Selling with Homebinding
Homebinding prepares and markets your property, takes the buyer through offer and reservation, and holds every document of the sale on one record that your solicitor, the buyer and the buyer's solicitor work from. The reserved legal work (the contract, the transfer, the registration) is done by your solicitor as normal.
Sell it yourself
You know the house better than any agent. Homebinding does the marketing: the page with every photograph and the long description, the printed brochure, the board, the portals if you want them, the viewings diary, and the record that carries the buyer from offer to completion. You show people round, you agree the price, your solicitor does the law.
Sell fast, in the open
If you need speed, do not give a fifth of your house to a cash buyer. Put it in front of every registered cash buyer on Homebinding with a RICS valuation in the pack, take the best binding offer, and complete in weeks. Bridging and auction finance sit on the same record for the buyers who need it.
Sell at auction
A timed online auction with a reserve you set, the legal pack and the Red Book valuation open to every bidder, exchange on the fall of the hammer or a reservation agreement with a deposit. The four auction rules are on the auctions page.
A printed brochure in every sale
Every property on Homebinding gets a printed brochure, and it is included in the fee, not sold as an extra. The brochure is generated from the property page itself: the photographs, the floor plan, the description in full, the EPC, the plan and the price, laid out in Homebinding's house style. You approve the proof on screen; the approved file goes straight to the printer through their order system, and the copies come to your door. The same file is the download on the page, so every viewer, on screen or in hand, holds the same document.
The founder sold four apartments at Arbutus Drive with a sixteen page brochure and a sales board with the floor plans on it, and that is the standard: a brochure that a buyer keeps on the kitchen table, not a folded sheet.
See one: the Belmont penthouse brochure, 17 pages, generated from its page
Generated by Homebinding's brochure engine from the listing record: the photographs and captions, the description in its sections, the RICS valuation, the plans and the sale terms. The proof you approve is the file the printer receives.
The four stages
Identity verified. Official copies of the title obtained. Particulars, photography, floor plan and the sale pack questionnaire completed.
Property information forms, searches, certificates, EPC and the draft contract held on the record and released to buyers' solicitors on request.
Particulars published here and, if you wish, fed to the portals. Viewings and enquiries handled through the record.
Offer, memorandum generated by the record, reservation agreement with deposit, searches ordered that day, legal pack checked by the solicitors, exchange within 25 working days, completion and registration. Every step, explained.
The reservation deposit
When an offer is accepted the buyer and vendor sign a reservation agreement. The buyer pays a deposit, at the percentage the vendor sets (1, 2.5 or 5 percent), to a regulated stakeholder. The vendor stops marketing. The buyer's solicitors must be instructed the next working day, request the contract within 5 working days and exchange within 25. If the buyer withdraws without one of the listed causes the deposit goes to the vendor; if the vendor withdraws the deposit is returned and the vendor pays the buyer the same sum. On completion the deposit counts towards the price.
Entries on the title
Charges, restrictions and notices on the register are disclosed in the sale pack with a note of how each will be dealt with before exchange, for example a discharge on completion, a consent, or a court order. A vendor with a registered title is free to market and sell; the solicitors deal with the entries as part of the conveyancing in the ordinary way.
Fees
A set annual fee to list, agreed in writing before instruction. No percentage of the sale price. Professional services booked through the record (photography, floor plans, EPC, searches, surveys) are charged at the provider's price. Homebinding is a member of a government-approved redress scheme and registered with HMRC for anti-money-laundering supervision [details to be inserted before launch].
Start the sale pack questionnaire Request a market appraisal
Why the deposit: the government's own figures
In England and Wales an accepted offer binds nobody until exchange of contracts, and the government has measured what that costs. Its 2018 response to the call for evidence on home buying and selling said there were "over a quarter of house sales falling through each year" 1. Its October 2025 consultation on home buying and selling reform says "Around 1 in 3 transactions fail, costing buyers and sellers around £400m per year in wasted costs", that "It takes an average of 120 days to complete once the buyer's offer has been accepted", and that "More binding transactions in Scotland are part of the reason that only 9% of their transactions fall through" 2. Its impact section expects binding agreements to cut fall throughs "from 1 in 3 transactions to 1 in 7", saving consumers "around £255 million per year" 2.
In June 2026 the government published its roadmap: it will legislate to require binding conditional contracts once sales packs are in place, and until then wants to "spread awareness of the voluntary use of reservation agreements" 3. That is what a Homebinding sale is now: an offer that binds with a deposit held by a regulated stakeholder, on the day it is accepted.
Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0. The Gazeal reservation agreement evidence to the Commons committee (April 2024) reports about 6 percent of reserved sales failing against a third of unreserved ones 4. Gazeal's own arithmetic rests on three published sources: Halifax's guide to exchange of contracts, which puts the time from an accepted offer to exchange at around eight to twelve weeks 5; Quick Move Now's figures for 2023, reported by Bridging and Commercial on 11 January 2024, that more than 35 percent of property sales fell through that year 6; and the HomeOwners Alliance survey finding that the average seller in a failed sale was £2,727 out of pocket, with one in ten losing more than £5,000 7. A third of a million transactions a year failing, multiplied by that loss, is Gazeal's measure of the waste; the government's £400 million is the same sum measured officially. The GOV.UK guides How to buy a home and How to sell a home are the plain statements of the process both Gazeal and Homebinding start from 8 9.
What the others charge, from their own pages
Figures as published on each site when read on 9 September 2026; they change, so the link is the source.
| Service | What they say it costs | What you get | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purplebricks | Fixed fee from £999, "no upfront fees"; their worked example puts a £275,000 sale at £1,299 against £4,290 for a high street agent at 1 to 3 percent plus VAT | Valuation, photographs and floor plan, board, Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, app; you host viewings or pay for hosted ones; a "Purple Pronto" reservation fee auction route completing in "58 days" | purplebricks.co.uk |
| Emoov | £395 now, £795 now, or £895 when sold; add ons priced separately (photography, floor plan and video £350, EPC £110, board £100, Rightmove premium £95, completion management £150) | Online appraisal, buyer verification, messaging for viewings, memorandum of sale, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, Rightmove for a limited free period | emoov.co.uk |
| Cash buyers (Prime Exit, Sold in a Day) | "£0 fees": they buy the house themselves, below market value. Sold in a Day's own worked example agrees £80,000 on a house valued at £100,000; Prime Exit states no percentage | An offer within 24 hours, completion in as little as 7 days, no viewings, they pay the legal costs | soldinaday.co.uk, primeexit.co.uk |
| High street agent | A percentage of the price on completion, commonly quoted at 1 to 3 percent plus VAT | Valuation, marketing, accompanied viewings, negotiation, sales progression | The Purplebricks comparison above |
| Homebinding | Published on this page before launch, with the VAT shown, and a pay now or pay when sold choice | The page with every photograph and the whole description, the printed brochure, the board, the viewings diary, the offer and reservation record with a deposit, the sale pack, the searches ordered on the day, your solicitor and the buyer's on one record, and an agent who talks | This site |
What the government says about selling a home
From the GOV.UK guide Selling a home, Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0. Each heading opens the full text here on Homebinding, so you never leave the site.
Overview
You can sell your home yourself or use an online, high street or hybrid estate agent. The guide covers the EPC, choosing an agent, the solicitor or conveyancer, offers and negotiation, transferring ownership, selling for someone else, and complaints.
Energy Performance Certificate
You need an EPC before you market a home. It is valid for ten years, rates the home from A to G and you can be fined if you do not have one. Check for an existing certificate free on the register before you commission one.
Estate agents
An agent must pass on every offer in writing up to exchange, must tell you about any referral fee it receives, and must belong to a redress scheme. You must give proof of identity and address to whoever acts for you.
Solicitor or conveyancer
The legal work of the sale: the contract, the enquiries, the transfer and the registration. Get quotes, and ask what is included.
Offers and negotiations
You are not bound until exchange in England and Wales. The guide explains accepting an offer, gazumping, and what a memorandum of sale is.
Transferring ownership
Exchange of contracts, the deposit, completion, and Capital Gains Tax where it applies. The buyer's solicitor registers the change of ownership with HM Land Registry.
The rules that apply to anyone who sells homes for other people
Estate agency work. HM Revenue and Customs says it is a criminal offence to trade as an estate agency business without registering with HMRC for money laundering supervision. Estate agency work, under section 1 of the Estate Agents Act 1979, includes sending out property details and arranging viewings, offering advice to sellers and buyers, providing or arranging an EPC, providing a valuation, providing a plan or taking photographs, and supplying a For Sale board with the business's contact details. An internet property portal for private sales is exempt only if it does nothing else covered by that definition. HMRC guidance.
Redress. An estate agent dealing with residential property in the UK must belong to one of the two approved redress schemes, The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, with a fine of up to £5,000 for not doing so. GOV.UK.
Data. Any organisation that uses personal information pays the ICO data protection fee unless exempt: £52 a year for a business with turnover up to £632,000 or no more than ten staff, £78 for turnover up to £36 million or 250 staff, £3,763 above that, with £5 off for direct debit. ICO.
