Time to lower the price??

[LavenderLxx]

My late fathers house has been on the market since the end of July for £800,000.
It has had quite a lot of viewings. One offer of £760,000 which we accepted but it fell through. Another offer of £720,000 which we rejected and then a recent offer of £750,000 but the buyers haven’t yet sold their house.

We haven’t had any viewings for the past 2 weeks and are wondering what to do next? Sit tight for a bit longer? Lower the price? We’re in no mad rush to sell but would prefer it to be relatively soon!

worth keeping the £750 offer on the table?

Depends on the market in your area and recent sold prices etc. I’d take advice from the EA though be aware if they are on a percentage of the sale for fees.
You could ask them to only book viewers who are proceedable to avoid disappointment.

This is what I'd be doing.

Yes I’d do this too. They might sell tomorrow. Or you could use it as leverage to get someone to increase their offer if you got another offer.

Getting an offer of £760k and then £750k suggests your asking price is about in the right ballpark. I wouldn’t reduce it much just yet, but maybe if it started with a 7 it might have a psychological impact on some buyers.

Yes we’ve told them to come back to us when they’ve sold their property

We’ve got a fixed fee with them

The family who put in the offer of £750k have also lowered the price on their house in a hope to sell quickly so we’re keeping our fingers crossed!

This. It took our buyers 3 months to sell after they made their offer. We continued with viewings but they bought the house. So pleased because they loved it from the get go

The % of sales fees is a bit of a red herring anyway.

If an EA sells a 750k house on 1% they get 7500 if it sells. and 7000 if it sells for 700k. It would be unusual for an ea to aggressively chase after the extra 500 unless they were confident that the market was buoyant in that area and there were plenty of prospects. They make the bulk of their money on the volume of properties sold not on relatively small increases/decreases in the sale price. They do get some advertising boasting rights if they achieve sale price though, which you will see on the lit they put through the doors to drum up new business.

If your house has been on the market since the end of July you can pretty much take it that most of the interested parties in the area have seen it and decided it is not for them for whatever reason. So the hope is either a) a new entrant or b) there are people out there waiting for discount.

I would keep the ones who are interested at £750k on the table - but continue to actively pursue a sale -
that said if you’re in no rush, then I would wait until they’ve sold. Depends how fast the market is moving in their area and if they’re willing to sell it even cheaper to get it sold…

It's' a very slow market at the moment with a lack of confidence at this price point. You haven't had it for sale long either. Any buyer is going to make offers at the moment because they have the 'power'. No need to sell for less that you want, and you aren't in a rush so sit tight. Or take off and put back on after the budget when people know what's happening.

I would:

a) accept £750k offer in the basis that they sell theirs within 4 weeks (will push them to price right and get theirs under offer).

b) hold tight on price, it’s clearly priced right hence the close offers in today’s market. It’s a very tough market, it’s just a waiting game. Lowering the price won’t magic up interest, only those who would to pay £700k for a £750k + house.

I think it was you that had the thread a couple of months ago about your brother not wanting to accept an offer at 750k and, then by the time you agreed, the buyers moved on. It's good that he seems more willing to accept reasonable offers now!
Unfortunately, the offer you have now isn't a real offer until they are proceed able. Perhaps they will sell soon if they have just reduced their asking price.

I guess whether you reduce the price depends on how well the market is moving where you are, how optimistic you are that things will improve after the budget and announcement of tax increases/changes and how keen you are to get it sold.

If you'd take 750 then you could lower your price to 750 and see if anyone else more proceedable offers that. The one whose offered though still has to sell so it might depend on what they eventually get for theirs- lots of people who make offers and haven't sold are offering a bit higher compared to people who have sold, as they're optimistic price wise on their own sale.

This thread popped up at the bottom of a current one and I wondered what you decided to do in the end. I hope you got a proceedable offer in the end and have been able to make some progress.

The couple who offered £750k eventually sold their house so we were able to proceed with them at the raised price of £760k. We aim to complete in the new year

That’s good news @LavenderLxx cross fingers you are able to exchange & complete shortly into 2026.