In This Guide
choosing an agent
Conveyancing
Holding viewings
Negotiation
Planning your sale
1. Deciding when to sell
2. Costs of selling
3. How to sell your home
Prepare your home
Seller's Packs
Selling at auction
Selling in Scotland
Selling privately
Selling your home
Using estate agents
Planning your sale
Costs of selling
Print
Contents
Prev Page
Next Page
The costs involved in selling a house can broadly be broken down into three areas. The amount you will incur under each heading will vary depending on your individual property and on how you choose to sell your house. It is therefore difficult for us to be specific about how much the whole thing is going to set you back, but you should be able to apply the information below to your own circumstances.
This isn't really a direct cost of the sale, as you could easily
decide to forgo spending any money or time on your home to get
it into prime selling condition. However, this isn't the route
that most people generally take. If you have all the necessary
tools, materials and techniques, then you may well be fortunate
enough to get away with only spending time preparing your home.
On the other hand, you may find that there is a heck of a lot
of work to be done, much of which could end up costing you an
arm and a leg. Only you can really decide how much you want to
do to get your home ready for sale and how much you want to leave
to the new owners. Click here
for more information about getting your home ready to sell.
The amount of money you will end up forking out for your home
to be sold depends on who is being employed to handle the sale.
Estate agent fees are usually the largest single cost involved in selling your home. Fortunately, you don't normally have to pay them up front, with the agent receiving a portion of the selling price as commission once the sale is completed. Most agents will charge you at least two to three percent of the sale price, though it is sometimes possible to find agents who will work with a lower commission if you instruct them as sole agents.
Most agents will use a fixed percentage regardless of the value of your house, so they could end up generating a five-figure sum for their business if your home can fetch a substantial price. It may not seem like value for money, but if your home is a high worth property, you should at least find that the agent will make more of an effort to sell it, as their commission rises directly in line with the value of a home. Read more about the cost of agents.
Selling your home at auction generally costs you about 2 and a half percent of the price attained. There may well be additional charges involved for marketing your property, adding it to the catalogue or contributing to the hire of the auction room. These charges are not always made separately - sometimes they are incorporated into the commission payment, - but you will probably have to pay for them separately if your house is not sold. Read more about selling at auction.
If you decide to do all the legwork yourself by selling privately and manage to get a few lucky breaks along the way, it is possible to spend no money at all. Most people who go for a private sale generally spend at least some money marketing their property. Unlike the other two methods of finding a buyer, the amount you spend this way is not directly related to the sale price and so you can set yourself a clear budget. Click here for more on selling your home privately.
Your legal bill on a property sale should be lower than for a
property purchase, largely due to the fact that there are far
fewer disbursements involved. In fact the normal total cost of
disbursements usually amounts to a whopping £8 land registry charge,
so that normally only leaves the fees. Though not usually charged
as a percentage of the property value most solicitors and conveyancers
will link their fees to the price band in which your property
falls. Expect to pay anything from approximately £250 to £500
for solicitors fees on the sale. Read
more about conveyancing.
And that should be all costs involved. We have been deliberately vague about how much you'll end up spending, because it really does depend on your circumstances.
If you would like to use our interactive 'overall budget planner', which will help you calculate the total costs of buying, selling or moving, please click here to visit our calculators section.
Prev Page
Next Page
Contents