Sshhhh. I'll let you into a secret..........

Wouldn't it be great if you could second guess what your surveyor is going to say about your property? That way you could get everything fixed before it went on the market and avoid the delay and cost of the surveyor having to come back out to redo the Home Report. I have the answer and it's not going to cost you a penny.

I have come across a company called Arjen Property Limited who will undertake a full survey of your property and point out where the Home Report surveyor is going to give you one of those nasty 3s - the curse of the house seller! They will visit your property, survey the property and give you a written report so you have a record of exactly what the defects are - useful as you can use it to send to tradesmen to cost for the job knowing that the spec will be the same for all of the quotes that you will receive. For those of you who have ever tried to organise a tender then you will appreciate what a god send that is.

And the best part of all - it's not going to cost you a penny.

Now let's be honest here. He's not running a charity and he will price up what he believes the cost of rectifying the work is going to be. But ultimately it is down to you as to whether you take him up on the quote or, as I said earlier, use the spec to tender for the work.

They have skin in the game and have all the necessary badges. Robin Nicol who runs the company tells me that he has been doing this since 1984 and has yet to have a claim on any of his guarantees!

What have you got to lose?