To ‘over price‘ our house?

[DisneyMadeMeDoIt]

DH and I are moving. We live in a desirable area where houses sell FAST!
5 valuations agree this is probably worth £300k but the market is so empty/competitive we ‘could easily get more’.
We are expecting a baby and family homes in our area are both rare and VERY expensive (can’t relocate) so we do need to make as much as possible!

We have the following options;

A- Put it on with a reasonable guide price of £300k and hopefully ignite a bidding war 🙈
B- Put it on for offers over £300k and hope people don’t just offer £300k.
C- Put it on for £325k ish, knowing we’ve over priced it a bit but see what offers we get.

£300k is a reasonable price for it so I think WABU to overprice but we are in a chain - houses we are viewing expect ‘over asking’ offers too so if we don’t take advantage of the demand - we will lose out!

DH and I are debating options and have had conflicting advice from agents! Over pricing may put off buyers but putting it on at £300k may just lead to lots of ‘asking price’ offers we’ll find it hard to turn down!

My neighbour over priced hers (by at lease 35k) it sat on the market for over six months before she reduced it by 25k, a further two months and it just sold.
It an area where houses are snapped up.
I’ve yet to see how much she got for it, but I guessing what it was worth, probably 35k under what she originally asked for. The house has a major compromise and people didn’t overlook that.

I’d go half way and ask for offers over £315. You might still get a bidding war, or you might get offers under. It won’t put people off viewing which is what you want.

I'd go offers over 300 - it's the honest approach, and you'll get more interest. If people see 325 and they know it's overpriced for the area they're likely to resent you and take against the house - whereas if you get them in the door and they love it they might offer over to 'win' it from the competition.

You have to get people through the door if you want a bidding war.

Go reasonable, let buyers bid up.

This will work all the better if it looks attractive and is in excellent order. The sorts of houses that you see on Rightmove and think 'wow, that house is lovely, I could move in tomorrow' go so fast in the sort of area you describe.

The thing is, if you price high and accept the one offer at that level, you risk a wobble and demands for a price drop, post-survey, from your buyer.

If OTOH, they've been in a bidding war and bid it up, then psychologically, they feel they've 'won' something valuable. Also, they are directly awar that there are other buyers ready and wiaitng to snap it up if they pull out. Therfore they're less likely to make silly demands for reductions.

Put on for more than you would accept because most people want to negotiate down but if two people love it you may get more

If you put it on for £325 k you might miss a lot of potential buyers with a £300k budget who may not put the higher amount into the portal search or have it as an alert email.

Starting high puts people off (especially first time buyers - don't know if that's relevant) and means people start with a bad feeling about you.

Dropping the price after six weeks, as EAs so often advise, makes it look like there's something wrong with it.

Starting high is a riskier tactic than you might think.

I really would go for 'honest pricing' and let the house sell itself, which, if it is desirable, it will.

I’d go £315

Another thing to consider is if you start high and get an offer, the buyer might ask for a reduction later down the line if the bank values the house at 300k for the mortgage.

Be careful with pricing it too highly. Were I live, people who bought at the height of the market are selling for the amount they paid (ie. more than current market value). While they do get offers at the advertised price, mortgage companies have valued the properties lower, so the sales have always fallen through.

If you want to sell the house, price it accordingly.

Offers over £300k and an open day. The agent should market it for at least a week before hand. If you live in a sought after area you will have lots of interest and hopefully a bidding war. If there are no other similar houses for sale in the immediate area you will get what you want and more.

Of course you’d put it on for 325 properties are never listed at expected sale price.

My tip would be to go on to RightMove and search first for houses in range say £280k - £300k in your area, then search range say £300k - £325k. When you see what comes up you might get an idea which buyers you might catch / which sellers you'll compete with, and that might show the best spot in the market to place yourself.

We lived in a similar area (pocket of suburb in an otherwise cheapish area where prices were higher than elsewhere nearby) Had 4 valuations 175k 2 of170k and 165k put it on for offers over 170k had several offers and it went to best and final offers. Sold for 171k to a ftb. Could have sold it for 174k but buyer was in a chain. It can't hurt to put it on for higher but be prepared to take less if needed. Selling for us what's the easy part it was the onward purchase that was a nightmare... similar story of family homes hardly ever coming on and going for silly money within 24hours!

Oh and just to add we did an open day as pp said and got 4 offers from that.

We sold two months ago, but we're on the market for over a year. We had the requisite three valuations from estate agents and since it was in a lovely position, good commuting area, great schools and was well decorated / maintained we went with the highest valuation.

Nobody came to view it at that price. We dropped it, dropped it again, got a few viewings but when you're still asking a fair amount, people noticed things they couldn't get (not a big garden or a big kitchen). We ended up selling for less than the lowest valuation (thanks, Brexit!) in the end as the market had slowed to a crawl and people could see that our house had been on the market forever!

Pricing a house is a balancing act, I guess. Don't get greedy - if you put it as 'offers over 300' then if it's worth more, people will offer it. It's only worth what people will pay, after all! I hope you're luckier than us and get to move before it saps your sanity!

Offers over £300k, and an open day. 300 is a round number folk might put as their limit on a Rightmove search. If you go over a round number, fewer people will see it.

I agree with the other poster. A lot of people look for houses online now. I would put the max I was willing to pay in when looking e.g. 300k, so you would miss that section of the market. You could try it for a week and see how it goes, plan an open house and can always reduce it if no interest

How many people are naive enough to their max on a property search engine as the max they can pay? There can’t be that many of them.

When you need as much as possible to facilitate your move and are staying in the same area, bear in mind that house asking price valuations are set by precedent and Agents collate everything that’s taking place in and around them.

It’s a complex sum, moving, and while you want to achieve the best price you must take into account if your selling price will drive up asking prices, so 5% increase for yours drives a 5% rise in asking prices for more expensive family homes in a market where there’s little choice. You need security in the chain to avoid sunken costs and time if it falls apart.

As someone said, get on all the property portals and analyse your competition in and around the price search bands. You don’t have to make the jump from £300 to £325, you could ask £318 and hope to achieve £315 thousands, but know the strength of your own property and the competition. I’d go with an open Day too.

When you look at price bands on Rightmove, remember that many of those houses will be overpriced and not selling. Obviously you'd look at 'sold' prices as well.

FTBs are notoriously cautious and often don't understand that it's normal (in some areas and markets only) to offer up to 10% below asking price. They are therefore likely to limit their search to what they can afford.