Can You Really Sell Your House for Free?

Selling your home for free can sound too good to be true. With many property sellers having to pay out thousands of pounds in estate agent fees, more and more people are looking for cheaper ways to sell their homes. But is it possible to sell your home for free? First, we look into the typical fees you can expect to pay when you sell your home using traditional routes.

What costs are involved with selling a house?

Typically, selling your home through a traditional high street estate agent will involve commission fees. According to Compare The Market, estate agent fees will be anything between 1% and 3% of the house sale price. So, a property sold for £290,000 will cost around £4,118 in estate agent fees.

Many online estate agents also have fees; however, these are usually at a fixed rate and can work out much cheaper than high street estate agents. Generally, most online estate agents can charge up to £1,200 in fees.

Selling a home will also involve conveyancing fees. These are the legal costs of a solicitor undertaking the processes required to transfer a home from the seller to the buyer. The average cost of conveyancing when selling a home is £1,600, but this will vary depending on the property type and the solicitor.

How can I sell my house for free?

There are a few ways that you can sell your home for free or for a greatly reduced cost.

Use a cash house buyer

A cash house buyer, like Gaffsy, can often sell your home for free. Cash house buyers will make you a cash offer to buy your home. They are often free because they don’t pay any marketing costs by putting your home on the open market – instead, they purchase your home themselves.

Some cash house buyers might require you to pay your own legal fees. At Gaffsy, we’ll contribute £1,500 towards your legal costs, which means most people don’t have to pay a penny.

An added benefit of cash house buyers is that they’ll typically buy any home in any condition, which means you don’t need to fork out for refurbishment or redecorating costs in advance of selling your home. They also won’t involve a property chain, meaning you can often sell your house fast with no risk of the sale falling through.

Use a free online estate agent

One way you can sell your home for free is by using a free online estate agent. There are many different free online estate agents, but what they offer and the quality of their service can differ hugely.

Some online estate agents will sell your home for free, but you will have to do a lot of the work yourself, such as taking marketing photos and arranging viewings. Some may cover your legal fees, but many will require you to cover these costs yourself.

Sell your home online yourself

You could attempt to sell your home for free by not using any sort of estate agent. This way you can avoid paying estate agent fees. However, if you want to sell your home on the open market, you won’t be able to access property-selling sites like Rightmove and Zoopla without an estate agent.

You could use Facebook Marketplace to advertise your property online and sell it for free. There are also some other property sites that allow private sellers. However, the majority of property buyers will use the more popular sites such as Rightmove. Not having access to these sites can greatly reduce your pool of potential buyers, and result in it taking a long time to sell your home.

You will also need to pay for your own conveyancing costs if you sell your home yourself. Technically, you could process the required paperwork yourself, but this is not recommended. It can be a complicated process and there’s a lot of different moving parts. If anything goes wrong or is missed by you, you could have to pay out thousands of pounds to rectify it and you could even get sued by the buyer.

Is it safe to sell your house for free?

You might think that being able to sell your home for free would be too good to be true. You might think there will always be a catch, or that the service you receive will be lower.

However, it is possible to safely sell your home for free. When you find a business that is offering to sell your house for free, you should look carefully at their website. Look to see if they are members of any official associations, such as The Property Ombudsman or The National Association of Property Buyers. These independent organisations require their members to adhere to strict regulations and standards, so you can rest assured that a cash house buyer or estate agent that’s connected to something like this will be legit.

You can also check the reviews to hear first-hand from customers that have sold their house with that business. It’s extremely rare for any business to have full 5-star reviews, but you should expect at least 4 stars on average for a quality property buyer or estate agent. Gaffsy is proud to have a 4.8-star rating on Google reviews and to consistently hear positive feedback from our customers.

Sell your house for free with Gaffsy

You can sell your house for free, quickly and safely, with Gaffsy. We have no hidden fees or costs and don’t take commission. We can even cover your legal fees, contributing £1,500 to your conveyancing costs.

You’ll receive every penny of the cash offer we give you once your home has been valued. We’ll work to your timeframe and to your completion date, so if you need to sell your house fast or need a little extra time, we can accommodate you.

At Gaffsy, we want to make selling your home simple and stress-free. We’ll always ensure you get a fair deal for your home. Get your free cash offer today.