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.

Quite often, the houses that we buy are in need of tlc and require a sensitive injection of cash. We are all accidental developers to an extent, because maximising value should be at the back of everybody’s mind when tackling a project. The task may be as simple as replacing a dated Kitchen and Bathroom together with an overall  spruce up, or it may involve an improvement in the layout and fabric of the property.

Spending too much money in the wrong direction is a trap that can be easily sprung, so how do you know where and how to improve a house?

Unromantic though it may seem, you should always remember that one day you will sell, and your house is as much a property for you to live in, as it is a commodity, that in the future might have to attract a wide market.  In a sense, therefore, you are improving your house as much for yourself, as for its next owner.

Decor of your property

The key is to avoid extremes and think about what might appeal to a wider audience. Of course you will want to furnish a property to your own taste, but it is risky to be too radical; ultra-modern, for instance, is not everybody’s cup of tea.  An occasional cry from viewers of ‘done’ houses is that they object to having to pay for someone else’s excessive taste.

Improvements to your property

Think about rooms and features that tick boxes for people. The most important room in the house these days is the family Kitchen. If this can be a large and light space of reasonable quality, it could sell the house by itself. Anything that you can do to open it up and create light, therefore, would reap benefits. There are some very good and reasonably priced kitchens around and, of course, excellent local craftsmen for the bespoke look.

Having more than one Bathroom is important for most people and if you can squeeze in a small ensuite without taking up too much space, it would be worth it. It’s amazing what you can fit into a couple of square meters.  Think about effective lighting, opening up fireplaces, improving flooring, exposing beams and walls. Character can be injected into most houses with the minimum of difficulty and expense.

Extensions to your property

You often don’t have to extend to increase value. We handled a house in Dorset where the owner had simply divided a large bedroom into two to create a four bedroom house. That, together with a new septic tank and some landscaping realised a far higher price than he paid only six months earlier. If you are going to extend, think about balance and cost. A house with a good overall balance of ground and first floor accommodation will maximise value. If you over-extend on a small plot, however, the ratio of house to outside space will be impractical. It’s often a good idea to obtain planning consent and then you have the option of simply selling on with that in place.

Of course there is far more to say than will fit in this concise blog, so if you are in doubt about adding value without compromising your own lifestyle, seek the advice of an agent and an architect…it could reap benefits in the long run.

Downsizing to a more practical and convenient property is a decision that most people have to make at some point. It may be that you are in a remote location, or rattling around in a substantial house. It may be that the children have fled the nest, prompting a change of scene and release of capital.

This is, understandably, a very emotional time and the whole process can look terribly daunting, especially if your family is remote and you have little local support structure.

There are initial steps to downsizing and, having helped many Clients with this particular move, I can share some of these with you.

The Initial Steps

The first and most obvious task is to decide where you want to move to and what sort of house you would like to end up in. Ask yourself searching questions. You may want to be closer to your children or friends, in a town with amenities on your doorstep and with a cultural buzz, or in a village with a shop and a good bus route.  You may want to do away with stairs, have ease of maintenance or a smaller garden.

Having pinpointed these priorities, you need to do your sums. Have your house valued by a few local agents and choose the lowest valuation to work on. Take advice on the costs involved in the moving process and decide how much capital you want to release. The net result will provide you with a realistic figure for your next purchase.

You should now spend a bit of time viewing the sort of house that you can afford, within the parameters that you have chosen. This will allow you to visualise the space that you can expect to inhabit and enable you to decide what pieces of furniture and possessions can come with you. These are often the most emotive decisions, given the sentimental attachments that you may have, but now is the time to try to be ruthless. Family members may be able to take some pieces and local auction rooms can be very helpful with collections.
Now that you have an idea of restrictions, the process will start to look less daunting. If you can get to this stage, there is suddenly light at the end of the tunnel, because once you start the ball rolling by instructing your agent to proceed it is amazing how the rest falls into place. There is still a way to go and you will continue to need advice and support, but a good agent will provide that shoulder to lean on.
The most important thing is that the process will now be a lot clearer and you can begin to start looking forward with more confidence.
We have had great experiences with local removals/storage companies over the years and a good personal service is so important when downsizing. Mews Moves is just one of these firm and you can find more information on  http://www.mewsmoves.co.uk/