OTHER WAYS TO SELL

The traditional sale isn’t the only way to sell.

Most agents will only ever offer you one route, because it’s the one they know and the one they get paid for. But if you need speed, certainty, privacy, or a way out of something difficult, there are other options — and each one has a real cost attached.

Here they all are, including the ones that don’t flatter me.

Talk it through — 07861 144070

The short version

Every route below is a trade between price, speed and certainty. You can usually have two. Nobody gets all three. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.

The open-market sale

The default. Portals, viewings, a chain.

SPEED: Typically 4–6 months to completion
PRICE: Best price of any route

This is what almost every agent means by "selling your house", and for most people it's genuinely the right answer. You reach the largest pool of buyers, buyers compete, and competition is what produces the best price.

It's also the slowest and the least certain. You're exposed to chains, to survey renegotiations, and to buyers who change their minds. Roughly a quarter to a third of agreed sales fall through before completion — and when one collapses, you start again.

THE HONEST BIT

If you have time and no pressure, stop reading here. The open market will almost always beat every other route on price. Everything below trades money for speed or certainty. That trade is sometimes worth making — but you should know you’re making it.

Off-market and discreet sales

Quietly, to my buyer list. No portal listing.

SPEED: Similar to open market, sometimes faster
PRICE: Usually close to market, occasionally below

Not every seller wants a board outside and their kitchen on Rightmove. Divorce, illness, a job move you haven't announced, or simply not wanting the neighbours to know — there are plenty of reasons to sell quietly.

An off-market sale means I approach buyers I already know are looking, rather than advertising to everyone. It can also be a way to test a price without burning your listing: once a home has sat on a portal for months with a reduction on it, that history follows you around.

THE HONEST BIT

The honest catch: fewer buyers see it, and fewer buyers usually means less competition. If your priority is the highest possible number, a quiet sale can cost you. If your priority is privacy or protecting your listing history, it can be worth every penny of the difference.

Auction

A fixed date, a legally binding exchange.

SPEED: 6–10 weeks, with a hard deadline
PRICE: Variable — can beat or miss market

Auction buys you certainty. On the fall of the hammer the buyer is committed, contracts exchange, and completion follows on a fixed date. No chain, no gazundering, no drifting.

It suits properties the open market struggles with: probate sales, homes needing serious work, unusual buildings, short leases, anything a mortgage lender would baulk at. It also suits sellers who need a date they can plan around.

There are two flavours, and they are not the same thing. Traditional auction exchanges on the day. The "modern method" gives the buyer a reservation period, and typically charges the buyer a substantial non-refundable fee — which they will factor into what they bid.

THE HONEST BIT

Auction is genuinely unpredictable. A competitive room can beat your asking price; a quiet one leaves you at your reserve. Set the reserve at a number you would actually be content with, because you may well get exactly that and no more. And if anyone pitches you the modern method, ask who pays the buyer fee and how much it is before you agree to anything.

Part-exchange and assisted sale

A developer takes your home, or we fund the work first.

SPEED: Weeks to a few months
PRICE: Below market, in exchange for simplicity

If you're buying a new-build, the developer may take your existing home in part-exchange. It removes the chain entirely and the date becomes yours to choose. The developer isn't doing it out of kindness — they will value your home conservatively, and the gap is the price of the convenience.

Assisted sale is the other side of the same idea: where a home needs work it won't sell without, the works are funded and managed first, and the uplift is shared under an agreed contract.

THE HONEST BIT

Assisted sale arrangements live and die on the contract. Who pays if the work overruns? What happens if the finished home sells for less than projected? Who owns the property in the meantime? Never enter one without your own solicitor reading it — not the other side’s, and not mine.

Cash and quick-sale buyers

The fastest exit there is. It costs you.

SPEED: Often 2–4 weeks
PRICE: Up to 70% of market value — frequently less

Cash buyers are companies that buy your home outright with their own funds. No chain, no mortgage, no survey renegotiation. If you need out in a month — repossession looming, a probate deadline, a relocation you can't delay — this route genuinely delivers.

It delivers because you pay for it. Seventy per cent of open-market value is the ceiling, not the expectation, and once fees and costs are accounted for the figure that actually reaches you is frequently lower still.

Put a number on it. A home worth £250,000 on the open market gets you at most around £175,000 here — £75,000 you are choosing not to receive, and that is the good end of the range. Work out that number for your own house before you talk to anybody, because it is the whole decision.

That is not a scandal — it is the deal. They take on the risk, the holding costs and the resale, and the discount is their margin. The scandal is only when nobody tells you the number plainly before you sign.

THE HONEST BIT

Be careful here. Some firms quote an attractive figure, then reduce it late in the process when you are committed and out of time — a tactic the sector is known for. Get the offer in writing, and treat any last-minute reduction as a reason to walk away, not a reason to panic. I will tell you honestly whether your situation actually justifies losing at least30% of your home’s value. Usually it doesn’t.

How I get paid — including when it isn’t by you

Some of the routes above involve introducing you to someone else — an auction house, a cash buying company, a developer. Where I make that introduction, I may receive a referral fee from them.

You should know that, because it’s a reason to weigh my advice carefully rather than take it on trust. So here’s my commitment: if a route I suggest pays me a referral fee, I will tell you who is paying it and how much it is, in writing, before you commit to anything— not buried in a footnote after you’ve signed.

And if the honest answer is that you should stay on the open market and I should earn nothing from you today, you’ll get that answer too. A recommendation you can’t trust isn’t worth giving.

Not sure which of these is you?

That’s the normal position, and it’s worth a conversation rather than a form. Tell me what’s actually driving the move — a deadline, a divorce, a probate, an inheritance you don’t want to manage from two hundred miles away — and I’ll tell you which of these routes fits and which are a waste of your money.

If you’re a landlord, the picture is different again and there’s a page for you here. And if you’re not in a hurry at all, start with the free selling guide — it’ll make you more money than any shortcut on this page.

Want a straight answer on what your home is worth?

I offer a free, no-obligation market appraisal. No inflated figure to win your business, no pressure afterwards — just an honest, evidence-based view and a clear plan if you decide the time is right.

Call or WhatsApp 07861 144070