Sell Your House on Rightmove Yourself – £99, No Estate Agent
List your property on Rightmove — from £99
Rightmove only · No commission · No tie-in · From £99/month
Compare the costs and practical steps to sell your house yourself on Rightmove.
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Enter your asking price and compare a private Rightmove listing to a 1.42% agent fee.
Ninety per cent of UK buyers begin their property search on Rightmove. Which means, for a UK seller, being on Rightmove isn't optional — it's the whole point. The question is whether you pay a high-street agent 1.42% inc. VAT (£4,970 on a £350,000 sale) to get there, or list privately for a fixed fee from £99. This guide explains exactly how the private route works — legally, step-by-step — and answers every question we've seen buyers, sellers and landlords ask.
The Rightmove rule (and the legal way around it)
Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket are agent-only portals. Their terms of use restrict listing accounts to registered estate agents, letting agents and new-home developers. A private homeowner cannot open a Rightmove account and upload their own property. Any site that claims otherwise is either misleading or funnelling listings through a member's account — usually a paid one.
The legal, transparent route — used by tens of thousands of UK sellers each year — is to list through a portal-registered private-sale service. The service is itself a Rightmove member with listing rights; OffAgent lists on Rightmove only. You provide the photos, floorplan and description; they upload it under their agent membership; you keep control of everything else (viewings, offers, negotiation, timeline).
What "direct listings" actually means in 2026
"Direct listing" is shorthand sellers use for getting onto Rightmove or Zoopla without a high-street agent taking commission. It does not mean the portals have opened self-service accounts to homeowners — neither has, and neither shows any sign of doing so. Membership remains the gatekeeping model that underpins their revenue: portals sell subscriptions to agents, so letting homeowners upload directly would undercut their own customers.
What has changed is the size of the workaround. Flat-fee and private-sale routes now account for roughly 8–10% of new UK instructions, up from around 3% in 2019. Growth is fastest in the £250,000–£600,000 bracket, where commission at 1.42% inc. VAT runs to £3,550–£8,520 and the saving is large enough to be worth managing your own viewings for. Sellers using the route skew towards second-time-and-beyond movers who have been through a sale before and know what an agent actually does day to day.
This is what OffAgent is. We're a registered member of Rightmove and list homes on Rightmove only, but we charge a fixed fee, not commission, and we don't take control of your sale. That's the entire model.
Bottom line: you don't need an estate agent to be on Rightmove. You need a portal-member service. Same portal exposure, no commission.
How much does it cost to list on Rightmove privately?
UK fixed-fee private-sale listings typically cost £99–£999 depending on the package (photos, floorplan, viewings support). OffAgent's entry package starts at £99/month for a Rightmove-only listing with no commission on completion.
| Sale price | High-street agent (1.42% inc. VAT) | Private Rightmove listing | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| £200,000 | £3,408 | £99–£999 | £2,409–£3,309 |
| £300,000 | £5,112 | £99–£999 | £4,113–£5,013 |
| £400,000 | £6,816 | £99–£999 | £5,817–£6,717 |
| £500,000 | £8,520 | £99–£999 | £7,521–£8,421 |
| £750,000 | £12,780 | £99–£999 | £11,781–£12,681 |
Model your exact figure with the savings calculator, or see the full package breakdown on the pricing page.
Private listing vs. estate agent vs. online hybrid
| Feature | High-street agent | Purplebricks / Yopa | OffAgent (private listing) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portal coverage | Rightmove & Zoopla | Rightmove & Zoopla | Rightmove only |
| Typical cost | 1.42% inc. VAT | £1,499–£2,499 upfront | £99–£999 fixed |
| Pay if you don't sell? | No | Yes (upfront) | Yes (small fixed fee) |
| Tie-in period | 8–20 weeks common | 10 months typical | None |
| Who handles viewings | Agent | Optional add-on | You do |
| Who negotiates offers | Agent | Sometimes | You do |
| Enquiries go to | Agent | Agent, then you | You directly |
| Control of asking price | Partial | Yes | Yes |
For a deeper comparison, see the Purplebricks alternative page.
How to list on Rightmove without an estate agent: step-by-step
Step 1: Pick a portal-registered service
Check they are actually members of Rightmove — not just claiming portal exposure. Verify: (a) they show real member IDs, (b) their example listings appear on rightmove.co.uk at the exact address, (c) they have a public Trustpilot or Google review presence.
Step 2: Get your EPC sorted
An Energy Performance Certificate is legally required before marketing any UK property. Check the government EPC register first — if the last one is under 10 years old, you're covered. If not, book an accredited domestic energy assessor. Cost: £60–£120.
Step 3: Prepare listing assets
- Photos: 15–30 landscape shots, natural light, wide-angle, decluttered. Budget £120–£250 for a property photographer for portal-standard results.
- Floorplan: with measurements. Rightmove listings with floorplans get significantly more clicks.
- Description: 200–400 words, honest, specific. Cover transport, schools, condition, renovations, EPC rating, council tax band, tenure.
Our guide to marketing your property walks through how these three assets work together to drive click-through.
Step 4: Upload and preview
Submit through your service's dashboard. Preview the exact Rightmove layout before publishing. Double-check address accuracy, asking price, photo order (best shot first), and headline features. If you're still triangulating price, our roundup of free online property valuation tools and the deeper understanding property valuations piece are the fastest way to arrive at a defensible number.
Step 5: Go live — and answer fast
Rightmove boosts new listings for the first 14 days. This is your peak-attention window — the difference between a slow sell and a same-week offer often comes down to enquiry response time. Aim to reply within the hour, especially in the first fortnight.
