Selling your house is one of the most stressful activities you will have to undertake during your lifetime. With approximately 1 in 3 house sales falling through at some stage before contracts have been exchanged it can make for an extremely frustrating & time consuming period. The average time period to sell your house from first putting it on the market to exchanging contracts is 4-6 months. Can you afford to wait this long, will you loose the chance to move into the house of your dreams.

Many people have unrealistic aspirations when it comes to selling their house, they often want a quick sale for a high price, unfortunately these two factors do not sit well together. In todays slowing market unless you are extremely lucky in order to secure a quick sale you will invariably need to lower your price. How much you are willing to lower your price may determine how quickly you sell your house.

If you are in no rush then you should be able to obtain the market value, or somewhere near, for your house. On average houses sell for 93% of their asking price.

There are several steps you could take to make your home more attractive to potential buyers such as re-decorating, tidying the garden, offering to leave carpets & curtains or certain white goods such as Fridge/freezer or washing machine. Some of these things you could do yourself others you may have to pay for. Simply re-painting walls & woodwork in your house may make it a lot more attractive, the smell of new paint may just do the trick. Does the outside of your house look tired, first impressions are of vital importance, simply adding a fresh layer of paint to the outside walls and getting someone to make your garden look like it has always been well looked after will give viewers of your property a great first impression.

Picking an estate agent is also a key factor in selling your house, don't just go with the one that gives you the highest valuation for your house - this may be an unreasonable price which will not attract potential buyers. Do your homework & try and find out who the best estate agent in your area is, talk to other people try and find those who have recent experience of selling their houses, they may point you in the direction of a good local estate agent who will have plenty of potential buyers for your property.

However if you need to sell your house fast then your best course of action may be to sell to a property trader who will be a cash buyer able to do a deal very quickly. You will have to be willing to accept a "trade price" for your house but you should expect a good property trader to complete exchange of contracts in about 4-5 weeks. They will generally pay all the legal fees for you plus you will have no estate agent fees meaning that you will keep all the money left over from your sale less any outstanding mortgage.