To reduce or not to reduce?

We will always try and achieve the best possible price for vendors and be optimistic when pricing properties, but the individual nature of the houses in Leigh on Sea can make valuing properties accurately extremely difficult and as the old adage goes ‘a property is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it’.

If a property has been on the market in Leigh for a month or so most good agents will be questioning why and seeing what can be done do drum up more interest and secure a buyer. It might well be that the price is too high and needs adjusting, but it could also be something much simpler that doesn’t cost any money. Maybe the details need updating? Just rotating photos or taking new photos on a nice sunny day might just make the property stand out to somebody and pop up in their search or even putting a for sale board up if there isn’t one already there could be a useful tool to ensure that it stands out and gets noticed ad has it been advertised recently?

Putting property photos in the newspaper seems outdated now but it only takes one person to notice it and show an interest and you could snag that elusive purchaser. If however, together with your agent, you do decide to reduce the price then make sure it has an impact and you should achieve the desired affect. If your house is on the market for £700,000 for instance, dropping the price by £2,000, £3,000 or even £5,000 is not going to cut it. It is more than likely still going to be seen by the same people that saw it at £700,000. If however, you drop it by £25,000 then it should be seen by people looking in different price categories and should have the desired affect of being seen by a new prospective purchaser.

As estate agents though we do not take this decision or recommend this course of action lightly and fully appreciate then enormous sums of money we are talking about. Our aim is the same as yours; to sell the house as easily and at the best price possible and at the end of the day the market decides what it will eventually sell for. This, then brings me on to my next point.

Should you reduce the price at all?

Working in Leigh on Sea for as long as I have and doing these blogs I have always tried to be positive about the local market conditions but at the same time be honest and at this time the only way I can describe the market is WEIRD? You may well have noticed properties that I have sold recently that have been on the market for just a few hours. These have been over the full spectrum of prices and types of properties and have included flats in Southend for under £200,000, small houses in Leigh for £400,000, Marine estate semi detached houses at £900,000 and large detached houses for well over £1,000,000. But, for all the properties I have sold this week there are plenty of others that I thought would have flown out of the door that are struggling. 1 bedroom conversion flats in Leigh, 2 bedroom fisherman’s cottages, 3 bedroom semi’s on the Marine Estate and seafront apartments in Chalkwell that are all well presented, seem like the right money and are in sought after locations don’t seem to be getting the interest of offers that I was expecting.

As I said, it would be easy for me to recommend dropping all of the asking prices by 10% or more and it may well have the desired affect of selling a couple but is it actually the right advice? Once the prices have been dropped you cant really increase them again and if this still doesn’t have the desired affect are you going to have to drop further? If the market is uncertain at the moment I would probably wait and hold off doing anything dramatic. It could be that you reduce the price by quite a lot of money, like £20,000 for instance and it doesn’t make any difference. If this is the case then all it has done is cost you money.

Like I said, ensure your details are the best they can be, your on-line presence is up to date, you have advertised the property in the local press and you must have a for sale board, however much you don’t like them. And for the sake of another month on the market things could change and the interest could pick up and new buyers come looking again. The housing market like any other is a fragile thing and there are many factors that could make things uncertain.

Weather, holiday season, interest rates, the threat of Nuclear War with Mr Trump And Kim Jong Un all of these things however tenuous have an affect and if like the weather things blow over then it could well improve and go back to normal. So in conclusion, it is easy for us as estate agents for our first thought to be to drop the price if your property is struggling to attract a buyer but this may not be the right advice? Make sure everything else is correct and showing your property in the best possible light, until this happens, dropping the price should be a last resort and only if you think it is going to have the right amount of impact and basically make a difference?

This article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton 
Tel: 01702 471155 
Email: rob@scottandstapleton.co.uk

To read all of Rob's previous property blogs, please click the link here