Drop the price now or new year?

[wereonthemarket]

We put our house on the market 3 weeks ago. No viewings.

Our aim was to move in the next 2 years when we can realise a certain amount.

Obviously the market is slow and people are uncertain with mortgages/inflation etc but I think we must be over priced to have had no viewings.

We'd planned to drop the price in January if we got no interest but are now toying with dropping it now.

Valued at £675-700. Currently on the market at £695. The minimum we will accept is £650 (we won't sell for less than this in the next 2 years - we will just wait and reevaluate then). So we could go £675 now then offers over £650 in January. Or we could wait til January as planned. Thoughts?

Only you know your area. Do you think it is overpriced?

By January you will have been on the market 16 weeks, which is too long. i would set myself a date after which you'll take it off the market, and relaunch after Christmas, preferably with new photos.

No viewings at all probably signifies that it's overpriced. Prices are sliding downwards in most areas and I think there is always less activity in the housing market as autumn and winter come around anyway.

So i would say try your luck at the lower price ( and make sure the photos and description are the best they can be). There is little point in waiting until January if you're getting no interest at all.

I’d drop now, probably around the £665 mark. When we were looking for a house there were a couple of properties that trickled the price down by £10k every month or so. It made them really unappealing.

I imagine it was valued by the agent to win the business. I would say a fair price is £575k-600k x

Have you seen any property that you would like to buy that seems a good price, if so then after checking out your competition etc you could consider dropping your price.

Also what feedback has your estate agent given you.

January is way too long, if it's been on that long, people will think that there's 'something wrong with it.' I'd price it realistically now and get on with selling.

If £650 is your cut off point - can’t comment on whether that’s realistic or not - then put it on at offers over £650 now. I very much doubt the market will pick up in January and a £20k drop to £675 is 1.35% which is not going to make any difference in getting buyers through the door.
At least then you will know if your £650 target is even achievable and can plan accordingly.

Thanks everyone.

The estate agent feedback after 2 weeks when I asked was that it needed more time. They haven't been in touch since then and nor have I.

Our cut off is definitely £650 and we haven't viewed any houses as we aren't in a proceedable position. I've enquired about a couple and agents have said come back to them once ours is under offer.

What are you basing this "fair" price on?

It's possible the agents overvalued it to get your business? EAs are notorious for this, even though it means they will wait longer for their commission /they risk you swapping to a different agent.

I would put it on at 'offers over £650k' (if that is your bottom line), hopefully this will create a flurry of interest, maybe even competing buyers. Whereas if you leave it until January before dropping then potential viewers will be bored with seeing your house details, plus the market in general will probably have declined by then anyway.

Offers over is a bit irrelvent. We bought our first place for 9% under the "offers over" price.

As for my post about 575-600, this is based on the market down around 15% x

Drop now if you are keen to sell. No viewings in the first few weeks shows it is overpriced. Feel free to share a RM link if you need other comments/ suggestions :)

An astonishingly unique ability to give a price for a property despite not knowing:

• Where it is
• How big it is
• How much work it needs
• What similar recent properties have sold for
• What the plot size is

Quite incredible really!

It is based on the fact that:

1. the agent over valued to get the custom
2. Agent probably has tied the vendor in for a long time
3. Vendor has had zero interest
4. Its common knowledge that the market is already down 15-20% since the peak
5. 15% is a good reduction to start to generate competition

Unfortunatley, I think the OP thinks they deserve the £650k

They will be disappointed.

I m glad DH used his bonuses for the last two years to clear our motgage, as we agreed the property is down around 300k from the peak already x

Just a note of caution: before dropping the price, check there's nothing wrong with the way it shows up on Rightmove, e.g. the location pin being inaccurate and it not coming up when people use your town as a search term. Do a search yourself using search terms that ought to deliver it in the results but without using such wide parameters that normal searchers would never use them. Maybe mix it up a bit to see if there are any anomalies, e.g. do you need to use +3 miles to see your house when +1 ought to be adequate, etc. It's not unknown for this to be the reason for a lack of interest (speaking from experience).

Tbh it sounds like you’re in no immediate rush to move so I’d take it off the market and put it on fresh in January. We want to sell in the next few years but we’re quite chill about timescales so plan on putting it on when the market picks up a bit.

Not all of those in your lists are facts. Some are assumptions/guesses.

Frankly, it may only be worth £500k, but there simply isn't enough info for any of us to know. It's impossible to tell very much at all. All we know is that there have been no viewings at the current price, suggesting very strongly that the current price is incredibly unrealistic.

I m glad DH used his bonuses for the last two years to clear our motgage, as we agreed the property is down around 300k from the peak already x

Lucky old you! x

I always found the concept of needing a certain amount confusing. First, the buyer or the market in general does not care about what a particular seller plan to do, but most importantly, don’t forget that your next purchase will also equally be discounted. In effect, you merely pass the discount up the chain, the only person that should care is the last and often most fortunate financially one in the chain.

Indeed, slightly odd.

If you're buying and selling in a similar area in a similar market market conditions will affect both properties.

Unless perhaps a certain amount is needed to clear mortgage.

Aren't you aware of regional variations? Properties certainly haven't dropped 15-20% in every area so it's a bit nonsensical to suggest it without knowing any facts about where @wereonthemarket lives. Even if properties had reduced 15-20% from the peak in OPs local area, the EA would have been aware of that when they did the valuation two weeks ago, wouldn't they?

Take no notice of posts like this @wereonthemarket . The only part I agree with is that it is quite likely your EA valued the property a bit too high to win your business, hence the lack of viewings.

My advice as you are not getting any viewings is to reduce it from 695k to 650k immediately and see if that generates more interest.

Definitely move it offers over 650 now. By January we will have had a load more negative market news... Try to get ahead of the curve if you really want to move.

Even if properties had reduced 15-20% from the peak in OPs local area, the EA would have been aware of that when they did the valuation two weeks ago, wouldn't they?

From 21st Sept (text and download stats slides in the comments)

s

"The fly in the ointment is overvaluing. Estate Agents are still overcooking the suggested asking prices of many new properties coming on the market."

The number of listings last week was 34,280.

Price Reductions: 24,874 price reductions were seen last week, the highest weekly number since June 2018. The 2023 running weekly average is 19,842.

And, additionally:

In the weekly YouTube Show this week, special guest Bryan Mansell and Chris Watkin talk about how the number of UK properties on the market for sale has increased by 88.5% in the last 20 months (343.3k on 1st January '22 to 647.2k on 1st September' 23), yet the number of sales has dropped by 20.1% in the same time frame.

Average Listing Price: The average listing price was significantly higher for the third week to £466,472.

Average Asking Price of Properties Sold STC this Week: The average asking price of the properties selling last week was £341,026.

hmmm if no viewings, then it's overpriced.
what difference would Jan/new year make?
up to you, but the market is depreciating as we speak. ... unemployment has gone up, the globally economy is worse, recession is already happening.

i don't know your area but can most people there afford 650k at current interest rates with an average 20% deposit? affordability is the major factor.. if people can't afford or don't think your property is worth £2k+ in mortgage repayments every month, then yes, it's def overpriced.

whatever you decide to do, just don't waste a buyer's time if you're not motivated sellers. people are looking for homes and don't have time to waste just because you're set on a 650k min that you probs won't achieve looking at the market now and for the years to come.

good luck