Pricing a property can be seen as something of an arcane art and sometimes your initial asking price just doesn’t seem to work, even after a few months on the market. The go-to solution for many is to reduce the price, but before you take this step, stop and ask yourself (and your estate agent) if there’s anything you should do first.
If you’ve had no viewings, find the reason
Sometimes, a lack of viewings is down to either poor promotion and marketing of your property rather than the wrong asking price. Talk to your estate agent to see if there’s any extra marketing that could do the trick and get people through the door.
If you’ve only a few viewings, ask for feedback
While marketing a property is a numbers game, you might want to find out, after a few viewings with no offers, what people are saying about your property. Most viewers will be polite and reluctant to criticise outright, but if the same themes crop up a few times, then you need to pay attention to them.
Do you need to get another two or three valuations?
If you went with the first agent to quote a price, then you need to get a couple more opinions. Age-old estate agent wisdom dictates that you get at least three valuations and use the average as your first asking price.
Do you need to step back and re-market at another time of year?
You can go to market whenever you’re ready, obviously, but some times of year are tougher than others, with September to January being the trickiest. Spring is usually seen as the best time to sell so if you’re feeling ground down by the procession of unenthusiastic viewers, it might help to take a break and return at a more optimal time.
Do you know what the market’s doing
If it’s a buyer’s market, with fewer people looking for properties, then you can either wait it out or bring the price down. Your agent will know whether it’s a buyer’s or a seller’s market (a seller’s market means there’s lots of house hunters for relatively few properties) and can adjust your angle of attack accordingly.
If you do decide to come down in price…
You still need to have a think before yellow-labelling your roof!
Don’t sell yourself short
You probably have a target to reach in order to fund the purchase of your next home, so don’t slash too deeply. Your estate agent will know what sort of percentage drop will get buyers going, so take their advice.
Keep an eye on sold prices in your area
Keep checking the sold data at the Land Registry to see what sort of prices have actually been achieved for similar properties to yours in your area. If it seems that there’s a “sweet spot” for sales that’s a little lower than your asking price, then a readjustment is probably in order.
Don’t hold out for a dream buyer
If you’re getting fewer viewings and you know places are selling at £20,000 below your asking price, don’t hang around growing stale. Make the reduction ASAP.
Only make one reduction
If you reduce the price by £5,000 every couple of weeks rather than just the one slash of £20,000, people might wait to see if you’ll go lower before making a move. Make the cut, spark some interest and you never know, you could end up negotiating back up a little!
