On this page we answer a range of the most commonly asked questions.

If you have already registered on Cranky Cat, just click "Post an Ad" on the navigation bar. Otherwise, you must first register by clicking "Register". Sign in and then the first option lets you select the category to post your ad to. Then you will see various plan options – Free, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Make your selection and click "Choose Plan". The next two screens allow you to enter the details of your ad and upload photo's. You will then see an "Extra Options" screen, which will enable you to change or alter your payment plan. Finally, you will be presented with a "Ad Summary" page, which enables you to review your ad and make any changes as necessary. When you are happy with the ad, click "Approve Ad" and your ad will be submitted.

You will then see a message saying that your ad is pending. Once we have checked the ad for unsuitable content, it will be published. This rarely takes longer than 24 hours.

Once your ad has been published, you can edit it at any time, or add or change photo's, by logging on and going to your control panel. Once logged on, you can access this by clicking "My Account" on the navigation bar. Note that your control panel also enables you to change your personal details, post new ads without having to enter your personal details again, view ad statistics (number of hits, for example), view your saved searches, any email alerts you have set up, and more.

Easy. Simply login to your control panel as explained above and click the "Renew Ad" icon.

Cranky Cat takes payments via PayPal (owned by ebay). This enables you to pay for your ad with all major credit cards. If you are not familiar with PayPal, please note that they are a  well known and trusted Internet payment portal. You need have no worries about security, etc. We've been using them for a number of years now, both on this site and others that we run, and never had a problem.

Absolutely. We will never divulge any of your personal details. The only details of yours that will be visible on the site are those you choose to be, e.g. telephone number, address, etc. Your email address is not displayed, giving you protection against cold callers and spammers.

First, if you have just posted the ad, it will be held in a pending list. Only when it has been checked for unsuitable content will it be published. This is usually done within 24 hours. Check again after this time. If you still can't see it, try doing a postcode search for it (assuming you specified a postcode when placing the ad). You should see it immediately. If not, or you didn't specify a postcode, try doing a search using the Refine fields (location, property type, number of beds, etc).

The usual cause of this is that the file is too large. Remember, the larger the picture, the longer it will take to upload. For example, try uploading a picture taken with your digicam without downsizing it first, and you will have time to make a cup of tea (and probably drink it) before the upload completes. This is a pain for you and a waste of the site's bandwidth allowance. The solution is to downsize the picture in a photo editor before uploading it. Note that once uploaded, the site's software automatically resizes images  to 800 X 600 pixels. Aim for this, or close to, and your pictures will upload in a snap.

Basically, for the same reason as above – they are too large. Photographs take up an enormous amount of space on our servers and so to keep our costs down, we have to restrict the sizes that users can upload. The maximum picture dimensions that Cranky Cat will accept is 2000 X 1600 pixels – anything larger will trigger an error message to that effect. Also, the maximum image size (not to be confused with dimensions) is 1.5 MB. Uploading a picture with a larger file size than this will also result in an error message. Again, as above, the solution is to reduce the size of your pictures (ideally to 800 X 600 pixels).

If they have specified a phone number, you will see this at the right of the ad's Details page. Failing this, use the email contact form, which is also on the ad's Details page. If they are interested, they will contact you by return.

Click "Sign In" on the navigation bar and then click the "Forgot Password" link. Your password will be emailed immediately to the email address specified when the account was opened.

Log in to your control panel and activate the "Sold" image by clicking the relevant icon or, in the case of a property up for rent, the "Rented" icon. This will alert other users and save them wasting their time enquirying about a property that is no longer available. Once the property has been sold, delete the ad from Cranky Cat. The option for this is in your control panel.

At the top of the Home Page, just under the navigation bar, you will see several search boxes. For a general site-wide search, just enter your keyword, e.g. cottage, in the "Search for" box and click Search. If you know what category you want, e.g. houses for sale, select it from the "All Categories" drop-down box. You can also make your search more specific by specifying the country, region and/or the city/town you are interested in.

When a specific category is selected, further search options will be available. For example, with the Houses For Sale" category, you will be able to refine your search by specifying a price range and the number of bedrooms required.

On all listings pages (apart from the "Recent Ads" page), at the left you will have a range of "Refine Search" parameters, many of which, when clicked, reveal further search parameters The actual parameters available will depend on the category being searched. These enable you to make extremely specific and detailed searches, and thus prevent you wasting time clicking through pages of unsuitable properties.

At the bottom of the Home Page is a Browse by Location field. This enables you to browse specific regions.