AIBU to expect estate agents to not overprice every house they market

[Lucylou70]

Just that really. I live in Suffolk, but near Essex so a commuter area.there is one estate agent that seem to overprice each house on their books but a minimum of £100,000. How do they get away with it? They barely seem to sell any houses.

YANBU, there is a house for sale near us which is the same as ours on for significantly more than its worth. It also looks like a repossession as there is no furniture in it so if they want a quick sale they have no chance! The estate agents don't work on behalf of the sellers or the buyers, they are only interested in their commission.

Yanbu. I am buying a house ATM and the solicitor down valued it by £10,000!

It makes me so mad. They are just do greedy. If they were to price reasonably they would sell easily as it is a nice area.

Yanbu but really you should be ranting about the vendors of these overpriced houses. They are the ones being greedy.

Well I think they must just be misinformed. But yes you wonder at what point they question whether the price is the problem. I think they hope a wealthy family from the city are going to cone along and pay over the odds.

It probably isn't Fine & Cunty that you're talking about. But that has been my experience of them in commuter belt of the Essex, Hertfordshire & cambridgeshire borders.

But I do agree with minty. I think it's largely an issue with vendors who are not realistic.

i think it's quite common - certainly i've experienced it. it's to their advantage if house prices in the area they cover go up. often when a house is marketed at more than one agent it's the same (overpriced) price too.

i must say i'm guilty of this - when we sold our last house we thought the agent over valued it, but then thought if they think they can get them, let them.

bottom line is people aren't going to pay more for your house than they're prepared to.

you can always make a cheeky offer.

'they can get them' i meant 'get it'

Agree. It's totally frustrating. You always have to knock a good chunk off any asking price, and you know that the vendors of half the houses you're viewing won't want to do that, so everybody's time gets wasted. Then you usually find that the ones who wouldn't reduce have taken the house off the market about a month later.

I do blame the agents for not being realistic. But then they are competing for business from fewer vendors than a few years ago, so I suppose I can understand why they are reluctant to price low.

We have found somewhere recently. Not with said e a. Could you even entertain the idea of offering say 100k of the ridiculous asking price though?

Our criteria of villages we wanted to live in was quite narrow. And property in those villages rarely came up in our price bracket. I watched one property that was above budget for nearly a year. Over 150k was knocked off the original asking price when we eventually made an offer at an extra 50k off. It was accepted. My point is, you never know unless you make an offer.

Well, it depends what the asking price is and what comparable properties have sold for recently.

If it is a £950,000 house then offering £850,000 doesn't seem too cheeky.

But I don't suppose anyone marketing a house at much below those sort of prices would even begin to entertain the thought of accepting £100,000 less.

agree mintyy.

i reckon 10 - 15% below is acceptable.

Comparable houses have sold for nearly 100k less and that's way more than 10% of the asking price. I don't understand how they can run a business that way.

Why don't you ring the Estate Agent and see if you can get them to explain to you why their house is on the market for £100,000 more than a comparable? It would be interesting to hear.

But also vendors have to be reasonable. I have a friend who tried to sell their property last year with no luck (they even reduced the price twice). They asked an estate agent to evaluate it again, but couldn't believe it when the EA valued it at the lower price of last year. So they aren't going to put it on the market gain yet as they want more for the property!

An interesting discussion on property prices versus values and some sound suggestions.
Sadly many agents do over 'value' to gain business causing much misery to many. However, if property sellers and buyers do their research beforehand, you can spot these jokers.
Sites such as Nethouseprices.com Zoopla and mouseprice, allow you to search comparable properties and their selling prices. This allows you to spot wildly over-enthusiastic / disreputable agents or, where the owner is being totally unrealistic.
A good agent with a good reputation will always guide sellers to a sensible (and occasionally optimistic) likely selling price... (You never know).
If you are looking at a property that seems wildly overpriced, chances are that it is. Do your research and present it to the agent and see what they say; there may be a good reason why it's on for more than your Comparables or, they may be delighted to finally have a serious, interested buyer.
Good luck ;)

It's because vendors tend to instruct the agent who tells them their house is worth the most.

Very often but, the smarter home-owners don't ;)

Ha I think i know who you are referring to. They have a bad reputation with the locals who know the property market well.

agents only get paid when a house sells. If they overvalue and 'barely sell any houses' then they are getting very little money and will go out of business.

Sadly, like the banks, these agents know that few people will change agents once they have signed up or, sign their customers up for very long contract period. They know that, eventually, the owner will be forced to drop the price and will then sell. The agent gets paid for delivering poor advice and a poor service.

And top commission because they promised the higher price in comparison to other EA.

YANBU. There is an agent near me that over values everything. I know before I click on the link on Rightmove thinking 'hmm, they won't get that' who the agent will be.

Very annoying.