Selling your house privately: the full process

Step 1: Get your paperwork in place before you advertise

Marketing starts a clock, and buyers lose patience with sellers who cannot answer basic questions. Assemble the pack first.

• A valid EPC — commissioned before marketing, valid ten years, rating shown in the advert.
• Title documents. If the property is registered, download the title register and title plan from HM Land Registry for a small fee.
• Proof of identity and address, which your conveyancer will need for anti-money-laundering checks.
• Guarantees and certificates: FENSA or CERTASS for windows, Gas Safe and electrical certificates, boiler service records, damp-proofing or timber guarantees.
• Building regulations approvals and planning permissions for anything structural — an extension, a loft conversion, a knocked-through wall.
• For leasehold: the lease itself, recent service charge and ground rent demands, and the managing agent's contact details.
• In Scotland, a Home Report from a chartered surveyor. Legally required before the property is put on the market.

Step 2: Set the asking price

Price is the single biggest lever in a private sale, because you have no agent talking buyers up. Work from sold prices rather than asking prices — the HM Land Registry Price Paid Data records what properties in your postcode actually sold for, and the UK House Price Index shows how values have moved since.

Compare like with like: same street or estate, similar type, similar floor area, similar condition. Adjust up or down for the obvious differences, then sanity-check against what is currently on the market near you.

Pricing slightly under a round-number search band — £249,950 rather than £255,000 — puts you in more buyer search results. Overpricing is the expensive mistake: a home that sits unsold for months attracts lower offers than one priced correctly on day one.

Step 3: Present and market the property

Declutter, deep clean, fix the small visible defects and shoot in good daylight. A floor plan materially increases enquiries because it answers the layout question buyers ask first.

Then distribute. A private-sale platform gets you in front of active buyers; local Facebook groups, community boards and your own network reach people who want that specific area but are not searching daily. Write the description around the buyer's decision, not a list of rooms.

Step 4: Handle enquiries and viewings

Reply within hours, not days — response speed is the biggest advantage a private seller has over a busy branch. Before booking a viewing, ask three questions: are they cash or mortgage, do they have anything to sell, and when do they want to move?

Run viewings safely. Never conduct one alone if you can avoid it, keep valuables and personal documents out of sight, and tell someone when a viewing is happening. Take a name and a contactable phone number for every visitor.

Step 5: Take and negotiate offers

Get offers in writing — email is fine. An offer is not just a number: the buyer's position, their funding and their timescale often matter more than the last £2,000.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland an accepted offer is not legally binding until contracts are exchanged, so either side can walk away. In Scotland the position is different: once missives are concluded the contract is binding, which is why Scottish offers are made formally through solicitors.

Once you accept, confirm in writing what is included — carpets, curtains, white goods, garden items — and whether the property is coming off the market.

Step 6: Conveyancing to completion

Your conveyancer prepares the draft contract pack and sends it to the buyer's conveyancer. You complete the property information forms — in England and Wales the TA6, plus TA10 for fittings and contents and TA13 for leasehold. Answer them fully and accurately; a wrong answer here is a misrepresentation claim later.

The buyer's side runs searches, raises enquiries and, if there is a mortgage, waits for the lender's valuation and formal offer. Reply to enquiries the day they arrive — private sellers who chase actively often complete faster than agent-led sales.

On exchange, the deposit is paid and the completion date is fixed; the contract is now binding. On completion, the balance transfers, you hand over the keys, and your conveyancer redeems any mortgage and registers the transfer.

The pitfalls that catch private sellers

• Advertising before the EPC is commissioned.
• Pricing from Rightmove asking prices instead of Land Registry sold prices.
• Failing to qualify buyers, then losing six weeks to someone who was never able to proceed.
• Not disclosing a known problem, then facing a claim after completion.
• Instructing a conveyancer only after accepting an offer, adding two to three weeks to the timeline.
• Going quiet. In a private sale, nobody else is chasing the chain for you.