Whichever agent you choose, and we hope it is us, these are questions worth asking before you instruct anyone. A good agent should answer all of them clearly and specifically, without deflecting or falling back on general reassurances.

Once your property is live, the goal is not simply to generate viewings, it is to find the right buyer for your circumstances, someone able to proceed at a pace that works for you, not just whoever puts in the highest offer on paper.

A property that goes to market well prepared almost always performs better than one rushed online before it is ready. Here is what typically happens before your listing goes live.

There is no single correct way to sell every property. We offer three different routes to market, and which one suits you depends on your property, your circumstances and what you are hoping to achieve. It is worth understanding all three properly before deciding.

Your local associate has now visited your property and given you a considered figure. Unlike an online estimate, this comes from someone who has actually seen your home, its condition, its improvements, and compared it against local evidence, not a postcode average.

If your home is still on the market and has not sold, it is worth pausing to ask why, rather than assuming there is nothing to be done. A property listed for a while without success is usually telling you something, about the price, the marketing, or the level of service behind it, and it pays to find out what before more time passes.

A sale involves a lot of moving parts, and it is entirely reasonable to want regular updates rather than waiting to be told when something happens. These are the questions worth asking, and how often, whoever is handling your sale.

If your property has been on the market for a while without much interest, it is worth taking an honest look at how it is actually being marketed, rather than assuming the property itself is the problem.

It is a familiar, uncomfortable feeling: weeks pass, viewings slow down or stop, and it feels like nothing is happening. This is more common than most sellers realise, and there are usually identifiable reasons behind it, most of which can be diagnosed and addressed rather than simply waited out.

A sale involves a lot of moving parts, and it is entirely reasonable to want regular updates rather than waiting to be told when something happens. These are the questions worth asking, and how often, whoever is handling your sale.

One of the most common sources of anxiety during a sale is simply not knowing whether the pace feels normal. Here are some general benchmarks worth having in mind, whoever you are selling with.

Congratulations on taking the step to put your home on the market. Whichever agent you are working with, the process that follows is broadly similar, and it helps to know roughly what to expect at each stage.