Reduce asking price now or relist in the new year?

[mrstobe123]

Our property has been on the market since spring, and we’ve had a fair bit of interest. We’ve even had one viewer who wants to put an offer in once they’re proceedable, but with the market being so awful at the moment, who knows when that will be. We’ve been advised to reduce the asking price, and this is where I’m stuck on what to do next. We’re happy to reduce and have been advised to drop it by £5k, but we don’t really want the property online over Christmas, so we could always ‘rest’ it then.
Do you think it’s worth reducing the price now to try and attract more interest over October/November, or would it be better to leave it as it is, take it off the market over Christmas and then relist in the new year at a lower price?

I think the risk is it will be worse in the New year and you would have to list at a lower price. Better to bite the bullet now if you really have to move.

Reduce now. This is a good push for agents to get buyers in for christmas

Probably best to reduce it now but I don't think reducing by 5k is to help you unless the overall value is far below the average UK price. The usual recommendation for reductions is around 5% of the asking price. How keen are you to move and are you up or down sizing?

reduce now and just leave it on the market imo. Being on or off the market around Christmas will not put off potential buyers I don’t think.
many places have been on for a long time now, the market has ground to a halt judging by how many I’m seeing sat there not moving, so I don’t think there’s much to gain by taking it off and on again.

I think keep it on the market and reduce. I have family members who have had offers and then made offers in December. I think there are less houses on the market which can mean less competition which can work to your advantage.

Where we live the properties that have been on the market for months are often reduced by 5%, sometimes they have to reduce twice to sell.
The ones that have been relisted this September for the same price after lack of offers in Winter/Spring, still had to reduce few weeks later because affordability (mortgage rates, stamp duty) hasn’t improved since the beginning of the year.
So they didn’t gain anything waiting.
But you never know what this government is up to.

We’re happy to reduce and have been advised to drop it by £5k

Who has advised you to reduce by £5,000? What % reduction is it on your current asking price?

We knew our house had been overpriced by our previous agents so we got 2 further valuations and went with the middle price plus we took the opportunity to change agents. Our current EA is doing their best, we get regular contact from them but we still don't have a buyer.

in short, £5K is unlikely to make any difference.

But overall maybe you’d better test your new price now and try to secure committed buyers.
Also when buyers see adequate price reduction they realise you are serious about selling.
I’m including examples of how properties with lack of offers are reduced in our area, where market is pretty much alive.

Thank you all! The suggestion has come from the EA and it’s just under 2% of the asking price. We’re already selling the flat at a loss, so we don’t have loads of wiggle room but we’ve accepted that this is the market we’re in!
The reason I was thinking of taking it off over Christmas is because I think I’d find the thought of having people viewing the house with all the decorations up quite stressful as it could make the property look cramped! But then I wondered whether there would actually be many viewings over Christmas anyway as it’s such a busy time of year for everyone?

It occurred to me after I posted that maybe your EAs suggestion of £5,000 reduction is to take it into a different price bracket on RightMove, thereby it appears on purchasers' search criteria who would otherwise miss your property - could that be the reason do you think?

other things to bear in mind:

• your agent needs to tell you whether your reduction will lead to your property being visible to a new previously unseen category of purchasers. If they can't identify a significant new buyer pool, then a reduction may simply mean accepting less money without materially increasing your chances of selling. That's a much stronger test than asking whether a lower price might help in principle.

• if you take it off RightMove in say mid-November, you'd be able to relaunch it as a new listing in around mid-Feb (14 weeks). If you also combined that with the price reduction of £5,000 if that is of strategic advantage, it could jump start your selling opportunity.

• take a fresh look at your photos. if you don't like them, that would be the time to change and update the photos and potentially the thumbnail photo that people see first. We changed ours to a much better photo as the previous one with our former EA was really letting it down,

Im quite cynical about some buyers motivations. People coming round at Christmas may not be serious buyers, they might just want to browse in between Christmas and NY for something to do. The problem is that you could be on tenterhooks the entire holiday and left with the burden of getting the house presentable at a time of year when tidiness goes out the window!

Unfortunately, I think a reduction of less than 2% is likely pointless. The potential buyers could easily have offered 5 or 10% your asking price if they wanted to so 2% probably won't help. Is there a minimum price that you can accept in order to move?

I think that whatever you decide to do proactively I'd wait until after the budget at the end of October. I think that the slow market is slowing down even more over worries about affordability.
IMO one of the problems with reducing a price rather than say waiting for a lower offer, is that buyers aren't happy to see a property where the price has risen for seemingly no reason. So if things looked to be on a more positive footing after Christmas and you'd taken the property off the market in between then you're not likely to be able to 'easily' market it for it's current price.
Just my way of looking at it. You've a non-proceedable offer, so you're sort of in the right price area, is 5k off going to make a big difference? I'd wait, if someone wants to pay 5k less they'll offer it anyway?

5k won"t touch the sides, use a price app like PropertyLog and you will see that 25k, 50k etc. reductions are more normal now.

I think it used to be that Christmas day was the biggest day for RM online views?

It's fine if people want to browse RM on Christmas Day, it's a different matter wanting to do a viewing on a day when the relys are staying for the week and it's utter pandemonium! 😂

True, but many people work on these days as well, the idea of things basically shutting down for two weeks is gone, that was 1970"s, taking the house of the market and hoping that something Magical happens in the Spring is not real world thinking, there hasn"t been a "Spring Bounce" for literally YEARS yet people on forums keep going on about it as if it is an actual real thing that will sell your house! Price sells it, nothing much else.

Flats are hard to sell now and can't see this improving so reducing it down in price as much as you can if you really want to get moved. So reduce and leave it online and you can always say a viewing is not available if it clashes around Xmas.

Good advice, get the price right down and just tell the EA what days/times don"t work, but don"t be too unavailable, there are not many buyers around now!