How much to reduce our listing?

[Potaytoe5]

Only had 1 viewing in 3 weeks since we went live, so we decided we might as well drop the price already (annoyingly enough they loved our house, just went with one nearer train station!).
It's quite reasonably priced against other similar houses, but they all seem to be hanging around at the moment.
EA said there's not a lot of buyers and a lot of people told them they can't afford to buy anymore.
Would it be enough to drop it from £215k to £210k to start with, with a view of going to £200k if we still get no viewings?
I don't want to shoot myself in the foot and reduce to much too early. EA said it might be worth going for the lowest we are willing to sell for at the moment, but I am not sure how low we are willing to go really.
House is a standard 3 bed semi, renovated, nothing really 'wrong' with it, so that's not the problem. Nice area, houses usually sell quickly.

Reduce to 200 at the 4 week mark. Do not wait any longer. By 3rd August we will see another BoE rate rise and even if most borrowers have already factored that in, a lot of buyers won't realise that and it will put them off even further.

Buying doing a massive cull quickly it shows you are a motivated seller, but it should also bring you a higher pool of buyers cos who doesn't love a discount? A slow bleed of dropping 5k once a month usually signals the buyer is desperate or the agent has overpriced and it is to be avoided, but in this market it's becoming more and more common. I am tending to perceive those with slow bleed drops as being those least likely to take offers/unable to afford to do so/fixed on what they think the house is worth versus the reality of our economy.

So, drop a lot and soon to get interest. Remember you don't have to accept any offers, but I hope it will bring you a choice of buyers.

A house I was interested in just dropped 15k overnight so now we are looking at viewing. They are listening to their EA.

Sorry this is happening - it's such a bad time to be selling. In terms of your question, the blunt answer is that reducing by around 2% is not likely to do much. Anyone interested at close to 210 would have looked round at 215. It won't get you in any new brackets. Having said that, it's big enough to get you re-promoted through rightmove alerts.

The EA knows the markets well, and with lots of properties on the market, and you not having even received a cheeky offer, there's not much to suggest anyone would be interested at 210 either.

You say you aren't sure how you'll go - tbh, at this awful time for selling, it's probably a case of working out how much you need/want to sell.

I doubt a 2% price change is what prevent people booking a viewing. Having one viewing in 3 weeks means you are substantially overpriced (10-15%+), you need to check the price of houses that went under offer nearby recently and probably chop another 5-10% since the sellers of those would have been likely to discount the original asking and the market as moved down further since.

Imagine the above with better after-coffee English!

A lot of lenders have already priced in a BoE rise on 3rd August but a lot of buyers, esp FTBs will not know that and will be scared off anyway.

I never had a single broker from five tell me this, had to find out via other means. Plus you just get a bunch of scare stories in the press which will be putting off a LOT of people.

They still seem to be offering better rates to FTBs than others, fwiw. We can still get 5.8 (even with 95% LTV) when the stories for remortgaging seem to quote 6.5% plus, but nobody except the trade press ever seems to report on this.

Buyers perception of the market is important, so get ahead of it.

The housing market always goes quiet during july/august as so many people go away on holiday - including solicitors and estate agents as well as buyers and sellers.

Similar houses went for the same price, but it was just before the rate increase! My main worry is if we drop to £200k too quickly we won't be able to drop it any lower and will have to take it off the market.
NDN got the other part of our semi (very similar) for £230... but... it was last summer!

This. If you aren't getting people through the door then you aren't going to make a difference with a £5k drop. Borrowing power of buyers is down 20% already and dropping. If you don't need or particularly want to sell, then I completely understand, it's a question of what the house is worth to you. If you need to sell though, then it's likely that you'll have to slash your asking price by something meaningful - this is a game of percent - where a few grand makes no difference. Of course, you might get lucky and get a cash buyer who just had to live on that street because it's next door to their family - but then again, the time you spend waiting for said buyer, then the market will have dropped away from you and you'll have to cut deeper.

I think we'd be ok if we sold for £200k, but not for less. So I am worried it doesn't leave us with much wiggle room.
Also someone else mentioned that summer is slow anyway, so I don't want to get it wrong.
Although probably not a '1 viewing in 3 weeks' slow!

I don’t think we are dealing with a traditional market adhering to traditional timelines. Not convinced those determined to move will be prioritising holidays over finding a affordable home before interest rates will be crippling (if base rate hits 7% by year end, mortgages will be 8.5%). I think inflation is mainly sticky because mortgage free boomers are spending, not 20-40 somethings.

I think you should take advice from your EA re timing of a drop. They will have a sense of how many folk have told them not to list because they want to enjoy the summer, can’t view due to forthcoming holidays, etc.

The usual spring boom didn’t happen this year, from what I can gather. These are not normal times.

I am seeing large numbers of rentals being discounted which has been absolutely unheard of for the last three summers, for example. The last two we had to fight to get our foot in the door. So, if not normal, take advice!

Ok I will be calling the agent and see what they say, with a view of dropping it to 200k. Another similar house came up on the next road for 210 so we will be at least a bit cheaper. We have a slightly bigger extension too.
It's not looking too great though, is it :(

You would be surprised what a few extra sq ft will do, folks will look at the 210k and consider it overpriced if you go to 200 and you will see far more people through your door.

Good luck. Come back and give us an update some time?

Thank you all for your advice, it makes sense.
Our listing is getting updated today with the new price of £200k.

I will update you if we get any more viewings. If we don't we will just pull out and try next year D:

Ok... it is done.
I'm actually feeling very nervous about it! It's a drop of 7%.
I hope it doesn't make us look desperate. DH was (is!) very reluctant to agree to do it.
We are the best looking house for that price by far now, at least.

