Estate agent
Usually the highest price. The buyer can withdraw until exchange, and the sale takes months.
- Buyer bound
- At exchange
- You pay
- Commission on a sale
Estate agent, auction or cash buyer: which way to sell your house
Each route gives up something different. What decides it is when the buyer is bound, what you pay, how the price is set and what happens if the sale fails.
On this page
The short answer
There is no single best way to sell a house. The three ways trade price, time and certainty differently. Auction vs estate agent turns on when the buyer is bound. At a traditional auction that is when the hammer falls, and through an agent it is at exchange of contracts.21 A house-buying company is quicker, at a below-market price that can change until exchange.4
Weighing an auction vs estate agent, or a cash buyer, means choosing which risk to carry. With an agent, it is time, and a buyer who can walk away until exchange of contracts, the point where the sale becomes legally binding. At auction, it is the price on the day.
A direct buyer takes away the chain and the wait, and you pay for that in the price. Choose the route whose risk you can afford.
Find the route that fits you
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.
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The three routes side by side
The three routes differ most in when the buyer is bound and who pays the fees. The modern method of auction gets its own column because it differs from a traditional auction on both points.
| Question | Estate agent | Traditional auction | Modern method of auction | House-buying company |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| When the buyer is bound | At exchange of contracts1 | When the hammer falls2 | The winner signs a reservation agreement and has a set period to exchange16 | At exchange. The offer can change before then4 |
| What the seller pays | Commission, around 1.3 per cent including VAT on average in 2025, or a fixed fee5 | An entry fee, and commission after the sale. Most auctioneers do not publish the amounts1112 | Typically no selling fee. The buyer pays a reservation fee17 | Usually advertised as no fees. The cost is in the price194 |
| How the price is set | By offers on the open market | By bidding, above a reserve that must sit within the guide price15 | By bidding, with the buyer's fee paid on top17 | By the company, from its own valuation4 |
| Published timing | 62 days to find a buyer, then 154 more until the listing is removed (Rightmove, 2026)8 | Completion 20 business days after the auction by default3 | 56 days from the draft contract, in iamsold's terms16 | Three to four weeks more typical than advertised speeds (Office of Fair Trading, 2013)4 |
| Main risk to the seller | The buyer withdraws before exchange: 23.7 per cent of sales fell through in early 2026 (TwentyCi)10 | The lot does not sell, after a non-refundable entry fee13 | Buyers may bid less because they pay the fee18 | The offer is cut after the survey4 |
Rightmove's second figure runs until the listing comes down, which stands in for completion. The Office of Fair Trading figures are from 2013 and are the most recent sector-wide study by a regulator we could find.
Your price through each route
Put in the price you expect, and your mortgage if you have one, to see the published figures above applied to it.
Enter your expected sale price to see each route worked through.
Estate agent
Traditional auction
House-buying company
- Price effect
- Enter your price 70 to 85 per cent of market value, the offers the companies that publish a figure say they make202122
- What you would have in hand
- Enter your price
- Published time
- Three to four weeks more typical than advertised speeds (Office of Fair Trading, 2013)4
- When the buyer is bound
- At exchange; the offer can change before then4
A shortfall means the sale would not clear your mortgage on these figures, and you would need to find the difference.
Every figure assumes the sale happens at your price. At auction the bidding sets the price, and a house-buying company sets its own from its valuation. Conveyancing, early repayment charges and moving costs are left out; the selling costs calculator adds them.
Not sure which route suits you? Answer three questions.
When an estate agent is the right choice
An estate agent suits a seller who has time and wants the widest pool of buyers. It also suits a property that lenders and ordinary buyers are comfortable with. The fee is usually payable only when a sale happens. Under a sole agency agreement, where you instruct one agent only, it falls due on exchange with a buyer that agent introduced.7 Before you sign, the agent must tell you in writing when the fee becomes payable and how it is worked out.6
What you pay for the wider market is time and uncertainty.
Our guide to estate agents covers what you sign, and the selling timeline covers each stage.
Ask yourself what happens to your plans if the buyer pulls out just before exchange. If you could absorb that, an agent’s wider market is worth the wait. If you could not, look hard at a route where the buyer is bound earlier.
Haroon Ali Author, The House Desk. Over 11 years in property and renovation Auction vs estate agent: which is better?