Trading standards. The National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team, led by Powys and Bristol councils, enforces the Estate Agents Act and the material information rules for listings. NTSELAT.
Because Homebinding photographs, plans, prints, advises and holds the offer, it is doing estate agency work on HMRC's definition, and it operates as one: registration with HMRC for money laundering supervision, membership of a redress scheme and the ICO fee are conditions of launch, and the registration numbers go in the footer of every page the day they are issued.
When the seller is bound, country by country
One narrow question decides how a residential market behaves: at what moment does the seller lose the right to walk away for nothing? England and Wales place that moment very late. Most other systems place it early, at the point where the parties sign in front of a lawyer or a notary. What follows describes the main comparable systems. It is not advice.
England and Wales
Until contracts are exchanged, nothing binds either party. An accepted offer is subject to contract, which makes it an agreement to keep negotiating rather than an agreement to sell. The seller may take a higher offer next week, which is gazumping, and the buyer may cut their price on the morning of exchange, which is gazundering. Neither is a breach, because there is nothing to breach. By then the buyer has usually paid for a survey, searches and legal work, and the seller has usually paid for legal work and committed to a purchase of their own, so the money at risk is real even though the obligation is not. The government's plan to bind offers earlier, through conditional contracts backed by voluntary reservation agreements, is described elsewhere on this page.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland follows the same shape. The sale is agreed subject to contract, solicitors act for each side, and neither party is bound until contracts are exchanged. Practice differs in detail, but the binding moment is the same and so is the exposure before it.
Scotland
Scotland is the closest working alternative, and it is close to home. A seller must commission a Home Report before marketing: a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire completed by the seller and an energy performance certificate. Every serious buyer sees the same survey before offering, so it is paid for once by the seller rather than repeatedly by buyers who drop out.
Offers are made in writing by the buyer's solicitor, not by the buyer through an agent, and they are detailed documents rather than a figure. The seller's solicitor replies with a qualified acceptance adjusting the terms. The letters that pass back and forth are the missives. When the last point is agreed and missives are concluded, there is a binding contract and both parties are bound from that moment. A party who walks away is in breach and exposed to a claim for the other side's loss.
There is normally no deposit. The buyer's commitment is the contract and the liability that comes with it, not a sum lodged with a third party. The buyer's solicitor carries much of the weight: they check title, settle the missives, and will not conclude until their client's mortgage and funds are in order. Conclusion usually comes some weeks before the date of entry, so there is a real committed period both sides can plan around. Fall throughs after conclusion are rare, and far rarer than in England and Wales, because walking away then costs money rather than costing nothing.
Ireland
A buyer whose offer is accepted normally pays a booking deposit to the agent. It is refundable and binds nobody, so Ireland has a gap similar to the English one, though usually a shorter one. The binding moment is the contract for sale: the seller's solicitor issues contracts with the title documents, the buyer signs and returns them with a deposit customarily of ten per cent, and the seller signs. From then both are committed and the deposit is at risk if the buyer fails to complete.
France
The parties sign a compromis de vente, the preliminary sale contract, which binds the seller at once. The buyer has a statutory cooling off period of ten days from notification and may withdraw in that time without reason and recover everything paid. The buyer normally lodges five to ten per cent, held by the notaire rather than by either party. The contract carries conditions suspensives, most commonly that the buyer obtains a mortgage on stated terms. If a condition fails the sale falls away and the deposit returns; if the buyer simply changes their mind later, it is at risk. The notaire then prepares the acte de vente.
Spain
The usual instrument is the contrato de arras. In its common form, arras penitenciales, the price of withdrawal is written in and is symmetrical: a buyer who pulls out forfeits the arras, a seller who pulls out must return double. The sum is agreed between the parties. That symmetry is the point. Both sides know exactly what changing their mind costs, and it costs the seller more. Completion follows before a notary with the escritura publica.
Germany
German practice is the strictest here. A contract for the sale of land must be notarised to be valid. The parties attend the notary, who reads the contract aloud, and on signature it binds both of them completely. There is no cooling off once the deed is executed, which is why the draft must reach a consumer buyer in advance so there is time to read it. The notary is a neutral public officer rather than anyone's lawyer: they advise both sides, negotiate for neither, and handle registration afterwards. Because the binding moment is so clean, Germany has almost no equivalent of gazumping.
