Cash Offer Check
How to sell a house fast.
Eight steps that genuinely speed up a sale, and how the three main UK routes really compare on time to complete — honestly, with the trade-offs.
- UK averages
- Honest
Cash buyer
7–21 days
No chain, no mortgage, completes fast — typically 70–85% of value.
Auction
~28 days
Binding on the fall of the hammer; ~6 weeks to marketing day first.
Estate agent
4–6 months
Highest headline price, but slowest — roughly 1 in 3 sales fall through (Home Owners Alliance tracker).
Estimates only — timescales vary by property, area and chain. Cash is fastest because there's no lender and no chain; you trade a little price for certainty.
Need it done in days?
If speed matters more than squeezing the last pound, run a free Cash Offer Check — a funded partner can complete in days, with no fees and no chain.
Get cash offer- No fees
- No lock-in
- Written indicative offer
- A funded buyer
How to sell a house fast: eight steps that work
Most of a sale’s time is spent waiting — for viewings, for the buyer’s mortgage, for solicitors, for the chain. These steps remove the waits you control.
- 1Price it from sold prices, not asking prices. Overpricing is the most common reason a home sits unsold. Look at what the same type of home sold for on your street and the roads around it, then price to attract viewings in the first fortnight.
- 2Get your EPC before you market. An Energy Performance Certificate is a legal requirement before a home is marketed for sale. If yours has expired, book an assessor now — it is one of the few delays you can remove entirely.
- 3Instruct a solicitor on day one. Most of the time in a sale is conveyancing. Instructing a solicitor before you accept an offer means their checks and your paperwork are under way while you are still holding viewings.
- 4Fill in the property forms early. The Property Information (TA6) and Fittings and Contents (TA10) forms, plus your lease pack if leasehold, are what buyers’ solicitors wait on. Have them done before an offer lands.
- 5Find your paperwork. Building regulations sign-offs, planning permissions, FENSA/gas certificates and guarantees for any work you have done. A missing certificate can mean indemnity insurance and weeks of delay.
- 6Prefer a buyer with no chain. A first-time buyer, a cash buyer or someone already sold is worth more than a slightly higher offer that depends on three other sales completing.
- 7Make viewings easy. Flexible viewing times and a home that is clear and clean in the first two weeks matter more than any single improvement.
- 8Choose the route for your deadline. If the date matters more than the last pound, an auction or a cash buyer fixes the timetable — at a lower price. Compare what you would actually net from each route first.
Useful tools: sold prices, EPC finder, free valuation and compare what each route nets you.
How many buyers pay cash where you live?
Cash buyers — no mortgage, often no chain — are the fastest to complete. In England about 26% of homes were bought without a mortgage between September 2024 and August 2025, and the share varies a lot by region.
| Area | Bought with cash | Sales counted |
|---|---|---|
| England | 25.8% | 792,758 |
| London | 19.4% | 91,389 |
| South East | 25.6% | 137,058 |
| East of England | 25.1% | 95,753 |
| South West | 31.2% | 90,617 |
| West Midlands | 24.3% | 77,215 |
| East Midlands | 25.3% | 74,719 |
| North West | 26.4% | 106,498 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 27.2% | 78,967 |
| North East | 29.9% | 40,548 |
| Wales | 28.1% | 41,987 |
| Scotland | 31.6% | 101,486 |
Cash share of all sales in the UK House Price Index over a 12-month window that has finished registering (the latest months are still incomplete). Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right. UK House Price Index licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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