An auction suits a seller who needs a buyer who cannot pull out. An estate agent suits a seller with time, who wants the open market to set the price. At a traditional auction the contract is formed when the hammer falls, and the buyer then has a fixed time to complete.23 Through an agent, nothing binds either side until exchange, so a buyer can withdraw or renegotiate for months.1
Estate agent or traditional auction: what changes
Estate agent Traditional auction
When the buyer commits Estate agent: At exchange of contracts. Until then either side can withdraw or renegotiate. Traditional auction: When the hammer falls. The buyer then has a fixed time to complete.
How the price is set Estate agent: By offers on the open market. Traditional auction: By bidding, above a reserve that must sit within the guide price.
The risk you carry Estate agent: A buyer who pulls out before exchange. Traditional auction: The room pays less than an open-market buyer might have.
Fees Estate agent: Usually a published or quoted percentage. Traditional auction: An entry fee and a commission, set when you instruct rather than published.
You keep some control through the reserve, the lowest price you will accept. Advertising rules say the reserve must sit within a guide range, or within 10 per cent of a single-figure guide price.15 Our guide and reserve price explainer shows how the two figures relate and who sets each.
Most auctioneers do not publish their entry fee or commission. Both are set when you instruct them.1112 Ask for both in writing before you agree to a guide price.
The modern method of auction sits between the two. The winning bidder pays the fee instead of the seller, and the seller feels it in the bidding.
Who pays what under the modern method of auction
- Selling fee
- Typically none for the seller17
- Buyer’s reservation fee
- Typically 4.5 per cent of the price including VAT, minimum £6,600, at iamsold17
- What sellers must be told
- That the buyer pays fees, since a buyer may bid less to allow for them. The Property Ombudsman was reported saying so in 201918
Our guides to selling at auction and the modern method go further, and the iamsold review looks at where the fee quoted here comes from.
Auction vs cash buyer: what is the difference?
An auction and a cash buyer set the price in opposite ways, though both are usually faster than an open-market sale. At auction, bidders compete and the contract binds on the day.2 With a house-buying company, one buyer values the property and makes an offer that can still fall before exchange. In complaints made to the Office of Fair Trading, those cuts ranged from 7 to 53 per cent of the initial offer.4
At auction the bidding may not reach your reserve, and entry fees are commonly non-refundable.13 A house-buying company can also tie you in.
Cash buyer vs estate agent: is a cash house buyer better?
A cash house buyer is better than an estate agent only when you cannot afford months on the market or a buyer pulling out. That usually means a deadline, a debt or a sale that has already failed. The price gap is large. The house-buying companies we profile that publish a figure say they offer 70 to 85 per cent of market value.202122 House Buyer Bureau says 80 to 85 per cent.19 The Office of Fair Trading said in 2013 that sellers completing a quick sale typically gave up 10 to 25 per cent.4 Against that, Rightmove puts the average agent's commission in 2025 at around 1.3 per cent including VAT.5
| Route | Cost to you | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Estate agent | £3,250 | 1.3 per cent including VAT5 |
| House-buying company, low end | £37,500 | An offer at 85 per cent of market value, the highest any profiled company publishes2021 |
| House-buying company, high end | £75,000 | An offer at 70 per cent, the lowest Property Solvers publishes22 |
The House Desk's calculation on an illustrative price, from the percentages each company publishes. They are not a quote for any home. Both routes also carry conveyancing costs, set out in our guide to solicitor fees when selling, and an agent's sale may take months and may fall through.
What each route costs you on an illustrative £250,000 home
- Estate agentcommission, 1.3 per cent including VAT £3,250 5
- House-buying companyoffers at 70 to 85 per cent of market value £37,500 to £75,000 202122
HMRC's guidance counts companies that buy homes to sell on, or pass sellers to other buyers, as estate agency businesses. That means they must register with HMRC, which supervises them under the anti-money-laundering rules.24 Our guide to house-buying companies sets out ten checks to run first, and the selling costs calculator lets you put your own figures against an agent's sale.