Netherlands
Once terms are agreed the parties sign a koopovereenkomst, the written purchase agreement, and the seller is bound from signature. A private buyer then has a statutory cooling off period of three days in which to dissolve the agreement without reason and without cost. After that the buyer is bound, subject to any resolutive conditions written in, most commonly a financing condition allowing withdrawal if a mortgage is not obtained by a stated date. The buyer usually provides ten per cent, either as a deposit paid to the notary or as a bank guarantee for the same amount. Transfer takes place before a civil law notary.
United States
Practice varies by state, but the common shape is that the parties sign a purchase agreement and are bound on signature, subject to the contingencies written into it. The buyer pays earnest money, held in escrow by a title company, escrow agent or broker rather than by the seller. The contingencies are the buyer's exits: an inspection contingency giving a period to survey the property and withdraw or renegotiate, and a financing contingency tied to obtaining a loan. Each has a deadline, and a buyer who lets one pass has waived that exit. Once contingencies are satisfied or removed, a buyer who walks away risks the earnest money and a seller who walks away is exposed to a claim. The transaction ends at the closing, where funds and title change hands.
Australia
The parties sign a contract of sale and are bound on exchange, which happens promptly after agreement rather than months later. Most states give a private buyer a short cooling off period after exchange, measured in business days, in which they may rescind and forfeit only a small percentage of the price rather than the whole deposit. It is generally excluded at auction and can be waived by certificate. The deposit is customarily ten per cent, held by the agent or a solicitor as stakeholder. Because contracts exchange early, the long uncommitted period familiar here does not arise.
The same question in ten jurisdictions
| Where | When the seller is bound | What the buyer puts up | Cooling off | Who holds the money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | Exchange of contracts | Deposit, customarily ten per cent, at exchange | None, because nothing binds before exchange | Seller's solicitor as stakeholder |
| Scotland | Conclusion of missives | Normally nothing | None | No money held before settlement |
| Northern Ireland | Exchange of contracts | Deposit at exchange | None before exchange | Seller's solicitor |
| Ireland | Signing of the contract for sale | Refundable booking deposit, then ten per cent | None, but the booking deposit binds nobody | Agent, then seller's solicitor |
| France | Signature of the compromis de vente | Five to ten per cent | Ten days for the buyer | The notaire |
| Spain | Signature of the contrato de arras | The arras, an agreed sum | None, but withdrawal has a set price | Seller or agent, as agreed |
| Germany | Notarised signature | No separate deposit as a rule | None once signed | The notary, where escrow is used |
| Netherlands | Signature of the koopovereenkomst | Ten per cent, deposit or bank guarantee | Three days for a private buyer | The notary, or a bank on guarantee |
| United States | Signature of the purchase agreement | Earnest money, amount negotiated | None as such, but contingencies give timed exits | Escrow or title company |
| Australia | Exchange of contracts | Deposit, customarily ten per cent | Short period in most states, small forfeit | Agent or solicitor as stakeholder |
Practice varies within countries, and in federal systems by state. This table describes the ordinary residential case and is not advice.
What Homebinding takes from this
Three things stand out. First, in every system here except England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the seller is bound by signing a document, not by putting up money. Scotland binds a seller with nothing but concluded missives; Germany binds one with a signature before a notary. That matters, because the seller is usually the party with no spare cash: their money is in the house they are selling.
Second, where the buyer does put money up, it is held by someone neutral and regulated: the notaire in France, the notary in the Netherlands, an escrow or title company in the United States, a solicitor as stakeholder in Australia. It is not with the seller and not with whoever introduced the parties.
Third, binding early does not mean binding blindly. Every system that binds early writes the exits down: conditions suspensives in France, resolutive conditions in the Netherlands, contingencies in the United States, the terms adjusted through the missives in Scotland. Each is specific and most carry a deadline. A long stop date does the same job at the far end, stopping an open commitment from running forever.
Homebinding puts those three together. The seller is bound by a signed agreement rather than by cash. The buyer's deposit sits with a regulated stakeholder. The grounds on which either party may withdraw are written into the agreement, and a long stop date sets the outside limit. That is the Scottish and continental shape, translated into English practice, without asking a seller who has no money to put money up.
How the site records it
When a sale is agreed on Homebinding, the reservation agreement is generated from the listing and the agreed terms, and the withdrawal grounds and long stop date are fields on that record rather than free text in an email. The buyer's deposit is logged against the sale with the stakeholder named, so both sides see the same position. The record carries the date the agreement was signed, which is the date that matters, in the way conclusion of missives matters in Scotland. This is not advice and does not replace your conveyancer.
Sources: HM Government and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on home buying and selling reform; the Law Society and the Law Society of Scotland on conveyancing practice; HM Land Registry and Registers of Scotland; the Council of Licensed Conveyancers; and the published practice of the notarial professions in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
