Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing

June 26, 2017 by Rob Kahl

For as long as I can remember and certainly as long as I have been selling houses in Leigh on Sea the market has been on the rise with prices going up. Albeit sometimes only modestly they have consistently risen year on year whilst Leigh seems to forever grow in popularity.

The majority of buyers, especially those coming from out of the area such as the London buyers, are happy to pay a premium for new homes that are in desirable areas such as the Marine Estate, close to Leigh Broadway or the Chalkwell Hall Estate. These locations have seen the greatest growth as buyers become more and more location specific with priorities such as proximities to the railway stations or school catchment areas driving demand.

Purchasers are also prepared to pay a premium for a property that is in good condition. If a property is presented well, possibly extended and maintained to a high standard then potential purchasers can see the value in this rather than going through the upheaval and cost of extending and/or refurbishing a tatty or dated house.

So if you have a property such as that in one of those sought after locations then you could be quids in. There is one caveat though. Buyers are prepared to pay a premium but they are also not daft and will not pay over-inflated prices. Potential purchasers are more informed than they have ever been with information on what you may have paid for your property originally and what other similar properties have sold for around you and concerns over potential mortgage valuations down-valuing properties means that you may have to keep your feet on the ground.

By all means try your luck with a high asking price and who knows you might be lucky and get it but realistically you may have to lower your expectations and lower your price to get the property sold.

The trick is to react to the market, listen to what the market is saying to you. Any property in Leigh on Sea will sell. I know that is a bit of a bold statement but it is true. There are buyers for everything in Leigh and 9 times out of 10 the reason a property will not sell is price. If all asking prices were reduced by 10% or even 5% the majority of houses in Leigh would sell. The problem comes when a property has been on the market for a long time without selling and becomes a bit stagnant.

When a new property comes on to the market your agent will contact all of his hot potential purchasers and let them know, it will also appear as a new instruction on rightmove and all of the other websites as well as in the local press. This will usually create an initial surge of interest of people looking and should generate a few viewings. These applicants as I said are very well informed, probably already have an opinion of what your house is worth before they see it and you would hope that you get some sort of offer within a relatively short space of time, usually only about a week.

This is not your estate agent undervaluing the property or allowing it to be sold too cheap. This is an experienced agent who knows the market, values and the types of buyers that are looking. If the offer is under what you were expecting but not a million miles out it should still be considered. It is amazing how many times a first offer is turned down but then weeks later when the property is still not sold the vendors are kicking themselves that they didn’t accept.

If the initial surge of interest doesn’t happen and you don’t get a positive reaction to the property being new to the market then react quickly. If you property has had very little interest then your agents alarm bells will be ringing after only a few days, you should be seeking your agents advice straight away regarding marketing tactics and considering reducing your asking price after only a couple of weeks.

This should hopefully, still feature in peoples searches as a relatively new instruction and should ensure that some interest in generated. If a property has been on the market for months and months then you may have to drop your price dramatically to make a difference and get some interest or viewings.

The thing to remember is it is all relative. Especially if you are buying locally. don’t get too hung up about the price when selling your property the number you should be focusing on is the price difference between the property you are selling and the one you are buying. As long as this price stays the same then you wont be out of pocket or worse off. Quite rightly everybody thinks their house is worth £3,500,000 but it is an old worn out saying but remains the case that a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay.

Scott & Stapleton

42 Broadway Leigh-on-Sea Essex SS9 1AJ

rob@scottandstapleton.co.uk

scottandstapleton.co.uk

01702 471155