What is a deadline sale?

How it works

The property is marketed for a set period with a closing date and time for offers and no asking price. Buyers inspect, do their homework, and put their offer in writing before the deadline. The offers are then presented to you.

You can accept one, counter one, or decline them all. Nothing obliges you to sell, and there is no reserve to set. The decision is made offer by offer.

The offers may be conditional

This is the main difference from an auction. At auction the winning bidder signs the agreement and pays the deposit on the spot and cannot withdraw. In a deadline sale an offer can be subject to finance, a builder's report, a LIM or the sale of the buyer's own home, and it is not binding on either side until those conditions are satisfied.

So the highest offer is not automatically the best one. A lower offer with no conditions and a settlement date that suits you can be worth more than a higher one that depends on a bank and another sale going through.

What to agree before it starts

• The closing date. Long enough for buyers to get finance and a report organised, short enough to keep the campaign concentrated.
• Whether you will look at an earlier offer. Deadline campaigns often advertise that the property may sell prior. If you want the full campaign to run, say so and have it advertised that way.
• How offers reach you. In writing, with the conditions, the deposit and the settlement date set out beside the price, so you are comparing whole offers rather than numbers.
• The marketing spend. Marketing is charged separately from the agency fee, and the spend should be agreed in writing before the campaign starts.

When it suits

A deadline sale suits a property likely to draw more than one interested buyer, where some of those buyers need conditions, and where you want a date on the calendar without requiring everybody to bid unconditionally. It brings the concentration of an auction and keeps conditional buyers in the room.

It suits less well where certainty on a set day is what matters. If you need the sale to be unconditional the moment it is done, an auction does that and a deadline sale does not.