 Identity and ownership paperwork Whoever buys, someone will ask you to prove who you are and that you own the house before any money moves. Have it ready on day one rather than on the day it is asked for.
  2. 02 A conveyancer instructed Before you have an offer if you can, and on the day you accept at the latest. On a seven-day purchase this is the stage that decides whether seven days happens.
  3. 03 Title and searches A buyer paying cash can decide how much searching to wait for. One using a mortgage has a lender deciding for them. Ask which yours is, because the lender’s requirements can add weeks.
  4. 04 Exchange The moment the price becomes binding on both sides. Nothing before this is a sale, whatever the offer letter says.8
  5. 05 Completion Money moves, keys move. On a traditional auction lot this is 20 business days after exchange unless the special conditions change it.11
The same five steps sit inside every route. What changes is who can be made to hurry.

Two of those steps are yours to move and the rest are not. Getting your conveyancer instructed and your paperwork ready before you have an offer is the cheapest week you can buy.

Is a quick house sale worth it?

A quick house sale is worth it when waiting would cost more than the discount. That can happen with a repossession date, a chain that has already collapsed or an empty house you are paying to keep. The Office of Fair Trading put the typical discount at 10 to 25 per cent of market value in its 2013 study.1

The companies themselves publish figures at the gentler end of that. Some say up to 85 per cent of market value.1617 One gives a worked example of £75,000 against a £100,000 valuation, on a page advertising seven to twenty eight days.21 Several publish no percentage at all. National Homebuyers, for one, says only that its offer will be below market value, worked out for each property rather than by a fixed percentage.2223

What speed costs on a house worth £250,000 on the open market

  • Open-market value, illustrative £250,000
  • An offer at 85 per cent, the most companies publish16leaves £212,500 minus £37,500
  • Down to 80 per cent, around what one firm says it pays2leaves £200,000 minus £12,500
  • Down to 75 per cent, as in one firm’s worked example21leaves £187,500 minus £12,500
  • Down to 70 per cent, one firm’s quick sale figure3 minus £12,500
  • Left at 70 per cent £175,000
Arithmetic on an illustrative £250,000 open-market value. The percentages are ones companies in this market publish for themselves.

Waiting has its own costs to set against that. There is the mortgage, at an illustrative £900 a month, council tax and insurance on an empty house, and the risk of one more collapsed chain.

The discount at 85 per cent, against four months of waiting

  • Given up at 85 per centon the illustrative £250,000 £37,500 16
  • Four months of mortgage paymentsat an illustrative £900 a month £3,600
Our own arithmetic on illustrative figures. Council tax, insurance and the risk of another collapse add to the cost of waiting, and your own figures replace both.

On those numbers the open market is still far ahead, and it usually fetches more when nothing is forcing the date. Where the alternative is repossession, it is not.

Write down the date you actually have to meet and what each month of waiting would cost you, then set that against the discount. If the discount is larger, the speed is costing you more than the wait would. For a flat or other leasehold home, add about two months of waiting to the open-market side before you decide.

Haroon Ali Author, The House Desk. Over 11 years in property and renovation

Work out your own figure before anyone quotes you one. The cash offer calculator does both halves of this in one go, starting from recent sales of homes like yours in your district and working out what an agent, an auction and a cash buyer would each leave you. Our sold prices tool gives you street-level detail, and the cash offer checker places an offer you already have. The checks to run on any firm making that offer are in our guide to house-buying companies, and the thirteen firms we have researched are profiled on our company reviews.

How to sell a house quickly without taking the discount

To sell a house quickly for a good price, sell on the open market and do the slow parts before a buyer exists. Getting the EPC, the conveyancer and the material information ready first can make the sale several weeks faster, for nothing. A company that buys it will not pay market value, because the discount is how that route pays for itself.

Two of those are legal requirements rather than tactics. A seller must have an EPC before marketing the property,9 and listings must not omit material information about the property.10 The government is legislating for upfront sales packs for exactly this reason, having found that too much is discovered too late.6 At auction the legal pack is already prepared before marketing starts, which is why an auction lot can exchange on the day it is offered.15

How can you sell a flat quickly?

To sell a flat quickly, order the leasehold management pack from the freeholder or managing agent on the day you list, because it is the document a leasehold sale most often waits on. Flats and leasehold homes are slower than houses on both Rightmove's and Connells' figures, by roughly two months on Connells', and Connells finds them more likely to collapse.5

Leasehold against freehold, on the published figures

Leasehold or flat Freehold or house
Under offer to exchange, Connells5 Leasehold or flat: 155 days Freehold or house: 97 days
From sale agreed, Rightmove 20264 Leasehold or flat: 169 days for flats Freehold or house: 149 days for terraced and semi-detached houses
Sales that fell through, Connells 20255 Leasehold or flat: 43 per cent Freehold or house: 36 per cent
Connells counts sales in its own network and Rightmove its own listings, so the two rows of days do not add together.

