How much does it cost to sell a house?

When it comes to selling your house, there’s a lot more to the process than you might think.

It wasn’t something that ever crossed your mind when you were first-time buyers, but now you’ve probably realised selling your house isn’t as easy as just receiving payment of the house price and handing over the keys to the buyer.

Whether you’re selling a house to benefit from equity release by downsizing your property, relocating to a different city, or require a bigger property for your growing family, the cost to sell can be surprising.

When you sell your property, there are numerous parties involved, which means the average cost of moving home might be more expensive than you think!

So, how much does it cost to sell a house?

We’ve pulled together a complete guide to selling a house and how you can keep costs down during the process.

In this article you’ll find:

Estate agency fees for selling your house
What are the conveyancing costs to sell my house?
How much does house removal cost?
Will I have to pay a mortgage exit fee?
Are there any taxes to pay when selling a property?
Do I need a home report?
How can I keep the total cost of selling down?

Estate Agency Fees For Selling Your House

Typically, one of the highest costs of moving that you’ll find is the estate agency fee. Traditional high street estate agents charge a commission of between 1-3% of the asking price, and you’ll pay them when your sale completes.

That means if your home’s value is £200,000 and your estate agents are charging a commission of 2%, you’ll end up paying £4,000 in estate agent fees on completion.

If your house worth is more, the fee is going to be higher.

Therefore, it’s important to be aware of the costs of selling a house from the beginning, so there’ll be no unpleasant surprises.

There are differences between a high street estate agent and an online estate agent or hybrid estate agent. Usually, while high street agents charge a commission, an online agent will have a fixed fee arrangement that needs to be paid upfront or deferred for a specific period.

Top tip to remember: moving house is stressful enough as it is! Don’t add to your stress by trying to manage everything separately. Moovshack is the ultimate property app that brings everything into one place for you.

In the end, a flat fee could make your total cost cheaper than paying commission, and you should bear this in mind when you choose an estate agent to sell your house.

What are the conveyancing costs to sell a house?

Another one of the significant costs is the conveyancing cost of selling a house.

You’ll need a licensed conveyancer or solicitor to help you complete the necessary paperwork needed to sell your house.

They will act for you, liaising with your buyer’s solicitor or conveyancer, completing legal documents, transferring funds and paying your mortgage costs off when you complete the sale.

Usually, the conveyancing solicitors fee for selling your house will be deducted from monies received from your buyer. Typically, legal fees will cost somewhere between £500 and £1000.

Obtaining an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

These days, Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are a legal requirement. Sellers are obliged to supply one to potential buyers so they have all relevant information about the home’s energy efficiency.

Supplied by an accredited domestic energy assessor, an EPC should be made available within a week of putting your home on the market.

The costs of buying EPC certificates can vary, but will typically come in at about £40. You can get quotes for how much yours may cost with this cost calculator.

Once you have one, it stays valid for ten years, so if you’ve bought your home within the past decade, an old one may still be valid.

How much does house removal cost?

Should you require a removals firm to assist you with your relocation, you’ll need to pay a fee to whichever of the local house removal firms you choose.

Your estate agents may have a preferred removals company they can recommend to you. It may bring the cost down if your estate agent has agreed to an ongoing discount.

It’s always worth checking!

The average cost of house removals will depend on how much furniture needs moving and how far you’ll be travelling.

On average according to the Homeowners Alliance, fees charged tend to be between £300 and £600, but in some cases, they could exceed £1000.

Will I have to pay a mortgage exit fee?

When it’s time to sell your house there are two potential mortgage-related costs you need to include within the cost of selling:

Mortgage exit fees
An early mortgage repayment charge

Mortgage fees for closing your home loan file are called “exit fees” or “exit administration fees”. These can range from £50 to £300 and are payable once the balance of your home loan has cleared.

Not all mortgages have an exit fee cost, and this is something you may want to discuss with your mortgage broker when looking for the best mortgage deals when selling your house.

