Selling is mostly about not losing the buyer you already have.
Getting an offer is the easy part. Most sales that fall through do not fall through because nobody wanted the property. They fall through in the eight weeks after the offer, and almost all of it is avoidable.
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What we do
Sell it, and chase itFinding a buyer is one job. Keeping the sale together through searches, surveys and a chain is the other one, and it is the one that decides whether you move.
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Who you deal with
The same person throughoutFrom the valuation to the day it completes. Nothing gets passed around an office and nobody has to be brought up to speed.
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What is different
We know the landlordsWe let and manage across east, north and south west London, so if your flat suits an investor we already know who to call. That matters most if it has a tenant in it.
The asking price is a marketing decision, not a valuation.
Any agent can tell you a big number to win the instruction. It costs them nothing, because the market corrects it later and by then you have signed.
What it costs you is the first three weeks, which are the only three weeks your property is new. Every buyer with an alert set sees it in that window. If the price is wrong, they see it, decide it is not for them, and they do not look again when you reduce.
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Weeks 1–3
Launch, and the only proper look you get
Every registered buyer in your bracket sees it as a new listing. Viewings cluster here. Priced right, this is where you get competing offers.
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Weeks 4–8
Viewings thin out
You are now competing with newer listings for the same buyers, and the portals show how long you have been on. Interest drops off a cliff rather than tailing away.
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Week 9 on
The reduction
A reduction gets you a smaller second look from a smaller pool, and every buyer who sees it now knows the property did not sell at the higher price. That is a negotiating position you have handed them.
We will tell you what we think it is worth and what we think it will actually achieve, and if you want to try a higher number we will tell you what it is likely to cost you in time. Then it is your decision, because it is your house.
Get the paperwork out now, not in week six.
Almost every delay in a sale is a document somebody could have found in advance. None of this is difficult. It is just easier to do while you are waiting for viewings than while a buyer is waiting for you.
- A valid EPC It has to be in place before the property is marketed, and it lasts ten years, so check whether you already have one before paying for another.
- Your title deeds and the lease If it is a flat, your solicitor will want the lease itself. If you cannot lay hands on it, ask them early rather than at the enquiry stage.
- Building regulations and planning Anything structural: a loft, a side return, a knocked-through wall, replacement windows. Missing certificates are usually solvable but they take weeks, not days.
- Guarantees and warranties Damp proofing, a new roof, the boiler, a NHBC certificate on a newer build, FENSA for windows. Buyers ask for all of them.
- Leasehold information Service charge accounts, the ground rent, any Section 20 major works notices, and the managing agent's details. The management pack takes as long as it takes, so order it early.
- Identity and ownership Anti-money-laundering checks are a legal requirement on both the agent and the solicitor. Photo ID and proof of address, and expect to be asked twice by two different people.
Property listings have to carry a defined set of material information, and it falls into three parts: things that are always disclosed on every listing such as the price, the tenure and the council tax band; things that have to be established for every property such as construction type, utilities, heating, parking, broadband and mobile coverage; and things that only get disclosed when they apply, such as flood risk, building safety and cladding, listed or conservation status, planning restrictions or mining. It sits under consumer protection law, so it is not optional and it is not a formality.
In practice it means we will ask you a longer list of questions before your property goes live than you might expect. It is not box-ticking. A listing that is silent on something material is the listing a buyer withdraws from in week seven, and a sale that collapses over something disclosable is worse for you than the awkward question at the start.
Valuation to completion, from your side.
Seven steps. The first four are quick and mostly in your control. The last three are the ones that take the time.
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01
Valuation and instruction
We come and look at it, tell you what we think it will achieve, and agree the price, the fee and the terms in writing before anything happens.
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02
Photographs, floorplan, listing
Done properly and in daylight. This is the only thing most buyers will ever see before deciding whether to view, so it is not the place to save an afternoon.
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03
Launch and viewings
On the portals and out to our own registered buyers at the same time. We do the viewings, and you get feedback after each one rather than at the end of the week.
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04
Offers
Every offer comes to you with what we know about the buyer behind it: their funding, their chain, and how quickly they can actually move. See the next section for why that matters more than the number.
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05
Memorandum of sale
We write to both solicitors confirming the price and the parties, and the property comes off the market or is marked under offer. Your conveyancer should be instructed the same day.
