How to sell your home, done properly.

The groundwork you do before your home reaches the market sets the tone for everything that follows. A little preparation shortens the whole process and protects your price.

Start with your own plan. Are you selling to move up, to downsize, or to relocate, and do you need to find your next home first or sell in order to buy? Being clear on this from the outset lets us position your sale correctly and advise you honestly on timing. The market here has its own rhythm across the year, and there is usually a sensible moment to launch; we will talk you through it rather than simply rushing you onto a portal.

The most useful thing you can do early is gather your paperwork. Sales slow down and sometimes collapse over missing documents, and almost all of it can be assembled before you accept an offer.

The paperwork to gather early

• Proof of identity and address for the anti-money-laundering checks we are legally required to complete
• Your title deeds, or for a leasehold home the lease and any management-company information
• Guarantees and certificates for works: extensions, windows, boiler, electrics, damp or roofing
• Planning permissions and building-regulation completion certificates for any alterations
• FENSA or equivalent certificates for replacement windows
• Details of any covenants, easements, shared access or private-road arrangements

Your Energy Performance Certificate

A valid Energy Performance Certificate must be in place before your home is marketed, and one lasts ten years. If yours has lapsed we will arrange a new assessment. Buyers increasingly read the rating closely, so it is worth understanding where your home sits and which straightforward improvements would lift it.

Instruct a conveyancer early

Line up your solicitor or licensed conveyancer before you accept an offer, not after. With your legal representative ready, your identity verified and the opening forms completed in advance, you can take weeks off the slowest part of the process. We are glad to recommend firms who progress sales properly in this area.

Price is the single biggest decision in your sale. Set it accurately and the right buyers arrive quickly and compete for your home; pitch it wrong and the market moves past it.

We price from what the market actually tells us, not from what would be flattering to hear. That means recently completed sales on and around your road, the homes currently competing for the same buyers, and the live demand we are seeing for a home like yours right now. A figure built on evidence is one you can stand behind through the whole sale.

Be wary of a number without a strategy behind it. The launch is where a sale is won: the price you launch at decides which buyers you draw and how much competition you create, and the right level depends on your motivations and how quickly you want to move. Any figure we give is our honest, professional opinion of what your home is likely to achieve, provided in line with the consumer-protection standards of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and it always comes with the strategy to get you there.

What the evidence looks like

• Recently completed sales on your road and its immediate neighbours
• Homes of similar size, age and condition that are currently for sale
• What comparable homes actually sold for, not merely what they were marketed at
• Current demand: how many qualified buyers are looking for a home like yours today
• The particular features that lift or temper value on your street

Why an accurate figure sells for more

Your home is at its most powerful in its first few weeks on the market, when it is new to every buyer watching for it. An honest price draws those buyers in together, and genuine competition between them is what protects and lifts your final figure. This is also why the valuation itself matters so much; we set out the case in full in why an in-person valuation matters.

Buyers form a view in the first few seconds and carry it through the whole viewing. Presentation is not about spending heavily; it is about showing your home at its considered best.

The aim is to let a buyer picture their own life in your home. That usually means editing rather than investing: clearing surfaces, freshening paintwork, fixing the small jobs and lifting the light. The entrance and the garden deserve particular attention, because they are the first and last things every buyer sees.

Preparing your home to be seen

• Declutter and depersonalise so a buyer can imagine themselves living there
• Address the small jobs: dripping taps, tired paintwork, sticking doors, blown bulbs
• Maximise light: clean windows, lighter dressing, mirrors where they genuinely help
• Attend to the entrance and the garden, the bookends of every viewing
• Give each room a single clear purpose so no space reads as wasted

Marketing that does your home justice

Once your home is ready, it should be marketed as an individual property rather than dropped into a template. Our approach is digital-first and built around each home: we commission the photography, draw the floorplan, write the copy and place the launch where the right buyers genuinely look, including the ones already registered with us.

• Professional photography, and film where the home warrants it, shot to a considered brief
• An accurate, well-drawn floorplan, because buyers shortlist on layout
• Writing that tells the story of the home, not merely a list of rooms
• A launch across the portals, our own database and, where it suits you, off-market first

You can read more about how we market every home we take on over on the main selling page.

This is where interest becomes intent. How viewings are handled, and how offers are read, decides whether you sell, and at what price.

We accompany every viewing. Because we know your home and we know our buyers, we can answer with authority, show the home at its best and tell the difference between polite interest and a real buyer. After each viewing we gather honest feedback and share it with you, so we are always reading the market rather than guessing at it.

Getting viewings right

• Accompanied viewings, so your home is presented knowledgeably and shown at its best
• Flexible timing that suits genuine buyers, including evenings and weekends
• Honest, specific answers to the questions that matter to a serious buyer
• Feedback gathered and shared promptly, so nothing is left to guesswork

Reading an offer properly

An offer is far more than a number. Is the buyer proceedable, are they cash or reliant on a mortgage, is there a chain behind them, and does their timescale fit your onward plans? The largest offer is not always the strongest, and a slightly lower one from a certain, ready buyer can be worth considerably more than a higher one that may never complete. We qualify every offer on price, position and certainty, and advise you on the best one to take, not simply the biggest.

Once you accept an offer the sale moves into the hands of the solicitors. This is the stage where sales are most often won or lost, so it pays to understand the steps and to keep them moving.

We begin by issuing a memorandum of sale confirming the agreed terms to both solicitors. From there, the legal work follows a well-trodden path. Answering enquiries fully and promptly, and returning your forms without delay, is the surest way to keep a sale on course.

The conveyancing steps

• Your solicitor issues the draft contract and title to the buyer's solicitor
• You complete the property information and fittings-and-contents forms, plus the leasehold form where it applies
• The buyer's solicitor raises enquiries; full, prompt answers keep things moving
• The buyer commissions their searches and, in most cases, a survey
• The buyer's mortgage valuation and formal offer are issued
• With enquiries satisfied and finances confirmed, completion dates are agreed and you prepare to exchange

Keeping the sale on track

A chain moves at the speed of its slowest link, which is why hands-on progression matters so much. We stay across every party, chasing solicitors, surveyors, mortgage brokers and the other agents in the chain, and we keep you informed at each step so there are no surprises. Careful qualification at the offer stage means the sales we agree are far more likely to reach completion rather than unravelling weeks in.

Exchange is the moment your sale becomes binding. Completion is the day it is done. Between the two, the final details are settled and the keys change hands.

At exchange of contracts, the buyer pays their deposit, a completion date is fixed and the sale becomes legally binding on both sides. The period between exchange and completion, usually a week or two, is when the last practical arrangements are made. Completion day itself is when the balance of funds transfers, we release the keys, and your home is sold.

As completion approaches

• Confirm the completion date with everyone in the chain
• Book your removals and arrange to redirect your post
• Take meter readings and notify utilities, council tax and your insurer
• Leave manuals, warranties, keys and alarm codes for the new owner
• Cancel or transfer any services tied to the property

On the day, once funds have cleared we confirm completion and release the keys to the new owner. Our role does not simply stop there: we remain available to you afterwards, and a great deal of our work comes from sellers we have acted for before and the people they go on to introduce to us.