It’s essential to check your home loan contract to ensure that the amount you’re being charged is the same fee as the contract states and if the fees seem excessive, you can make a complaint through the Financial Ombudsman Service.

If you’re going to pay off a mortgage early, you should check whether an ERC or Early Repayment Charge will be payable. This could be between 1 and 5% of your total loan amount.

Are there any taxes to pay when selling a house?

If you only own one property, you won’t need to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on completion of the sale thanks to Private Residence tax relief.

If you have multiple properties, though, you may need to pay capital gains tax on the sale of any that aren’t your primary residence.

You won’t need to pay Stamp Duty on the property you’re selling, since only buyers pay this tax.

However, if you’re purchasing another home with a sale price of £125,000 or more, you could become liable for Stamp Duty on that property.

Once you have sold your property, you are also no longer liable to pay Council Tax on it.

When you’re working out ‘how much does it cost to sell a house’ – this isn’t something you need to worry about. It’s important you factor in costs such as VAT or any other tax-related fees you may be liable for.

Do I need a home report?

Home reports are only necessary if you’re selling a house in Scotland. They usually cost between £325 and £820, but the price varies depending on how large your home is.

If you are selling a house in England, you don’t need any kind of homebuyer survey to be carried out although some sellers choose to get one. The cost in such cases is around £500.

Preparing My Home To Be Sold

It doesn’t need to be expensive to get a property looking in good condition for sale. Some things you might want to do to improve the chances of selling a house quicker:

Cleaning

You can do this yourself or pay for a professional cleaning team to come in. This could cost around £150.

Fixing repairs

if there are any broken items, you should repair them to make the property appear more attractive. Again, you could do this yourself or pay professionals to come in and do the job. This could cost up to £2000.

Painting

Many properties can benefit from having a fresh lick of paint so they look more presentable and appealing. You could do this yourself or hire professional decorators at a cost of around £1000.

Rectifying more expensive issues

If your property has a more serious problem like damp, you may want to get some instant quotes to find out how much rectifying it would be. If you’d prefer not to, you’ll need to make sure you’ve factored this into the sale price since it is sure to be flagged up during the property survey.

Read more: Why isn’t my house selling?

Do I Have To Pay To Redirect My Mail?

An extra cost you may have overlooked is the fee you must pay to Royal Mail to redirect your post. After all, you don’t want to run the risk of important items going unreceived. The fee for this service is around £34 for three months for one addressee.

How to keep the costs of selling a house down?

As you can see, the cost of selling a house can begin to get expensive! Thankfully, there are ways you can reduce your costs:

Use fixed fee agents

So you don’t need to pay a lot of commission. You should definitely compare fees from several estate agents before making a final decision, so download the Moovshack app to make it easy.

Compare conveyancing fees and quotes

Make sure you pick a conveyancer who is reputable and experienced. If you’re purchasing a home as well as selling, you may get a more attractive rate if you use one conveyancer to carry out both transactions. You may also help to avoid unnecessary hold-ups in the conveyancing chain, especially if you’re cash buyers.

Check whether you already have an EPC

You may already have a valid one if you bought your property within the past decade.

Do your own removals

If you have family or friends who can help, it’s possible to save money by moving your possessions and furniture without the aid of a removals team. Hiring a van can be a lot cheaper than opting for a removals firm. You’ll need to make sure you choose the right size van depending on how much furniture you have to move. If you have too much furniture to move independently, shop around to get the lowest quote you can from local removals companies.

Check whether you can port your mortgage to your new property

This will help you to avoid any early repayment charges or exit fees that may be applied when closing your home loan account with your lender.

Hiring a skip

The average cost of hiring a skip can work out significantly cheaper than you think (depending on the size of skip you need for how much rubbish you have). If you have a lot of unused items/furniture, it would make sense to get rid of it before you begin packing up your house. You can hir