It's a long time since I've bought or sold a house....

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeG0es]

15 years in fact. I think a lot has changed. The situation is that we do not need to move, but the house of our dreams has come on the market, so we are looking at putting ours on the market ASAP, without having had much time to familiarise ourselves with the current processes.

Can anyone link to a simple guide to buying and selling, and answer the first question - would it be a good or bad idea to use the same estate agent as the vendors of the other house?

it shouldn't matter, but in my case it helped because the agent had even more incentive to keep a tricky chain together.

oh, and the site you want is reallymoving.com

I don't think much has changed in 15 years except that it has become possibly more bureaucratic than it was - lenders have become pickier (if you need a mortgage) and many of them - and solicitors - try to sell you ridiculous and unnecessary insurances and surveys. I've seen mining surveys for properties in London and chancel insurance offered for new-builds .

Sorry - not new-builds but relatively modern properties, one of which was 1970s council-built so very unlikely to be affected by chancel rules.

Only if they are good and you trust them.

Have four agents round at half hour intervals, both chains and locals. Quiz them on the local market, how saleable your house is, immediate improvements that might help its saleability (a quick lick of paint, tidy the garden, or getting rid of clutter), who is likely to buy (are there FTB or investment buyers around or are buyers likely to have their own chains), price and price sensitivity and so on.

But the end you should both be well informed and have a good idea of who you think has a handle on the market. All well and good if it is the person selling the house you want to buy, but that is not essential. Also ask about commisison. If agents know they are in competition, they should offer reduced commission for a limited period. It is best to sort it out before making a decision, but if you need to, be prepared to pay more for a better agent.

I think it helps to observe which local agents are actually selling houses in your area - you can do that via Rightmove and noting which properties are sold STC and under offer.

When you meet with the agents they should provide details of comparable properties locally - are the houses selling for what they are valuing them at?

Also, do they have buyers registered who will be interested in your house? We had an offer last year before the details were even online because the EA had someone in mind who had just missed out on a house on a neighbouring street.

If several agents in one area are charging similar fees and one or two have no tie in period, you can use that as leverage to not have be tied in and agree a lower fee percentage if the agent you prefer is more expensive - unless they are doing a much better job from the others from what you can see.

Thank you all, yes I guess not a lot has changed, but I was thinking about energy efficiency certificates and similar. I've heard a few horror stories from friends about solicitors holding up sales over details like certificates for small electrical works and all similar.

The estate agent selling the other house have asked to value ours before we view theirs so that we know where we stand with regards the cost difference, which is perfectly reasonable, I don't have a very clear idea of how much ours is worth, they are rising quite fast here at the moment. Then I need to dig out the terms or the existing mortgage, work out stamp duty costs etc, how much similar houses in the area are going for etc, it's a lot to think about when you weren't really thinking about it at all a week ago.

On the plus side we regularly get estate agents notes through the door asking us to consider selling, which has got to be a good sign.

See another couple of agents first before their agents view.

you do need an EPC. It is from a badly constructed computer model so there's limited scope for quality, so just pick the cheapest supplier. If you can tell the person what you have in the way of insulation that will save them 'assuming' (ie. making it up)

Why's that Wowfudge? I think the house we are interested in will sell quickly, so we do want to get a viewing in ASAP.

Because I wouldn't entrust the sale of my house to the first and only person I've contacted and to get a good idea of value you need to compare views on price.

Oh and you viewing the other house shouldn't be contingent on the agent seeing yours although I agree you need to move quickly to market yours.

I was definitely planning to get more valuations done before putting it on the market, going to try and get them done on Friday. Absolutely not going to commit to this one tomorrow but a ball park idea of what it's worth would really help as I need to contact my mortgage company ASAP too.

Good luck with it all - exciting!

Thank you, nerve wracking too!

Tell me about it! Ours is on the market at the moment. Permanent show home mode soon pales and additional primping before a viewing takes longer than you think.

I remember from last time and we didn't have children then. Ours is very far from show home standard too, I can see us having to spend the entire weekend tidying and decluttering. We really weren't thinking of moving iminently. Still, mustn't get ahead of myself, still got to view the other house, there are one or two things not perfect about it.

www.rateragent.co.uk/ this is relatively new - but seems to consolidate and verify reviews of estate agents in one place. A bit like amazon verified purchase reviews if you like. If Estate Agents in your area are covered it might be worth having a look at what others are saying about them.

We have 2 main estate agents in our town. If you go to agent 1 you will get a real high valuation but it will take an age to sell (months and months) and at a considerably reduced price. If you use agent 2 then it is a much more realistic price and will sell pretty quickly. So you can see this from the reviews and chose according to what you need iyswim.

And as pp do not, not, not go with the first agent you see.

Just a quick update, have had two valuations now and going to try and get another one done on Monday, I'm also trying to gather personal recommendations, unfortunately there are very few reviews for our local agents on rateragent.com, but thank you for linking Hello. Viewed the other house and having a second (in daylight) viewing over the weekend.

Another update! We really liked the house on second viewing, we were all poised to get ours on the market this week but then started delving into the planning history of the other house and found problems which mean that lovely though it is, we won't be proceeding. However, we have learnt a lot in a short period of time and will probably put ours on the market and start looking properly next year, thank you all for your help.