Good to hear progress is being made and the buzzy harbingers of spring are very welcome.

It is twenty years since we last moved house which included a brief episode of homelessness so any advice I have would be superfluous. I hope they are both quick sales at the prices you want.

Recently sold house in trust. Estate agents require EVERYTHING scanned (eg window change permissions, guarantees etc

Ask them how they deal with queries from potential buyers on DETAILS in the home sellers pack.

Our estate agents phoned me up when potential buyers asked questions, rather than looking through the information I was forced to scan, photocopy and otherwise had to provide.

They’d rather use your brain than their own, so take note of the quality of the (possibly min wage) person who answers the phone in the office, as much as the senior person who tries to sell you their services.

I also had to do lots of proving who I was / anti money laundering security checks by downloading multiple APPS and scanning in passport, drivers licence and taking a selfie, which was worrying as it seems there was no alternative process when worrying about the security of said APPS.

Keep an eye on the market, and consider whether you could have a sale price review with a buyer if delays caused by THEM delay the sale for more than x months, as in a rising market a probate issue with our buyer’s sale delayed our sale for months, and prices rose (possibly £10k) in that period, but we’d agreed a price.

Good luck!

No moles here.
Are you DiamondGeezer's secret proofreader?
Questions I asked last time I sold a property:
1. What is your valuation, and what do you think the selling price should be?
2. What is this based on?
3. Which online property portals do you advertise on? (Should be Rightmove & Zoopla. If with OnTheMarket, ask why they chose to be with them.)
4. What %age is your commission? [Possibility of a sliding scale, eg add 0.25% if they achieve a specific price.]
5. At what point is your commission payable – on exchange of contracts or completion?
6. Do you prepare a floor plan?
7. Are there any charges on top of your commission?
8. Will you accompany all viewings?
9. Do you do weekend and evening viewings?
10. How do you follow up with prospects following viewings?
11. Can you leave a sample copy of your contract with us?
12. How many buyers do you have on your books looking in this price range? Are they looking on this estate?
13. What type of purchaser do you envisage for this property?
14. How do you check that buyers can afford to buy?
15. How many properties have you sold in this area in the past six months?
16. How long did they take to sell?
17. If we instruct you on a sole-agency basis, what is the minimum tie-in period?
18. What happens if we find a buyer independently?
19. Which ombudsman scheme are you a member of?
20. What qualifications do you have?

You've no worries about ever being short of trees again. Soon those sycamores will be everywhere.

Online is key nowadays - so look for one whose online photos impress you, and ensure you get approval and a commitment to redo if they're not up to scratch. Make sure they're taken at the best times of day for your properties. And a floor plan is key. Try to get them to alter their commission to a sliding scale, because to them, there's not much difference between a fixed % of, say £300k and the same % of £275k, but to you the difference is huge, whereas if they will go for 0.5% less than £300k but 2%, then it's win-win. And if they have a minimum term, ensure that you can get out if they're not delivering the level of viewings. Anything apart from Rightmove is a luxury - everyone is there

Many thanks Verity, Tim and Ian. That is all so helpful - lots of points there we hadn't thought of/didn't know about, very useful. Our crib sheets of questions have been amended accordingly.