Good luck @Potaytoe5
The other posters are correct that tiny drops of 2% are a waste of time and then you will need to make multiple drops and end up looking desperate.
Hopefully, the drop at the same time as another nearby house has come on at a higher price will work in your favour.
I just wanted to pick up on what you said about trying next year if you don't get offers. Next year will be worse, probably much worse. If you need to sell, do it now and negotiate on your forward purchase.

@rainingsnoring
I just wanted to pick up on what you said about trying next year if you don't get offers. Next year will be worse, probably much worse. If you need to sell, do it now and negotiate on your forward purchase.

Great, so it is a now or never situation 😩! I don't think we can afford to drop any lower than that so it is what it is.
Funnily enough all the houses I've been eyeing up are stubbornly NOT reducing.
I am looking at £300k-£340 range.
Several houses in our preferred location have been hanging on at £370 since January, where I reckon we'd pay about £335 for them....

I'd pull out now tbh. Market is in turmoil and even with you dropping the price and potentially finding buyers there is no guarantee you can easily get your next purchase at lower price..
There are few things my DH and I dont like about the house we are in. We wanted to try and sell this year and move to a similarly priced house in the 15 miles radius. But with the market as it is we decided to wait till next year or even year after next.

@Onegingerhead We don't want to wait too long as DC1 started school this year, don't want to end up moving her when she's in year 3 or so, and DC2 due to start school.
House is already too small for working from home and kids. Many people suggested garden offices or extensions, but they are expensive for not much value added to the house, so not worth it.
We will go that route if selling and buying doesn't work out.

Just hang on a minute before you go slashing the price!

Is the house presented well? Does it need work? Is there anything that you can do to improve the appearance? Do you feel it's overpriced? Is there an obvious flaw etc etc etc

It's not for everybody but I posted my Rightmove link on here with a name change a few years ago, made a couple of tweaks and sold x4 days later. You could do the same or PM me the link and I'll happily take a look. It sometimes is the price, but not always!

The only obvious flaw is our driveway, but I am not willing to be spending money on that!
All houses around are about £210.
I think it's about right, we marketed as 'over £200k', meaning we won't take cheeky offers of £190k. I think it is more reasonable.
Photos were nice. I think it was the price in our case, unfortunately.
It could be a different story if there weren't two similar houses selling at similar price point, both next road!

I think you are implying that the more expensive houses are not selling either. At some point, some of the sellers will reduce or be prepared to take a low offer. Affordability is very squeezed, people's purchasing power has fallen dramatically and sentiment has turned. Sellers need to get real.
I guess the advantage of waiting might be that the penny may have dropped by next year and you may be able to negotiate more off your onward purchase. Equally, you will need to accept more of yours. Also, you need to be as sure as you can be that your jobs are secure.

Funnily enough all the houses I've been eyeing up are stubbornly NOT reducing.
I am looking at £300k-£340 range.

Yup. Exactly my experience. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Been looking for 3 months and it's a very definite pattern. Boomers with no mortgage or folks with so much equity that they don't care.

It's gonna take a while for them to accept the new reality. Very few people are upsizing into the 300-400k bracket and many are downsizing.

I've started looking at these brackets in minute detail to figure out if a would-be retiree is living there or someone who clearly has young kids and needs to downsize for affordability; the latter is far more likely to be motivated to sell than the former. Every house I've had on my list that hasn't been reduced and I've also viewed has been owned by couples over the age of 60.

It's a different market unfortunately, mortgage rates a lot higher now.

I would think about listing it at offers in excess of 200k. That should excite some new interest and you have made it clear that you won't accept under 200k though some people may still try to make lower offers. It's a big enough reduction that it will be noticed.

It may not be so much that "boomers" don't accept the new reality but more like they don't NEED to move so will only do so if they get a good price. They can afford to wait it out even if it takes a year or more. Though they will probably take their house off the market eventually as will get bored of listing it.
They are speculative sellers and won't sell unless someone loves their house enough to pay a good price for it which most Buyers are reluctant to do right now.

A bit from column a, a bit from column b I suspect.

One of the 70 plus yo folks we viewed had theirs on the market from September, we viewed in May. 330k asking, not a single price drop.

Turns out their kids are trying to convince them to move closer to them. I don't really think their heart was in it. I think it being listed was paying lip service to them. But eventually they'll do it.

Another 70 plus couple literally offered to move into a caravan to facilitate a house sale. And their house was very fancy and very expensive; I think they must have seen what was just around the corner. Their house sold a week after we viewed it, within a fortnight, asking price 375k.

The problem with waiting it out at year or more is that they WILL have to take a substantially reduced price. So. I wonder when reality will hit in?

There's probably also a distinct lack of good quality bungalows/suitable retirement appropriate homes around, too. Certainly, everything I've looked at needs 50k of work or is overpriced (but bungalows often are).

So, that could be a fly in the ointment too. They also don't want to overpay, because it's the kid's inheritance, pension money, etc.

Interesting. If that is the case, I guess they are deluding themselves into thinking that they will receive their preferred price if they wait and haven't grasped that the market is falling away fast.
I have a sensible, perfectly intelligent relative in her 70s who wants to sell her property to move nearer to her adult children. She had a sale fall through a while back and now has no interest. She understands that this is because rates have risen but doesn't seem to understand that she therefore needs to reduce the asking price in order to sell, move to her preferred area and get on with her life. She is finding the whole thing really stressful and upsetting which it is, of course, but the penny hasn't dropped about what she needs to do in order to move.