Connells does not break down where those months go, and beyond flats the published figures run out. Rightmove separates flats from terraced and semi-detached houses and stops there, so there is no published figure for detached homes or for whether bungalows sell quickly.4

The offers you will be given that are not what they look like

Sale and rent back, assisted sales, the modern method of auction, part exchange and guaranteed-sale schemes are all offered to people looking for a quick house sale, and none of them is a straight purchase. Each needs its own question before you agree.

What you are being offered, and the question to ask

  1. Sale and rent back: they buy it, you stay as a tenant What to ask before you agree: Entering into one is a specified regulated activity, so the firm must be authorised. Ask for its Financial Conduct Authority number and check it on the register before anything else.25
  2. Assisted sale, or a company that will find you a buyer What to ask before you agree: Ask whether they are buying it themselves or introducing you to someone who will. Introducing is estate agency work and comes with different obligations.24
  3. A quick sale through property auctions, offered by your estate agent as the modern method What to ask before you agree: Ask what the buyer pays, because it comes out of what they can bid, and ask when they are actually bound. It is not the fall of the hammer.13
  4. Part exchange on a new build What to ask before you agree: Ask what percentage of an independent valuation they are offering, who chooses the valuer, and whether you can stay in the house until the new one is ready.
  5. A guaranteed sale in 30 days at close to full value What to ask before you agree: Ask what happens on day 31 if it has not sold, and get the answer in the contract rather than in an email.
Read on 23 September 2026. The first row is the one to check first, because it is the only one with a regulator attached.

The modern method needs keeping apart from a quick sale through property auctions of the traditional kind, where the buyer is bound at the hammer and completion follows in twenty business days.11 What the buyer pays, when they are bound and what happens if they walk away are set out in our guide to the modern method of auction, and the traditional route is covered in selling at auction.

Homes the fast market will not buy quickly

Unmortgageable homes, park homes, land and tenanted property are slow to sell even for cash, because fewer buyers can proceed. A quick sale is still possible for each of them, and it costs more. A cash purchase is normally fast because no lender is involved. That advantage disappears when a lender would refuse the property anyway, because the pool of buyers is already small and the companies know it.

Homes the fast market avoids, and where to look instead
PropertyWhy the buyers thin outWhere to look
Unmortgageable property: short lease, non-standard construction, no kitchen or bathroom, structural movementNobody relying on a mortgage can proceedAuction, because auction buyers are not waiting on a mortgage offer either. See selling at auction, and for movement, selling a house with subsidence
A park homeThe sale of a mobile home carries a commission payable to the site owner, at a rate set by regulations under the Mobile Homes Act 201326Ask the site owner for the current rate in writing before you agree any price, because it comes off what you receive
Land, or a plot without a house on itMost companies advertising to buy your house fast buy housesAuction, or a developer
A property with a tenant in itSomeone living there changes both the buyer pool and the timetableOur guide to selling a tenanted property

What we could not confirm

The House Desk could not confirm how often any company completes in its advertised time, or how long a sale to a company takes nationally, because no one publishes either figure.

Five questions the published record does not answer

  • How often a seven-day completion actually happens No company in this market publishes its average, its median or its distribution. Every published figure is a best case.
  • The typical gap between a first offer and the final one The Office of Fair Trading measured it in complaints in 2013, and nothing current is published.1
  • Whether any advertised timescale is measured at all We asked the question of the published pages, not of the firms, and the pages do not say.
  • The current maximum park home commission The Act leaves the percentage to regulations, so ask the site owner and check the figure they give you.26
  • A national figure for how long a sale to a company takes There is none. The Rightmove and Connells figures measure open-market sales, and neither counts this route.4

Questions people ask about selling quickly

What is the fastest way to sell a house?

Selling to a company that buys with its own money, because no mortgage, no chain and no buyer of its own stands between the offer and completion. Several publish seven days and one publishes three. The trade is the price. The Office of Fair Trading found in 2013 that sellers taking this route typically gave up 10 to 25 per cent of market value.

How fast can a house sale go through at auction?

At a traditional auction contracts exchange when the hammer falls and completion follows in 20 business days under the standard conditions, often quoted as 28 days. The wait is at the front, because your lot has to be catalogued and the legal pack ready for the next sale date.

Can I sell my house fast for market value?

Not from a company that buys it, because the discount is how that route pays for itself. You can shorten an open-market sale for nothing. Have the EPC, the title and the material information ready before you list, instruct a conveyancer on the day you list, and price to what has actually sold nearby.

How quickly can you sell a house after buying it?

There is no general legal waiting period. Two things are worth asking about. One is whether your own mortgage carries an early repayment charge. The other is whether your buyer’s lender applies any restriction on recently purchased property. Put both questions in writing before you market it.

