It's no secret that selling your home can be a real slog – it can take months, or even years, to find the right buyer. We've brought together top advice and tactics from real estate insiders to help you get your home off the market as quickly as possible at the best possible price for your pocket.

While they say never judge a book by its cover, in this instance first impressions DO count. Broken plant pots outside the front door and flaking paint on door is not going to create the best first impression. Touch up the front door and add a hanging basket to brighten up the entrance.

While you may not want to spend time decorating a house you no longer want to live in, it will make a significant difference to the way others perceive it. Touch up the walls on show, or clean them up using some sugar soap to get rid of any grease marks.

Another trick is to keep the walls bright, especially in the areas that don’t usually get as much light. Never paint the walls in the hallway with dark colours. Keep them bright and inviting to open up the space.

There’s no better way to open up a room than to add a mirror. A large wall mirror makes any room look instantly bigger and brings in much more light.

Our real estate insider says: “There was a house on the market that had 15 viewings and still wouldn’t sell. In a small town, I couldn't understand why no one had made an offer. So I went over to take a look and could hardly get through the front door. There were lots of pieces of furniture and tables in the hallway, so we asked them to move some of the clutter to create more space. Once they did, it sold almost instantly after."

While it’s important to make sure the house is spacious and lacks clutter, it’s also important not to completely depersonalise it. A house that looks like a show home is all well and good, but it doesn’t show the new owner what it is really like to live in. Make sure it still looks and feels like your home.

A dirty house isn't a welcoming sight, and it certainly won't help prospective buyers envisage themselves living in your house. Rid your home of limescale, clean and repair tile grout, wax the floors and dust the skirting boards. Your home should be ship-shape before any viewers cross the threshold.

A homeowner can spend thousands making over their kitchen before their property hits the market but it's not always money well spent. There's no guarantee that the kitchen design you opt for will be the buyer's cup of tea – that shiny new kitchen could well be ripped out once the sale goes through. While a large, bright kitchen can sell a house, it's not worth renovating it before a sale and in the time spent finding a tradesman to complete the work, your property could've already been on the market.

Remember, you're not just selling a home, you're selling a lifestyle, so take the time to perfect the details. Lay the table with your best crockery and glasses, and some candles or a pretty vase of flowers. Potential buyers need to be able to see themselves living in your home.

If you have a redundant pantry space or a void under the stairs, utilise it by adding a bathroom. Research published by Henry Pryor, a property expert from GoCompare, found that a home with more than one toilet is sought-after by 53% of property hunters. 

In the same way a hanging basket improves the entrance to the house, fresh flowers on the table will brighten up the rest of the house. Keep them simple and classic – don’t go overboard as it won’t look natural.

While double glazing is appealing to buyers, single-glazed windows are fine as long as they look like they’re in a decent condition. If windows aren’t painted properly and are flaking, people will immediately think they are an extra expense.

On that note, try to remove as many extra expenses as possible. Unless a buyer is looking for a bargain to renovate, a house can easily lose appeal if the list of extra expenses is long. If there's any damage to the walls, make sure you repair it, or perhaps you could leave behind your old white goods for the new homeowner.

A garage has the potential to be converted into another room. Without doing this yourself, just clear the garage and keep it car-free (as long as you have a drive) to show what space is available for a potential garage conversion.

If your viewing is on a cold evening, put on the fire or switch on some mood lighting. Ambience creates a much homelier setting and when it's dark outside a fire or a low lamp will make the house feel a lot cosier than having all of the main lights on.

It's no secret that homes that feel spacious tend to sell better. Add volume to your property without shelling out big bucks by raising your curtains just a couple of feet above the window frame. It'll instantly elongate the walls and create a more airy atmosphere.

Nobody wants to walk into a house with bad smells. Don’t just cover them up, though. Find the root cause of the problem: clean and empty bins and clear drains if there are any funky smells coming from them. Air fresheners might smell nice, but they won’t get rid of the odour altogether.

Conversely, adding nice smells can make a property feel like home. While baking bread every time you have a viewing might be a tad excessive, you could light a scented candle or perhaps brew some fresh coffee.

Pruning hedges and tidying up the lawn can go a long way to making your home more sellable. Add a table and chairs so buyers can really imagine kicking back and unwinding in the sun. In a study, Henry Pryor and GoCompare found that having an attractive garden could increase the value of your home by £2,000 ($2.5k), so a garden revamp is worth thinking about.

Some home hunters can be turned off by a lack of parking. If you have a large garden at the front of your house, consider converting some of it into a driveway. With the average drive conversion costing £2,000 ($2,500), it could up your property's price tag and help it get snapped up sooner.

As much as you love your cat or dog, not everybody will feel the same way. If a potential buyer is scared of dogs, being greeted at the door with loud barking and the smell of wet dog isn’t going to make the house seem very enticing – ask your neighbour to keep an eye on it for the time being.

While making your house look good will go a long way, it’s also important to be flexible with timings. The more viewings you have, the more chance you have of a quicker sale. Be flexible with when people can come over, even if that does mean an evening viewing after a long day at work. It will be worth it in the long run.

Decluttering is easier when you’ve already started packing up. Start putting things in boxes and store them in the attic or at your neighbour’s house if need be. This will free up space, keep things minimalistic and speed up your moving process too.

If a family is viewing your property, they will want to see that areas are lived in, and what they’re capable of being used for. Turn a neglected spare room into a study for the time being, or an empty dining room into a second living room. Adding extra family areas is much more appealing.

Everybody loves organised things, even if we aren’t very organised ourselves. Line up shoes neatly rather than piling them up, or arrange your spices so they’re in alphabetical order – the really small things will make the house feel much more centred and calm to a potential buyer.

You don’t need to spend a lot to make some great improvements to your home’s appeal. Our real estate insider says: "After really struggling to sell his house, one man spent just £200 ($250) on painting the front door, hanging up a flower basket, taking clutter to charity shops, putting fresh flowers on the table, lining the sofas with new pillows and professionally cleaning the property. The next viewer bought it."

When you arrange viewings, try to book them back-to-back. If potential buyers see that a property is popular, they're more likely to think seriously about putting in an offer sooner rather than later.

A survey conducted by Trulia and Harris Interactive found that for 84% of home buyers, location was equally, if not more important, than the home itself. During a viewing, pitch your neighbourhood, highlight the local amenities and transport links, and drop in information about the local parks, schools and community ethos.

When it comes to settling on an asking price, don't push your luck too much. Decide on a realistic figure based on the valuation given to you by your agent. If the price is too high, you're unlikely to get many viewings, and chances are, you'll have to make reductions in the future anyway.

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