How to decide what price to sell at?

[stickerspens]

We are wanting to put our house on the market over the next few weeks, and I'm struggling somewhat with knowing what price to put it on the market for.
We've had about 5 estate agents round to value and the difference in opinion is huge, about 100k between the lowest and highest valuation.
I'm naturally very tempted to go with the estate agent with the highest valuation as he is absolutely convinced he can sell it for that price and keeps phoning me to tell me although it does seem to be pushing it and is way over the other valuations.
Should I give him a chance or would it be detrimental in the long run? Even if we got offers on that price we'd be happy. He also provided me with some evidence at the weekend as he sold a similar property for a higher price.
The other advice from estate agents is that we should be more realistic with the price and I am inclined to agree, but it's hard to decide. Some of them we think are undervaluing it.
Our house is a bit unusual so difficult to compare to others in the area and we live in an area which is up and coming and lots of growth planned.

So in a nutshell I guess my question is , would it be better to put house on market for a higher price with the possibility of getting offers?
Or put it on for the lower figure and only accept asking price?

We're not in a massive rush but don't want to be hanging around either.

Any advice would be very appreciated thank you

[wowfudge]

If one is pricing much higher than the others, it suggests he is wrong imo and is trying to flatter you to get the business. Which agents did you think was most likely to secure a sale? Could you negotiate a fee based on securing a proceedable offer of between X and Y within, say, 6 weeks and a higher percentage I'd they get more than that??

[wowfudge]

If - not I'd

[Notanotherpawpatrol]

Look at how many houses the estate agent has sold, as around friends in the area and get their opinions on different agents (for example there is one I would always warn friends not to use)
The go on to zoopla or rightmove and do a sold price search on your postcode. Take a look at the houses that most closely resemble yours and note the dates they sold.
In our area the market is moving so fast, the agent came round with a valuation and I showed them 3 houses that had sold more than that on our street. One was identical to ours in layout, decor etc. So he upped the value based on that.

[Astro55]

Check the paper work - some estate agents charge fees based on the for sale price NOT the sold price - so he could technically sell your house for 100k less and still get fees on the 100k -

Ask him for some documents on his fees

[alltouchedout]

What do you need the house to sell at? That should be the minimum figure you'd accept.

If you put it on too high, it won't sell, you'll likely end up reducing the price and then you're in that situation where prospective buyers think "oooh, look, it's been on for ages and hasn't sold and they've dropped the price, what's wrong with it?"

If the house truly could achieve the higher price, surely as soon as you advertise it at a lower one, there will be masses of interest and a bidding war and you'll get the high price anyway?

[Bluntness100]

Go mid range. A lot of agents do this, they over value, have the house sitting on their books for ages and you get no viewings. They also show you properties that sold locally to justify Mine did it, there is threads on it on here. If it's over priced you don't even get folks through the door. You then stwrt dropping in increments and it's a total pain in the backside.

[HarryPottersMagicWand]

Are the other 4 EAs valuations nearer to each other? Is it just 1 who is vastly different? I'd look at the fees they charge.

When we sold our house, the price was fixed anyway due to it being shared ownership but I had 2 EAs come out after the housing association failed to sell it. The first did the 'this is what we normally charge but I'm not charging you that, I'll charge you this and it's non negotiable' and made a point of writing it down and crossing it out as if i was some sort of incompetant idiot who didn't understand, then that EAs continuously pestered me. The second came out, gave a price which was almost half the first, quietly and confidently told me he could sell it with no problems, does it all the time, has done others so we went with him. It sold within an hour of the first viewer.

Over 2 years later, still have the odd phone call from the pestering EA. Told them the other day we moved over 2 years ago as they were asking about our house hunting . I'd never use them in the future. A good EA wouldn't need to pester IMO.

[TimTamTerrier]

I wouldn't start too high. If property is moving quickly in your area then even if you are a little low starting it will probably get bid up to the right market price. The trouble with starting too high is that you won't get the viewers in, and you will need to then drop your price, having wasted 4 - 6 weeks. Plus having to drop your price can make it look as if your property is unappealing in some way or has something wrong with it.

Pay no attention to the top-valuing estate agent, he's talking through his arse and knows that if he signs you up to sole agency he can get you to drop your price in a few weeks and still get his commission. That's how Foxtons always used to work, and they were total shysters (they may still be, but I'm not in the UK market anymore so I don't know). Go with the estate agent you feel is most realistic and who doesn't spout a load of what they think you want to hear.

[Shadowboy]

We go with three agents and where there is a flsifference in valuation we've gone somewhere between the middle and top valuation. For example we had two valuations at £335,000 and one at £350,000 so went with £340,000

[PippaFawcett]

When we were buying if we saw an overpriced house we didn't even bother viewing it - it gave me the impression that the sellers were unreasonable and buying a house is stressful so I didn't want to negotiate the process with people I thought were unrealistic and unreasonable.

[halfdoneharris]

Are you me? We had 3 EAs over last week and there was a £125k difference in highest and lowest. The lowest was an EA who generally sells the top end/premium properties and when I called them all out on the huge difference they were all set on their valuation and started slinging dirt and the higher/lower valuing agent. It's also a hard property to value as is a semi but is huge! So is bigger than many of the detached houses on our road but also has oodles of character that the detached homes don't have. I don't have any wise words but I know the confusion you feel :-(

[notarehearsal]

When I sold recently I put it with the middle priced agent. However we agreed to ask for 'offers in the range of' and then a figure at the middle price going up to the higher price. I received an offer within two weeks for the middle price which I happily accepted
So estate agent 1) 500,000, agent 2) 525,000 3) £550,00
I put it with agent 2 at offers in the range of £525- £550. I got £525 ( well I didn't as amounts given as example only!

[dodgydonkeysdoodah]

An agent valued a house I was selling for £650k, £100-£150k over four other local agents. But the high-valuing agent had a good reputation for the nicer end of the market and since we weren't in a rush to sell (it was an inherited property) and I felt a responsibility to the other beneficiaries to get the best possible price, we decided to give them a go. We didn't of course get £100k more than the other valuations but we happily settled for £40k over what we would have asked if we'd been with a different agent.

[nell15]

We had seven viewing and sold our house in a week. We went for a mid range price of all the valuations and got what we wanted. Like people have said, check out the value of similar properties in the area. I found similar ones on sale recently and zoopla give the estimated increase by year. Choose reliable established estate agents look to see what other people in your area use how many of their boards are about the area, and go with your gut feeling. You also want an ea who will work for you and get serious buyers in to view, especially if things go wrong - we had a problem and our ea was the one who pulled it all together by ringing all the ea and solicitors in the chain almost every day til it was fixed.

[AgathaF]

We had a similar thing just over a year ago. Unusual house with little to compare it to. We have valuations with a large difference. Discussed the higher valuations with the agents who suggested the lower valuations and they said we'd never get that price. Went with the agent who said the highest valuation, but said we'd review it in a month. The house had an asking price offer the first day it was marketed, from the first viewer. Had loads of interest so went to best and final offers later that week and it sold for over the asking price.
So I'd say try it for a short period of time. Unless you are in a hurry to sell, what do you have to lose?

[stickerspens]

Thank you all for your replies and very useful advice.
I'm thinking I may put it on for the higher end of the sensible price and trust that if it is worth more then we would perhaps get lots of offers. Who knows!
Will ponder over it though while getting the house ready for viewings, need a mega decluttering session.