You'll get a confirmation email the moment the listing appears on Rightmove — always open it and check the live page yourself: address, price, photo order and key features. After that, keep the listing moving. Refreshing photos and revisiting the asking price every few weeks pushes you back in front of buyers with saved searches, and it's free.
Step 6: Handle viewings safely
- Pre-book 15–20 minute slots
- Confirm buyer identity — name, phone, mortgage status
- Avoid open houses; one buyer group at a time
- Secure valuables, medication, personal documents
- Have a second person present
- Reply to enquiries quickly — engagement fades fast once a buyer has messaged three other sellers
- Be upfront about any defect, boundary issue or ongoing work — honesty at viewing stage prevents renegotiation later
Presentation matters as much as speed: a clean, well-lit, decluttered home viewed in daylight consistently converts better than the same property shown in the evening in its everyday state.
Step 7: Assess offers on strength, not just price
Ask every buyer: mortgage approved in principle? Chain length? Ideal completion date? Cash or mortgage? A chain-free buyer £5k under asking is worth more than a chain-of-four buyer £5k over.
Step 8: Instruct a conveyancer before you accept
Have a solicitor lined up before offers arrive. Our conveyancing guide covers how to pick one. Once an offer is accepted, exchange and completion follow the standard UK process — see the completion day guide.
Listing on Zoopla without an estate agent
The rule is identical to Rightmove: Zoopla only accepts listings from registered members. A UK homeowner cannot open a Zoopla seller account directly — you list through a portal-registered service.
Some private-sale services offer Zoopla alongside Rightmove, but OffAgent lists on Rightmove only. If you want a Zoopla listing, check the coverage and fees of a separate provider.
Zoopla receives the second-largest share of UK buyer search traffic after Rightmove. Whether to use it separately depends on your budget and the coverage offered by your chosen provider.
And OnTheMarket?
OnTheMarket is the third UK portal, historically owned by a consortium of estate agents. It has smaller traffic than Rightmove and Zoopla but still accounts for a meaningful share of buyer eyes. Some providers include it in a multi-portal package; check their terms. OffAgent does not list on OnTheMarket.
What about "advertise on Rightmove for free"?
You'll see this phrase online. It's misleading. Rightmove has no free tier for sellers, no free member tier for services, and no path for private homeowners to list at zero cost. The cheapest legitimate route onto Rightmove is a fixed-fee private-sale listing — currently starting at £99 with OffAgent, which is roughly 2% of what a 1.42% inc. VAT high-street agent would charge on the average £350,000 UK sale.
Landlords, developers and unusual cases
The same portal rules apply to lettings, new-builds, HMOs and land sales. Rightmove and Zoopla require member-agent listings across all categories. If you're a landlord looking to advertise a rental, a small developer selling a new-build, or an owner of a plot of land, you still need a portal-member service — most offer landlord and developer-specific packages.
Everything you'll need
- List on Rightmove — pricing & packages
- Full pricing — all plans and add-ons
- Savings calculator — model your exact commission saving
- Estate agent fees explained — what a traditional 1.42% actually costs
- Sell without an estate agent — the full FSBO guide
- Conveyancing guide
- Completion day guide
- Purplebricks alternative
Common mistakes when listing on Rightmove privately
- Overpricing. Rightmove's boost lasts 14 days. Waste them on an aspirational price and you're chasing the market for the next four months.
- Slow enquiry response. A one-hour reply lag on a hot listing costs you the buyer. Set notifications on.
- Portrait photos and dark rooms. Halves click-through. Hire a photographer.
- No floorplan. Rightmove clicks drop 30–50%. Always include one.
- Vague description. Buyers filter by facts (bedrooms, tenure, EPC). Lead with those, not adjectives.
- Skipping the conveyancer. A solicitor lined up before offer stage saves 2–3 weeks and reduces fall-through risk.
Frequently asked questions
Can I list on Rightmove without an estate agent?
Yes, but not by opening your own Rightmove account. Rightmove only accepts listings from registered member firms, so a private seller reaches it through a portal-registered flat-fee service such as OffAgent, which uploads the listing under its membership. You keep control of viewings, offers and negotiation, and you pay no commission.
How much does it cost to advertise on Rightmove?
For a private seller, a Rightmove listing through a flat-fee service costs from £99 per month (£247 for three months) with no commission. Through a high-street estate agent it costs the agent's commission, averaging 1.42% including VAT — about £4,970 on a £350,000 sale. Rightmove does not sell listings directly to homeowners at any price.
How do I sell my house on Rightmove myself?
Choose a portal-registered flat-fee service, get a valid EPC, prepare photos, a floorplan and a description, upload and preview the listing, then go live on Rightmove — your listing is sent to Rightmove as soon as you've paid. Buyer enquiries come straight to you, and you book viewings, negotiate offers and instruct your own conveyancer.
The bottom line
The barrier to Rightmove has never been that private sellers aren't allowed — it's that portals only accept member listings. A portal-member fixed-fee service closes that gap without the commission model. For most UK sellers in 2026, that's the difference between paying £4,970 and paying £99 — for exactly the same buyer reach.
Selling in the East Midlands? Find your town on our East Midlands selling guide to see how a private Rightmove listing works locally.
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Rightmove only. No commission. No tie-in. From £99/month.
About this guide
Weighing up your options? See our full alternatives to estate agents comparison.
Written and reviewed by the OffAgent editorial team. OffAgent lists homes on Rightmove only for private sellers and small developers. Data sources: Rightmove Terms of Use, Zoopla Terms of Service, HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, HomeOwners Alliance UK fee surveys, gov.uk EPC and conveyancing guidance. Last updated 1 July 2026.