Straightforward estate agency advice for UK homeowners.
Fresh coffee and a lit candle can do a lot of heavy lifting at a viewing. But your nose is often picking up clues the brochure has left out — from damp corners to drain smells and last winter’s cigarette smoke. Here’s how to read a house by scent, and how sellers can deal with odours honestly before the board goes up.
Thinking of listing in December? It can work — but your fairy lights will still be in the photos in February. A practical guide to staging a festive home without cluttering the listing, blocking the sightlines or turning viewings into a party.
Fresh paint can make a tired house look like a turnkey home, but gloss and new handles sometimes cover old trouble. Here’s how buyers can tell a careful refurbishment from a rushed flip, and which questions to ask before offering.
A house can look immaculate in July and tell a very different story in November. Before you commit to a purchase, here is how to check river, surface-water and drainage risk, what the official maps miss, and why a soggy viewing might be the most honest one you do.
Freehold used to mean nobody sent you a bill for the verges. On many new estates in 2026 it means an annual estate management charge, a private company you never chose, and a deed that follows the house long after the developer has gone. Here is what to ask before you exchange.
The phrase 'chain-free' arrives in a listing like a deep breath — but it can mean three very different things, and only one of them is the shortcut buyers imagine. Here's how to read the label properly in 2026, and the questions worth asking before you fall for an empty hallway.
An ageing boiler is not automatically a deal-breaker, but it is a talking point. Here is how to present an older heating system honestly, decide whether to replace or price it in, and avoid the same problem being discounted twice.
Most buyers spend their second viewing measuring the spare bedroom and forget to look out of the window. This is a practical way to test the street itself — at the school run, after dark and on bin day — before you commit to an offer.
A garden office can look like extra square footage to a buyer and a pile of questions to their solicitor. Here’s how sellers can get the paperwork, certificates and presentation of an outbuilding in order before it slows a sale.
Completion day is rarely the clean break we imagine. A labelled folder of meter readings, codes and manuals won't just make you look organised — it's the difference between a buyer settling in and your phone ringing for a fortnight.
Once the offer is accepted, the conversation often turns to what actually stays with the house. Here’s how to handle the TA10, common buyer requests and the odd late ask without letting a good sale turn into a haggle.
Probate turns a family house into a waiting room with a mortgage. Here's the plain-spoken version of how the sale actually runs — the grant timeline, the two valuations that quietly confuse everyone, what buyers really think of a half-cleared house, and how siblings can disagree without derailing the move.
Most sellers meet their property’s problems through a buyer’s survey report, usually at the worst possible moment. A pre-sale condition check puts you ahead of that conversation — here’s what to look at, what to commission, and how to turn the findings into a calmer sale.
Daylight flatters a house. The 6pm viewing in November does not. Here’s how buyers can use an evening appointment to test the things a Saturday morning hides — and what sellers should do before the doorbell rings.
A buyer’s solicitor has asked for the building regulations completion certificate for the loft, and the drawer is empty. Here’s what that actually means for a sale in 2026, from the lender’s questions to regularisation, indemnity policies and the realistic cost of putting the paperwork right.
A check-in isn’t a formality to rush through before the kettle goes on. Here’s how tenants can build a calm, useful record of the property on day one — meters, marks and all — without turning it into a fight.
A buyer turning up with a builder for the second viewing can feel like an ambush, but it is usually a sign they are serious. Here is how sellers can prepare, handle rough-and-ready repair estimates, and keep any renegotiation anchored in evidence rather than hallway scare stories.
The neighbour question on the TA6 form trips up more sellers than almost any other. Here's how to work out what counts as a dispute, answer it honestly, and keep your sale on track.
Most sellers negotiate the commission and skim the agreement. That is the wrong way round: tie-ins, withdrawal fees and the difference between sole, joint sole and multi-agency can cost far more than a fraction of a percentage point. Here is how to read the paperwork before you sign.
A sought-after school can shape a house hunt, but an address near the gate is not a guaranteed place. Here’s how admissions criteria, sibling rules, faith places and shifting catchments really work — and what buyers and sellers should check before anyone starts talking up the school link.