Beyond the baked bread, fresh coffee and gentle Mozart drifting in the background, there is a myriad of emotional, practical and sensitive issues that need to be tackled if you are to sell your house successfully. And here are just some of them:

Take advice from your estate agent

The best Agents are there to help, acting in the best interests of their clients rather than concentrating on their balance sheets, and you should accept the advice that they give you. Any business is as good as its reputation and referrals would soon dry up if an Agent kept getting it wrong, so trust what you are told and be prepared to act upon it.

Iron out property problems early on

You should know your property well enough to know where any problems lie, so share these with your Agent before you begin marketing, after all, everybody suffers if a last minute glitch emerges causing the collapse of a deal.  Areas to mention include restrictive covenants, rights of way, structural issues, boundary disputes and building regulations. Early knowledge and the chance to put things right will save heartache later on.

Step back emotionally

This is often easier said than done, especially if your home has years of happy memories, or you take great pride in what you have created there. Wherever your emotions lie, you have to detach yourself and treat the sale as that of a commodity. One man’s meat is another man’s gravy and a buyer may look at your property from a completely different perspective. I’ve often heard clients say that they want to sell their house to a family they like. Sadly, we don’t have that luxury anymore, so as long as the buyer can complete a purchase at an acceptable level, then that is the person to sell to.

Let the Agent do the Viewings

Agents are very good at showing people around houses because they are salespeople . Not in the sense of the hard sell, but more in knowing which buttons to press and when. Viewers also need to relax and take their time and it is very difficult to do so if the owner is there and the feeling is one of intrusion, so take the dog for a walk or pop to the shops. Try also to always insist that the negotiator dealing with your house is the one to show it, rather than viewing staff. They know it best and can talk turkey if it comes down to on-the-spot negotiations.

Accept market conditions

The property boom is over and we are in a fragile market. If you want to sell your house and move on you have to accept the economic conditions and position the marketing of your property accordingly. Buyers are buying and will continue to buy, but they are reluctant to pay what they consider to be over the odds. Take your Agent’s advice, find the right buyer at the right price for the prevailing conditions and move on. You will be able to negotiate just as hard on a purchase, and if you rent and wait for the right house to come up, you could be quids in.