Did we price our house too low?

[QueenOfSandcastles]

Went on the market in September. Had three EA valuations at £425k, £440k and £460k. We went with the middle valuation and put it on at £440k. We had a lot of interest, 44 viewings but feedback was mixed and had one low offer of £410k. We held out and had an offer of £435k in November that we accepted.

That fell through as the chain collapsed and we went back on the market in January.

Our EA said to reduce the price to £430k for a quick sale as we were under pressure for our onward purchase (the EA are also selling) but we refused and had an offer within 3 days at £440k but they also lost their buyer. We listed for the third time in March and had an offer of £435k within 48 hours of listing. We haven’t exchanged yet.

Today one of our neighbours have put their house on the market for £480k. The houses are identical in floor plan, they are two down from us. We have a bigger plot with a bigger garden, bigger driveway and garage. Ours is also in considerably better condition as from the look of the photos theirs requires complete renovation.

DH says they are being completely unrealistic and we should be happy ours is finally going through but it’s nagging me we’ve sold for £45k less than they are marketing for. No other houses have sold in our road in the last 10 years so it is hard to know where to price it. He said while we’ve sold quickly now, at the end of last year we were on for 3 months with tons of viewings and no offers.

I’m not really sure what I’m asking as while we could pull out we’d lose our onward purchase but it’s a bit galling to think we’ve severely undervalued it. Could they really have it that wrong with their pricing?

I think it's worth remembering that your agent will want you to get as much as possible for your house from a commission point of view. Why don't you call your agent and tell them that you aren't about to pull out or anything, but you are aware of the asking price on a similar property and it's making you question your sale. See what they say.

Hopefully it will reassure you that your neighbour is just being unrealistic. Your offer history would suggest you priced it accurately.

They haven't sold it at that price. Yours is sold. Anyone offering on there's will be aware of what yours was marketed at and will be putting in offers taking that into account.

You only know what it’s worth when someone hands over the cash. You are in a chain and have a buyer - if it goes through you get your new house.

they have probably priced high and may not get any offers or be dropping the price in a bit. Maybe they don’t want a quick sale and are ambivalent about selling. Anyone serious will look to see how much yours went for before offering anyway.

Your DH is right. The chances of them selling for anywhere near that figure are very slim.

They are probably priced too high and might get more than you depending on demand at the time but it's all a maybe. Would you be willing to pull out to list for more on the chance you MIGHT get more? But what if you don't!

I can list my house for whatever price I like, that isn't the same as someone actually selling for that much. I would focus on what suits your needs now and if happy with the offer before now, focus on that.

Thanks. Our purchase is really stretching us and I can’t help but think what a difference that extra money would make but equally we had over 40 people view it before we got an offer first time round. The fact it sold so quickly subsequently after falling through is possibly luck. Both with the second and third times we listed it we had around 5 viewings within those first few days but both times only the one offer.

Yours will likely go through before your neighbours’. At that point, what yours sold for will be the benchmark buyers judge the value of similar houses in your street/area. So if you do sell now, essentially, your neighbours’ house will definitely look overpriced and they may well struggle to get near asking price. Ultimately, a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and that someone has to be proceedable.

Absolutely there is a house about 8 doors from me that has been on the market for almost 2 years. It's massively overpriced. 2 other houses have been put on the market and sold for about £40k less during this time. Some people just have unrealistic expectations. Don't lose your next house because of holding out when there is not much hope of selling if you overprice your current house.

Decide what price you want/need for your house and sell it for that.

Don't look to other people who may be complete kite flyers for pricing information.

You have more information than them on what the local market is willing to pay from your extensive history on it. After 44 viewings you probably have enough knowledge to pretty much start your own estate agency.

44 views turning into only 2 offers generally implies your house was in some way misrepresented in the advertising/online information.

I disagree that an agent will want you to get as much as possible. The difference in commission for an agent on a £40k difference will be a few hundred pounds. They won't put in a lot of work for that. The difference between you selling and not selling would be thousands.

That's not to say I think they have underpriced. Your house is only worth what someone will actually pay.

You'll drive yourself mad looking at what other houses are trying for when you've just sold. You need to put blinkers on and press on. It's just the nature of the beast that if you need a quick sale you will generally sell for less than someone who is in no hurry and will wait. But in a falling market those that price too high can end up chasing the market down and getting less in the end.
Just focus on the excitement of your move and put other people out of your mind.

is the other house been valued by the same agent. They have have had several agents value it and one of them may have been your agent. Might be worth asking your agent. I think you always feel you sold too low and bought to high!,

I can list my black bag of rubbish for £10,000 on ebay... doesn't make it worth £10,000 though.

Some fancy artist in some big city art gallery might sell a bag of rubbish as an abstract view on consumerism waste or some bollocks for £10,000... still wouldn't make my rubbish worth the same.

Anyone can price something at whatever price they want, it means nothing and even if someone buys a house for x amount it doesn't mean they would buy another house on the same street for that price either.

The house I am buying the next door house was up for sale for 4 months before we bought this one. We looked at it on rightmove and instantly dismissed it. We then bought the neighboring one as soon as it went up.

The one we didn't buy is all open planned, weird layout and depressing grey (and they think that makes it worth more) where as the one we bought is a dated reno. However I view it as we would have to equally renovate both (I can't live in an open plan grey box, its not practical to us) so it being 'modern' over 'dated' meant nothing.

Seemingly everyone else thinks the same as its been on market for 7 month and reduced in price 5 times. Just because we bought the one we bought though does mean we would happily buy next door or that its even worth a similar price.

We did have a huge number of viewings but our agent seemed to bring anyone round and a lot said they were interested but not proceedable themselves. It was very hard to get feedback but there was no one consistent thing to suggest it was misrepresented.

The agent they are on with isn’t one we had value ours.

I guess time will tell!

Agree. It’s much better for agent to sell a house at any price than to have houses hanging on for ages and eventually selling at a higher price.

Having said this, it’s clear that you have had a lot of people round so have tested the market adequately. I slightly wonder why so few offers - time wasters? Agent wanting to look good? Something was off with the marketing process.

Tbh even if the neighbours had accepted an offer 40k higher, the process is so long and fraught with danger of falling through that you wouldn’t be able to use it as a benchmark.