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06
Enquiries, searches and survey
The long bit. Your solicitor answers the buyer's enquiries, their lender values the property, and their surveyor may find something. We chase all of it, weekly, and tell you where it actually is.
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07
Exchange and completion
Contracts are swapped and a completion date is fixed, and from that moment it is binding on both sides. On completion the money moves and the keys are released.
A valuation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. You get a figure, the reasoning behind it, and our terms in writing to read at your own pace.
The highest offer is not always the best offer.
An offer is only worth what the person behind it can actually complete. A cash buyer with nothing to sell at slightly under your asking price will usually get you moved sooner, and for more net in your pocket, than a higher offer sitting at the top of a four-property chain with a mortgage still to arrange.
This is where an agent either earns their fee or does not. Anyone can pass on a number. Finding out what is behind it, and saying so plainly even when it is not the answer you were hoping for, is the job.
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Where they are in a chain
Nothing to sell, under offer already, or still on the market. Three completely different levels of risk that all look identical on an offer form.
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How the money is arranged
Cash, an agreement in principle, or a hope. We ask for evidence on every offer before it reaches you, because it is much harder to ask for it later.
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What happens after the survey
Some buyers renegotiate as a matter of habit. Knowing which ones, and what your position is if they do, is what stops a survey report turning into a price cut by default.
Selling a flat with a tenant in it.
This changed on 1 May 2026 and it is now the part of a sale most likely to cost a landlord real money. Getting the order of events wrong is expensive in a way it simply was not before.
There are two routes, and which one is right depends entirely on who your buyer is going to be.
- Sell it with the tenancy in place To another landlord. The tenancy carries on, the rent keeps coming in until completion, and none of the possession rules below apply to you at all. This is usually the cheaper route and it is the one we can most often make happen, because we already know who is buying.
- Sell it with vacant possession Which opens it up to buyers who want to live in it, and often to a higher price. But it means getting possession first, legally and in the right order, and that has a timetable of its own.
We will tell you which one we think is better for your property before you commit to either. Get it wrong and you can find yourself with an empty flat, no rent, and a buyer who has pulled out.
What selling costs you.
Shorter than the buying list, and most of it comes out of the sale proceeds on completion rather than out of your pocket up front. Ask any agent for their fee in writing, including whether it includes VAT and what happens if you withdraw.
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Agency fee
Us, on completion
Normally a percentage of the sale price, agreed in writing before you instruct. Check whether the figure quoted includes VAT, how long you are tied in for, and what happens if you take it off the market.
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Conveyancing
Your solicitor
Legal fees plus disbursements. A seller's costs are lower than a buyer's because you are not paying for searches, but you will pay for the leasehold management pack if it is a flat.
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EPC
Before marketing
Only if you do not already have a valid one. They last ten years, so check first.
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Mortgage exit
Your lender
An early repayment charge if you are inside a fixed term, plus any administration fee for closing the account. Worth asking your lender for a redemption figure before you agree a completion date.
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Moving
On the day
Removals, and any overlap between completing on this one and moving into the next.
You do not usually pay Capital Gains Tax when you sell the home you live in. If you are selling a property you have let out, a second home, or somewhere that has not been your main residence for the whole time you owned it, you may.
Where it applies to residential property the rate is 18 per cent on the part of the gain that falls inside your basic rate income tax band and 24 per cent above that, after an annual exempt amount of £3,000 for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. The part landlords most often get caught by is the deadline: it has to be reported and paid within 60 days of completion, not at the end of the tax year.
Your actual bill depends on things we cannot see, including how long it was your home, what you spent on improving it and whether you own it jointly. Speak to an accountant before you exchange rather than after you complete. We are estate agents and this is not tax advice.
Rates and deadline checked 10 September 2026. Current figures are on gov.uk.
Find out what it is really worth.
A proper valuation, in person, with the reasoning behind the number and the comparable sales it came from. No obligation to instruct us, and no pressure afterwards.
- You get a number and the working What it is worth, what it is likely to achieve, and which recent sales we based that on. Not a figure on its own.
- No tie-in agreed on the doorstep Terms in writing, read them at your own pace, decide afterwards.
- We will say if letting it is the better call We do both, so we have no reason to steer you towards a sale if the sums say otherwise.
Rather just ask a question first? Call 020 4652 8370
Buying somewhere else at the same time?
Most sellers are. The two sides have to be timed against each other, and it is a great deal easier when one office is watching both.