"Go for 'Offers over £150k' to encourage a bidding war"

[TreasuredMim]

Wanting your views on estate agents comments.

Selling a small property in a naice location. Had several agents value between £150k and £190k but agent who seems most professional and seems to sell most houses advises to market at offers over £160k to encourage a bidding war. Despite being in a naice area it's nothing out of the ordinary although there's nothing else local in the price bracket for sale at the moment. Bidding war? Really?

I don't need to move quickly and am not buying again but obviously want as much as possible. Is this good advice from the agent?

What are your thoughts?

Sorry title should say
"Go for 'Offers over £160k' to encourage a bidding war"

It really depends on the market where you live and what $$ amount you want. Have the other agents said the market is volatile which makes the house hard to value as things are often selling above expectations? If you only got $160K in the end would you be happy and able to move on with that?

but obviously want as much as possible. Is this good advice from the agent?*

In which case take the agent's advice - it's presumably what you are paying them for, and they will know the market better than MN randoms. I would imagine that in the current market, if there is enough demand, you will get lots of offers anyway, and then you can choose.

(A house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it - near us, there is a new build 5 bed 'exec' home that went on the market for £1.8m. I snorted when I saw the price because I thought no-one is mad enough to pay that money for it. It is adjacent to a rock face cliff, always in darkness and although it appears to be a quiet country road, it is actually on a busy rat run. It does have beautiful interiors and is well designed but it has an absolutely tiny garden, and is literally right next door to another 'exec' home, which is owned by the builder. It has just gone under offer - I suspect a London buyer has been invited to view at a weekend at midday in the sun, when it's relatively very, very quiet and it doesn't look too dark. So, sorry, that essay was to point out that despite being a former chartered surveyor, I obviously don't know as much about house buyers as I thought!)

I personally wouldn't but there are many that do.

When we bought our house we offered 5K over asking and made it clear we wouldn't get involved in a bidding war (others had offered asking).

House buying is stressful enough and the highest bidder won't necessarily see it through anyway.

Settle on a price you'd be happy to accept, too low and you may have people viewing where their top budget is 150K... what's the point?

The reason I have done this when selling a house is because it generally puts off time wasters who try to offer 10% or more under the asking price. Even when the house is very reasonably priced.

It totally depends on your local market, which I would expect any decent agent to be familiar with. After all, you're paying them for their advice.
Offers over would be absolutely standard in Scotland, unless it was a new build. Most fixed price properties have been hanging about the market for a while, or the sellers are in a hurry, or there's something that will make the property difficult to sell...

Depending on the market where you are it could work well. A colleague just paid £70k above asking for a house on at £170k after a bidding war so it can work well.

In their instance two buyers desperately wanted to be in that culdesac for family.

Yes just talk to people that really want it. I agree with ea. 👍🏼

Lemonlemon88 Agents aren't mentioning the local market is volatile just that there is little available.

I wouldn't be happy with £160k, would obviously prefer more, much more if possible, but unclear what the interest will be and EA can't truly predict.

But agree it's probably wise to take advise of EA as that's what I'm paying them for.