Home Bird

Guide

Selling a house: the complete checklist.

Selling a home is part paperwork, part emotion — and the two are more connected than most guides admit. This is the checklist we wish every seller had the day they decided to move: the documents to gather, the repairs that earn their keep, and the way a well-kept home record turns browsers into buyers.

A twelve-minute read, worth every minute of a sale.
A family sharing breakfast at the oak island of a warm, sage-green kitchen in a period home

A house is the biggest thing most of us will ever sell — and the only one we've also lived inside. That's why this checklist starts long before photography day. The sellers who glide through conveyancing are the ones who spent a quiet weekend, months earlier, putting their home's story in order. Here is that weekend, written down.

Section 01

Before you list

The months before the board goes up decide how calm the next six months feel. Start here, before an agent ever visits.

  • Decide your timescale — and who needs to agree to it.
  • Get a feel for local sold prices, not just asking prices.
  • Choose two or three agents to value the home; compare their fees and their honesty about price.
  • Walk your home as a stranger would. Note everything you'd notice if it weren't yours.
  • Declutter a season ahead: loft, cupboards, garage. Buyers open doors.
  • Decide what conveys with the house — curtains, appliances, the shed — and say so early.
  • Start a folder (physical or digital) for every document you find along the way.

Section 02

The paperwork buyers and solicitors will ask for

Most chains stall not on price but on paper. Assemble these before you accept an offer and you will move weeks faster.

  • Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) — legally required to market; order one if it has expired.
  • Proof of ownership — title deeds, Land Registry title plan, and any mortgage details.
  • Certificates for work done: FENSA certificates for windows, building regulations sign-off for extensions and structural work.
  • Boiler service history and any installation paperwork for the boiler, kitchen or heating.
  • Guarantees and warranties — roof, damp course, new appliances, even the remaining years on a kitchen guarantee.
  • Manuals for anything staying in the house: alarm, oven, garage door, underfloor heating.
  • Council tax band and annual amount, plus your latest bill.
  • Average running costs — heating and electricity spend per month. Buyers ask; owners rarely know.
House keys with a brass bird keyring and a handwritten note on an oak console table in a panelled hallway
The paperwork is done; the keys are ready. The best sales end with a note on the hall table — and no last-minute hunt for certificates.

Section 03

The small repairs that earn their keep

Buyers don't fall for a new kitchen; they fall for a home that has been looked after. Little signs of care are read as big signs of care.

  • Fix every sticking door, dripping tap and broken bulb — the £5 jobs.
  • Repaint scuffed walls in warm neutrals; replace cracked grout and tired sealant.
  • Service the boiler and keep the certificate. A serviced boiler answers a question before it's asked.
  • Tend the front of the house: paint the door, sweep the path, cut the hedge. Buyers decide at the kerb.
  • Clear gutters and clean windows — the two things everyone forgets.
  • Deal honestly with anything structural; declare it, price it, and let the record show it was handled.

Section 04

You are handing over a home, not just a house

Every buyer tells themselves they're investing in square metres. What they're really looking for is somewhere they can imagine their Sunday mornings.

  • Show the life of the house: fresh flowers, a set table, the dog's bed out — warmth, not staging.
  • Let in the morning light; book viewings for the hours your home loves best.
  • Leave a short note for the new owners: how the heating timer works, which neighbour knows where the spare key lives.
  • Keep the record of the work you've done — a serviced boiler in 2024, the loft insulated in 2022 — where the buyers can see it.
  • Say goodbye properly. A final photograph of the family on the doorstep becomes the first family's treasure.

Print this

The one-page sale-ready list

Thirteen lines. Tick them off and you are ready for the board, the buyers and the solicitors.

  1. 01Timescale agreed by everyone
  2. 02Agent chosen and fees understood
  3. 03Home decluttered and deeply cleaned
  4. 04EPC in date (order one if not)
  5. 05Title deeds and mortgage details to hand
  6. 06Certificates gathered — FENSA, building regs
  7. 07Boiler serviced, history filed
  8. 08Guarantees and warranties collected
  9. 09Manuals for everything that stays
  10. 10Council tax band and annual amount known
  11. 11Running costs written down
  12. 12Small repairs and the front of house done
  13. 13A record of the home's history to share
A family watching their daughter ride a scooter across the lawn of a brick family home at golden hour, packing boxes by the door
Moving on is easier when the home you leave behind is handed over whole — history, guarantees and all.

The Home Bird way

Keep the record while you live. Share it when you sell.

Home Bird keeps your bills, policies, service history and documents in one calm place, all year round. When it's time to sell, your home's story is already written: a shareable, read-only sale pack with the EPC facts, the boiler's history, the guarantees in force and the costs of running the house — everything a buyer's solicitor asks for, in one link.

Start your home record See how Home Bird works