House Price dilemma - WWYD?

[puffylovett]

So - we are selling our house, we need more space now DC2 is due any day. I had the house valued by 3 agents, 2 from 1 area, 1 from another. Valuations came in at 149, 139 and 129. The 129 was from the agent who is based in an area whereby our area is viewed as a bit of a step down, rather than a desirable area (if that makes sense !)

Anyway, my gut instinct was to go for the 139k valuation with a view to acheiving 135, which is based on practically daily monitoring of the house market around here. Our agents think we should try it on at 144k, based on a house they sold just down the road of the same style, with a slightly different plot and slightly different views. This is also based on 2 doors down just going on the market at 149k, but they have a bigger back garden (ours is more of a patio) and have extended to provide a seperate kitchen where ours has a lounge and kitchen diner.

The problem is my DC agrees with the agents that we should try for a higher price. My gut says dont - we're too highly priced compared to the competition, we will make 2 doors down look more competitive and I don't want us languishing on the market for months.

WWYD ?

135 seems quite close to 139 to me. We went on for 165 and we settled at 157. I think you'd be better going on at 144 - cheaper than the house down the road and with room for negotiation. If you don't get enough interest in the first couple of weeks then look at reducing the figure a bit.

144 seems a reasonable asking price even if you will take 135, I would double-check the agent's terms though as round here the agent that generally values higher has a 12 week tie-in and higher fee whereas others have an 8-week tie-in and more reasonable percentage ... so even if going for the 144 price it might be better not to do that with the agent who suggested it.

what do you need and how soon do you need it.?

I would go for the 139. People who are keen to move to the area will be monitoring the prices too and will know what the going rates are.

If I see something competively priced I would be ok with paying the full asking price but if I see a high asking price I would negotiate hard and I would be wary of the vendors as I would think they are greedy or easily led by agents and I would be worried that they would be difficult to deal with whilst waiting to exchange.

Also, bear in mind what agent you use, there are 2 round here that I know value 10kish above the other agents and would make offers accordingly.

When we put our house up for sale 8 years ago and were carried away with the EA's price for sale amount. Looking back, it was priced way too high and we were lucky not to loose the house we now have, (took months to sell) and it eventually sold for £23,000 less than the original price and was actually our first and only offer.

moomaa is everyone so well informed? There are often posts on here about what you should start by offering, almost regardless.

One thing I would definitely do is perform a quick study into which local agent actually seems to sell the most houses.

The two higher valued agents are the ones that sell the most in this area. I see what you mean about having more negotiating room though - if we're on at a higher price, there's more room for maneuvour [sp - sorry !)

I guess I'm just worried that people will compare our properties and view ours as being overpriced - and that will put any viewers off.

The EA says if we need to look at dropping the price, we should wait till after Xmas. I nearly fell over at that, as I'd hoped we MIGHT be lucky enough to have a buyer by then !

Herhonesty = we need as much as we can get as we're moving to a more expensive area, timescales - well as soon as poss ! I don't fancy showing viewers round a 2 bed semi with baby clutter everywhere .

Besides, I've made my mind up now, so I WANT it and i WANT IT NOW !!

I definitely wouldn't go with the agent who doesn't think he'll be able to sell it before christmas

We sold our house with baby in it, and had first offer within 24 hours of it going on the market. Selling before christmas shouldn't be over optimistic

I think it depends where you are, though - up here, there are properties that have been on the market for 2 years without selling. In fact I think only 1 house has sold in the last year, then we've had a bit of sudden movement over the last few months and 3 have sold all of a sudden.

We're in a rural village area of staffordshire / cheshire border - lovely place to live, but not the place for making money on the property market ! And the area that we're moving to (hopefully) has had the same issues - desirable properties sat on the market for a while that are only just now starting to move.

This EA has 8 weeks, then I'm changing though. Oh to be back in London again !