Sell my house online

Sell your property online

Are you looking into selling a house online? It's becoming more common, especially after Covid-19. We've detailed everything you need to know.

Are you looking to sell your house purely online? Without having to go to a traditional estate agent or shop? We feel now is a great time to write this article with Covid-19 being on everyone's minds and trying to limit close interaction.

In this article, we go through everything you need to know about selling online, from how you do it, why you should do it to what the best ways to sell your house online are.

Can I sell my house online?

Let's answer this simply, yes you can, the wonders of modern technology!

It's easier now than it ever has been to sell your property online rather than going through an estate agent.

Most brick and mortar estate agencies are relying more and more on online portals as opposed to people coming into their offices.

Anyone can sell their house online, but to do so you have a few different options to choose from, and it depends on which choice is right for you, which we'll go through later.

Why should I sell my house online?

There are a whole load of benefits to selling your property online as opposed to going to an estate agent or another avenue.

Here is a breakdown of the benefits:

• Significant savings on estate agent fee – most online options require more work from your end, which will mean lower costs incurred.

• You have control – You can decide what does and doesn't go in your listing, you have more control over the pictures, description and additional information, meaning you can spend more time and make the listing far better than an estate agent who may rush the job.

• You won't have to make yourself available as often – You won't have to let the estate agent visit your home, if you don't want to of course. You can even sell your house entirely online with people not also visiting in some circumstances.

Where Do I Start & What Options Do I Have?

When you choose an online sale for your home, you have a few options of ways that you can do it; it just depends on what is best suited to your current situation.

Here are your options:

What is the best website to sell your house?

There are so many to choose from we can't say which are best, as we've mentioned, it depends on your particular circumstances.

Some options such as online estate agents will usually require an upfront fee, a private sale is generally at a much lower cost, but much more effort on your part, selling to a cash buyer will mean you need to take a hit on the overall value and the same with selling an investor which is midway between a cash buyer and an online agent.

Can I still get on property portals like Rightmove & Zoopla?

Let's face it, Rightmove and Zoopla are the two leading property portals that can generate you viewings, compared to over platforms.

Rightmove itself at the time of writing this has roughly 11,100,000 searches a month for their brand name alone!

So it's understandable that you'd want to have your property featured on these platforms. If you opt for an online sale, will your property go on Zoopla & Rightmove?

The answer around this is careful who you choose to sell with; some will get you on these property portals, some won't.

Unfortunately, if you are going to sell your house online yourself you won't get access to Rightmove or Zoopla as they aren't accessible for the general public, you need to have a trading profile to do so.

What other sale options do I have?

We've gone through your online sale options, but you might want to consider a few different options that you have available to you. Here are the standard options of selling your home; you can still choose to use:

The open market

The most common way of selling your property in the UK is through a traditional estate agent on the open market. 

This is your standard brick & mortar estate agent office you'll see on your local high street that we are referring too here. 

It can take a significant amount of time to sell on the open market, so if you're looking for a quick sale, this may not be the best option.

Upon completion, you typically pay a percentage fee to the estate agent of the sale value of your home.

Auction

This is another alternate option, taking your property to auction.

This is when your property will be entered into an auction house, and people can bid on it during a set timeframe.

It takes quite a while to get a property auction ready, but once it is, you would hope it sells relatively quickly.

Part exchange

A further option that you have available to yourself is to exchange your property for another one; typically, a new build company will offer this option.

This would involve them buying your property, so you buy theirs. However, they will buy your property at a fee below market value.

Sell your house fast

You can sell to companies such as ourselves, we're cash buyers who can buy your property in as little as seven days, taking all the stress and hassle out of the typical sale process.

We handle everything for you and will even cover your fees.

If you're thinking, I'm selling my home online, and you don't want people visiting your property, we can also work around this.

When is the best time to sell a house?

We've written a rather lengthy article on the best time to sell your home, but in case you don't want to read all of that, we'll summarise it for you.

Spring is by far and away the best time to sell, there aren't many holidays, and everyone seems to want to buy a property ready for summer!

The hardest time to sell is typically in winter, particularly around the Christmas time when the kids are off school.

How long does it take to sell a house?

The time it takes to sell your house depends on the method that you choose to sell with.

The options we gave you before of the open market, auction, part exchange, and sell house fast services such as ours.

On average in the UK it takes around 4-5 months to sell, which will be mostly people on the open market.

Auctions may take around the same time due to the preparation. Sell house fast services and part exchange services will be far quicker; companies such as ourselves can typically buy within seven days.

Selling my house online you may expect this to take a little bit longer, as generally you may not attract as big of an audience as some of the more popular routes, but this isn't always true if you put effort into making a fantastic listing.

Tips for selling your house online

If you're planning to sell your home online, then you must present your property in the right way.

There are several things that you need to consider when selling your home; here are just a few of them:

• Make sure the property is tidy, there's nothing worse than a cluttered property, it'll make the pictures look like the property is much smaller than it is.

• Time it right, as we've mentioned, Spring is the best time to sell your property.

• Re-paint the walls & repair anything you can that is cost-effective to do so, such as those patches on the walls for instance or that chip in the skirting board.

• Remove any signs of pets & make your house smell nice

• When its time for viewings, make sure the property is bright and airy.

• Make a big deal of the local area, in particular the amenities and schools.

The cost of selling a house

The cost of selling your home depends on the method you choose.

If you choose to sell your house online you have a few options, we've picked out some of the most popular online estate agents and highlighted their starting prices for you below:

• Doorsteps - £99

• Emoov - £949 or £249 + 0.5% of sale price

• Yopa - £999

• 99Home - £99

• Purple Bricks - £999

*Prices correct as of 25/06/20

Another option you have is to use our investor sale service, in which we'll also put your property on Rightmove as well as promoting it with our investors, of course, this option is entirely free, just ask us about it!