What each route costs you if the sale does not happen
If no sale happens, an estate agent on sole agency is owed no fee.7 The money you are most likely to lose is a traditional auction's entry fee, which is commonly non-refundable,13 or a house-buying company's withdrawal fee if you signed exclusivity.4
| Route | The selling fee | What else you may have paid |
|---|---|---|
| Estate agent, sole agency | Not triggered: it falls due on exchange with a buyer the agent introduced7 | Your own conveyancing work to that point, usually |
| Traditional auction | Entry fees are commonly non-refundable.13 Some auctioneers take commission only from the buyer's deposit, so none is due14 | The legal pack: the title documents and searches bidders read before the auction14 |
| Modern method of auction | Set by your own agreement with the auctioneer | The buyer's reservation agreement is binding, and a buyer who does not proceed pays a non-refundable fee16 |
| House-buying company | None: nothing binds either side before exchange | A withdrawal charge if you signed exclusivity. The OFT saw charges of several thousand pounds4 |
If your sale has already fallen through, our guide on what to do next works through each stage and cause.
Start from what you need most
Find the row that describes you. It tells you where to look first. Which route suits your property is what those guides help you work out.
| What matters most | Look first at | Because |
|---|---|---|
| The highest price, and you have time | Estate agents | The widest pool of buyers, with the fee usually due only on a sale |
| A buyer who cannot pull out, on a known timetable | Selling at auction | Once the hammer falls the buyer is committed, and the auction conditions set the completion period |
| One buyer and no chain, above all else | House-buying companies | Speed and simplicity, at a price below market value that you should test first |
| A deadline you cannot move | Selling quickly | What each route takes in days, measured rather than advertised, and what the speed costs |
| Your sale has just collapsed | When a sale falls through | The reason it failed decides whether to relist or change route |
| Your house has been on the market for months | Why a house is not selling | Diagnose the stage it is stuck at before you change route |
| An inherited or tenanted property | Inherited or tenanted property | Authority to sell, tax deadlines and tenancy law change the timetable |
Questions people ask about ways to sell
What is the cheapest way to sell a house?
On fees alone it is usually the modern method of auction. The seller typically pays no selling fee, but buyers may bid less because they pay one instead. An estate agent’s commission averaged around 1.3 per cent including VAT in 2025. House-buying companies advertise no fees, but those we profile that publish a figure say they offer 70 to 85 per cent of market value.
What is the easiest way to sell a house?
Selling to a house-buying company involves the fewest parties: one buyer, no chain and usually no fee to pay. It is not free of effort or risk. The price sits below market value and can still be cut after the survey, and an exclusivity agreement can stop you selling elsewhere for six months or a year.
To see what homes near you sold for, try sold prices near you. To see what you would keep after every cost, use the cost of selling calculator, and to plan backwards from a moving date, the sale timeline planner. Every tool is on tools for selling your home.
Where to go from here
Each route has its own guide, asked the same questions in more depth.
Auction
The bidding sets the price above your reserve, and the winner cannot back out.
- Buyer bound
- Fall of the hammer, traditional auction
- You pay
- Entry fee and commission, set at instruction
House-buying company
One buyer and no chain, at a price below market value that can move before exchange.
- Buyer bound
- At exchange
- You pay
- The discount on the price
Sources
(26)
Numbers in the text link to these. Each was read on the date shown. How we research
- Selling a home: transferring ownership (conveyancing)
- Auctioneers selling real estate (incorporating Common Auction Conditions), RICS professional standard, UK, 7th edition
- Common Auction Conditions (5th edition), reproduced with the consent of RICS
- Quick House Sales, market study report (OFT1499)
- How much are estate agent fees and how do they work?
- Estate Agents Act 1979, section 18: information to clients of estate agents
- Estate Agents (Provision of Information) Regulations 1991, Schedule: explanation of certain terms
- North-South divide for time to move as Londoners see longest wait
- Home buying and selling reform roadmap
- TwentyCi and TwentyEA Property and Homemover Report, Q1 2026
- How much does it cost to sell my property with Allsop?
- How much does it cost to sell at auction?
- Auction selling fees explained
- How much does it cost to sell a house at auction?
- Guide prices in ads for property auctions
- Terms and Conditions, Modern Method of Auction
- Fees explained: buying and selling with MMoA
- Ombudsman says agents must tell sellers about potential disadvantage of modern method of auction
- House Buyer Bureau homepage
- Sell your house fast
- Property buying company questions
- Property Solvers homepage
- Code of Practice for Residential Property Buying Companies
- AMLG2200: Sector specific guidance, estate agent business guidance
- Making an offer on a property
- Home Report