Selling your house: Pricing your property

In the final part of her complete guide to selling a house, Lea Beven of Limecastle looks at pricing your property and the best time to sell.

Part seven: Success

What is more important to you? Time or money?

Well come on, we all know time is money.

If you want success in selling the property then you must get the price right.

Taking offers from people that are not already on the market is not clever - they may hold you up.

If you can stop the chain by moving to a rental property yourself, then you may be able to save yourself a lot of hassle.

With your pricing, if you decide to 'test' the market at too high a price and then reduce it quickly, people that have their eye on your property will quickly notice that you seem desperate.

So when is the best time to sell? Is there one?

Most selling agents will tell you to put your property on the market in the spring.

This is when historically the market starts to warm up and usually the sales start around Easter time.

Another great time could be in the summer, as anyone wanting to move school will have to be in by September.

However, people could be away on their holidays which could hold things up.

The worst time to sell? This is said to be around Christmas, as this is the least likely time that people will actually want to move.

My final tip: The nicer you are to your estate agent, the more favourably they will work with you.

As an agent myself, I appreciate flexibility and understanding in my clients and would pick their details up first if they are easy to work with.

• See part one: How people search for a property

• See part two: How to market effectively and an objective look at property

• See part three: Fixing and tidying up and refurbish or not?

• See part four: Potential problems