9 Steps to Sell Your House

The nine steps at a glance

Here is the whole journey, with the typical timing of each stage on a standard open-market sale:

Steps 1-3: Value, method and conveyancer

Start with two or three agent valuations and your own sold-price research (HM Land Registry, Rightmove, Zoopla) so you price realistically rather than optimistically. Decide your priority — top price (estate agent), a guaranteed date (auction), or speed and certainty (cash buyer) — because that choice shapes everything after. Then instruct a conveyancer immediately, even before you have a buyer, so they can request your title documents and, for leasehold, the management pack. This single move routinely saves weeks, because the paperwork is the most common cause of delay.

Steps 4-6: Prepare, market and view

Declutter, depersonalise, fix the obvious defects and deep-clean — a presentable home sells faster and for more (see getting a house ready for sale). Gather your EPC, guarantees, planning and building-regulation certificates, and leasehold information. Good photography and an accurate floorplan drive enquiries, so invest in the listing. Then make viewings easy — flexible times, a clean and well-lit home, honest answers — because that builds the buyer confidence that prevents a later renegotiation. Our viewing guide has the detail.

Steps 7-9: Offer, legal work and completion

When offers arrive, assess the buyer’s position — chain, funding, proof of cash — as well as the number. A slightly lower offer from a chain-free buyer is often the safer one (around a third of UK sales fall through, usually because of chains; see fall-through rates). Once accepted, your conveyancer runs searches and enquiries while the buyer’s surveyor inspects and their lender values the property. You then exchange contracts — the point the sale becomes legally binding and a completion date is fixed — and complete one to four weeks later, when the money transfers and you hand over the keys.

How to compress nine steps into weeks

A cash sale collapses the timeline by removing the slow steps: there is no marketing period, no viewings, no chain and no mortgage. The process becomes valuation → offer → legal work → completion, often in 7-28 days. Even on an open-market sale you can move faster by pricing keenly from day one, instructing your conveyancer before marketing, and responding to enquiries within a day.

What it costs to sell

Budget for: estate-agent fees (1-1.5% + VAT, or a fixed online fee), conveyancing (typically £800-£1,800 plus disbursements), an EPC if you do not have a valid one, removals, and any mortgage early-repayment charge. A cash sale removes agent fees and often covers your legal costs. See our full breakdown in how much it costs to sell a house.