Do quick house sale companies really complete in seven days?

Some do, and none of them publish how often. The Office of Fair Trading noted in 2013 advertised times such as seven days against a more typical three to four weeks. Treat the advertised figure as the fastest that has ever happened rather than the one to plan around, and ask for the last three completion dates.

What is the best way to sell your house fast?

The best way to sell your house fast depends on the date you have to meet. With days rather than weeks, a company buying with its own money is the only route that can do it. Four weeks is enough for an auction, which binds a buyer on the day and costs you fees plus whatever reserve you are willing to set, rather than a fixed discount. With four months, the open market pays the most, and the figures say it will probably take about that long.

The clock and the cost, route by route

  • About 5 months An ordinary open-market sale, on the government’s figure7
  • 20 business days From the hammer to completion at a traditional auction, under the standard conditions11
  • 3 to 4 weeks More typical for a company purchase than the advertised seven days, the Office of Fair Trading found1
  • 10 to 25% Of market value typically given up on a quick sale, on the same study1
The Office of Fair Trading's two figures come from its 2013 study of this market.

An open-market sale that beats the government's five months is going well. Do not buy speed you do not need.

Find the route that fits you

Three questions, about 30 seconds. Your answers stay in your browser.

The three routes, on time as well as price

Not sure which fits? Answer three questions and we will suggest one.

Estate agent

The highest price and the longest clock. On average it takes 62 days to a sale agreed, and 154 more before the listing comes down.

Property auction

Bound on the day, completed in 20 business days, with the catalogue date at the front of it.

A company that buys your house

Days rather than months, at a published 70 to 85 per cent of value and no percentage at all from some firms.

Sources

(26)

Numbers in the text link to these. Each was read on the date shown. How we research

  1. Quick House Sales, market study report (OFT1499) Office of Fair Trading. Regulator or enforcement body. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  2. Frequently asked questions Good Move (ARN Capital Ltd). Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 23 September 2026.
  3. Property Solvers homepage Property Solvers Limited. Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 23 September 2026.
  4. North-South divide for time to move as Londoners see longest wait Rightmove. Published survey or market data. Great Britain. Read 14 September 2026.
  5. Conveyancing delays push time to exchange contracts past 100 days Connells Group. Published survey or market data. England and Wales. Read 14 September 2026.
  6. Home buying and selling reform roadmap GOV.UK, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Government guidance. UK Government. Read 14 September 2026.
  7. Selling a home GOV.UK. Government guidance. England and Wales. Read 14 September 2026.
  8. Selling a home: transferring ownership (conveyancing) GOV.UK. Government guidance. England and Wales. Read 14 September 2026.
  9. Buying or selling your home: Energy Performance Certificates GOV.UK. Government guidance. England and Wales, with a note on Scotland. Read 14 September 2026.
  10. Full material information guidance published National Trading Standards. Regulator or enforcement body. England and Wales. Read 14 September 2026.
  11. Common Auction Conditions (5th edition), reproduced with the consent of RICS RICS, reproduced by Durrants. Trade or professional body. England and Wales. Read 14 September 2026.
  12. Our guide to selling property at auction Bond Wolfe. Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 23 September 2026.
  13. Terms and Conditions, Modern Method of Auction iamsold (IAM-SOLD Ltd). Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 23 September 2026.
  14. Selling at auction iamsold. Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 23 September 2026.
  15. How to sell property at auction Allsop LLP. Company's own published information. United Kingdom. Read 23 September 2026.
  16. Sell your house fast Good Move (ARN Capital Ltd). Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 23 September 2026.
  17. Upstix homepage Upstix Technologies Ltd. Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 23 September 2026.
  18. We Buy Any Home homepage Webuyanyhome Ltd. Company's own published information. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  19. We Buy Any House homepage LXB Equity Limited, trading as webuyanyhouse.co.uk. Company's own published information. UK. Read 23 September 2026.
  20. Express Offers homepage Express Offers (SQ Property Trading Ltd). Company's own published information. United Kingdom. Read 23 September 2026.
  21. Quick house sale Property Solvers Limited. Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 23 September 2026.
  22. National Homebuyers homepage Momentum Asset Management Ltd, trading as National Homebuyers. Company's own published information. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  23. About National Homebuyers Momentum Asset Management Ltd, trading as National Homebuyers. Company's own published information. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  24. Estate Agents Act 1979, section 1: estate agency work legislation.gov.uk. Legislation. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  25. Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, article 63J: regulated sale and rent back agreements legislation.gov.uk. Legislation. United Kingdom. Read 23 September 2026.
  26. Mobile Homes Act 2013, section 10: sale and gift of mobile homes legislation.gov.uk. Legislation. England. Read 23 September 2026.