Can I sell my house without an estate agent?

Yes. No law in England and Wales requires an estate agent to sell a home. What the law actually asks of a seller is much shorter: a valid Energy Performance Certificate (or proof you've commissioned one), honest marketing — misdescribing a property breaches consumer protection law — and a conveyancer or solicitor for the legal transfer, which you'd need with an agent anyway.

Everything else an agent does — pricing, photos, the listing, viewings, negotiation — is work you're allowed to do yourself. This guide is about deciding whether you want to, and how.

The maths that starts the conversation

A typical high-street agent charges around 1.5% + VAT. On a £500,000 sale that's roughly £9,000. Selling it yourself on gaffon costs nothing to list; the optional verified-owner badge — a government-ID check matched against the Land Registry title — is £10. Worst case, you try it, learn what your home attracts, and go to an agent later having lost nothing but a weekend.

What an agent actually does all day

• Valuation — now free public data. Sold prices for your street are public record; see what your home is worth shows an estimate with the evidence on screen.
• Photos and video — a phone and a morning. Our video tour guide covers staging, writing and the walkthrough technique, and the free video polisher cleans up shaky footage.
• The listing — this is where the portals come in; see below.
• Viewings — you live there. You know the answer to every question a buyer will ask. It costs time, not money.
• Negotiation — the part people fear, but nothing an agent says binds anyone; every offer still goes through solicitors. You can always say "let me think about it".
• Chain chasing — phoning solicitors for updates. Tedious, not skilled.

The one thing an agent never did is the legal transfer — conveyancing was always a separate professional you hire either way.

"Can I list my own house on Rightmove?"

No — and it's worth knowing why. Rightmove and Zoopla only accept listings from member estate and letting agents; a private seller cannot buy a listing at any price. The workarounds you'll find online are "online agents" who charge a fee to be your agent-of-record on the portals. That can be worth paying — but it isn't selling it yourself, and the fee is back.

gaffon takes private sellers directly. The listing is free and gets a full public page you can share anywhere — social media, the local Facebook group, a board in the garden; your post links to your page, and sharing is encouraged. The £10 badge shows buyers you're the registered owner: identity check plus Land Registry title match — checks agents don't do.

The step-by-step

• 1. EPC first. You need one before marketing starts (or proof you've commissioned it). Check if you already have one — most homes do, and they last ten years.
• 2. Price it with evidence. See the sold prices around you: what sold, for what, and what's listed right now. Set the price on evidence, not hope.
• 3. Stage, write, film. The video tour guide is the full method — two lists, no adjectives, chest-height walkthrough.
• 4. List it. Start here — five steps, most of a weekend, live immediately.
• 5. Viewings. Daylight, two people home if you can, and answer honestly — the misdescription rules cover what you say too.
• 6. Offer accepted → solicitors. From here the process is identical with or without an agent: two solicitors, searches, the mortgage valuation, exchange, completion. The professionals who actually gate a sale were never the agent.

The honest bit

It costs time: photographing, answering enquiries, hosting viewings, chasing solicitors. Some sellers hate negotiating for their own home — emotion is real. And in a slow market an agent's proactive buyer-matching can genuinely earn its fee. If reading the staging section of our video guide makes you tired instead of curious, that's information too.

But if the £9,000 has always struck you as a lot for what you watched happen last time you sold — you're who this was built for. List your home, or get a feel for your local market first.