Anyone put house on market to see if they could sell it at dream price?

[Namehelpplease]

I have dreams of moving to a gorgeous village about 15 mins away. We bought our current (suburban) house for £200,000 at auction as it had been repossessed. 'On paper' it's worth £250,000 - has sold for that twice before and mortgage company valued it at that as a result.

Anyway...realistically for a sale in the current market I reckon we'd get the £200,000 we paid. There are a few houses around here trying their luck at the £250,000 mark but I assume that's because what their mortgage is for.

We're in no real rush to sell at all. I'm off on mat leave for a year and we have the small issue of having our second baby! However DS is coming up 2 and I want to be moved by the time he starts school. When is that by the way?! Lovely schools around here - so again no urgency but would like him to be settled and not uprooted.

So...I was thinking of ringing an agents and asking them to send out our details to those interested in our area/house style. But what I don't want is a 'big' push of it on RM etc as I don't want to feel like it's languishing on the market if that makes sense (at the £250,000 all probability is that it probably will do).

Has that made sense at all?!

What are the sold prices that have recently been achieved in your local area of similar houses - as I think that will give you your answer. If no one has sold close to the extra 50k you are hoping for, then I don't think you have much of a chance - especially as you say there are other houses "trying their luck" at a higher price that aren't being snapped up.
Sorry if that's not what you want to hear though

If you look at Zoopla or Mouse Price you can see recent sales in your area and see what they actually sold for rather than the asking price.

I think it would be very hard for an Estate Agent to try and get you a top price for your property if you are only allowing them to market it half heartedly. To get you an inflated price they would need to be pulling out all the stops for you, especially in this difficult market, and it sounds like that is not what you want.

If I were you I would wait until I was committed to moving and then throw myself into it fully.

At the end of the day, the estate agent only gets his commission if the property sells so if you're not committed to moving and the estate agent knows this, he's unlikely to push it. I think a £50k difference on a £200k property - you're talking about a 25% uplift, is unrealistic in this market.

I think too that unnless you have a very tidy 2 year old (having sold our previous house with toddlers) you don't really want to have to have the house in a viewing-ready state for a prolonged period of time!! Better to be ready to sell, put it on at a realistic price, get the EA to push it and get viewings over the space of a couple of weeks (ideally) before it sells.

Re school admissions - you have to be apply at the start of the school year before he is due to start (so depending on area, it could be as early as the October before he would start the following September - here its January of the year they start in September).

I think you're all right actually - yes best to wait and then go full throttle when we really decide to go for it. Thank you!