By Linton Chiswick

London (Citywire) - A year ago, everybody was right. At every turn there was an expert bristling with suggestions for squeezing the maximum profit from your home.

The Zens suggested decluttering. Take all your stuff, they said, and put it in a big skip. Your house will look more spacious, and a potential purchaser will want to stay and breathe the calm air, deeply.

Bake bread, said the Traditionalists. The aroma of warm dough will subconsciously remind them that this is a home, not just a house, and homes sell at a premium.

The Developers advised neutral colours; a blank canvas on which a buyer could paint their own picture, because there's nothing more disastrous than trying to impose your taste on somebody else.

The Theatricals disagreed. The fine art of home staging demanded character, darling; you should see your house as a theatre set, where a supreme lifestyle performance will so move the audience they'll turn immediately to the agent and make an extravagant offer.

They were, back then, all correct. In a frenzied bull market, you could hang a portrait of Hitler above the fireplace and - if the property were in the right location and south-facing - you'd get an offer.

Now that people don't buy houses anymore, is there anything you can do, other than drop the price faster than the Halifax House Price Index is falling?

Not much, probably, but it might pay to find a good agent, preferably of the old school, with a normal-sized tie-knot and enough grey hair to suggest he or she has worked in a wide range of economic climates.