Friday, Apr 24, 2009
Its easy, stop trying to sell at 2007 prices.
Guardian Unlimited: How to sell your home in troubled times
It's the traditional house-hunting season, and hopes harboured by owners and sellers of a recovery in the market are high, fuelled by figures this week showing that asking prices have increased for a third month. Rightmove said the typical asking price rose by 1.8%, or almost £4,000, this month, adding this may mean "we have finally reached a price floor, and confidence is starting to return". Mortgage lending is also showing signs of recovery.
But estate agents say it remains a buyer's market and those who can get a mortgage are not prepared to pay premium prices. Therefore it is vital to get the marketing right.
So which tactics work best if you want to sell at the best price?
Posted by basildonbond @ 03:26 PM (1954 views) Add Comment
20 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. gone-to-colombia said...
Simple minded bs, a light skate over a deep subject.
Lots of suggestions as to how a seller might trick the credulous buyer.
2. sybil13 said...
There really is no hope when we get articles like this from the Guardian. Price wars on overvalued property ...it makes me ashamed to be a member of the human race to be honest.
3. Stillwaiting said...
... And here are some tips for buyers
"Think of the property as a home rather than just a cash cow. I think we've got out of the habit of doing that," says Peter Bolton King at the National Association of Estate Agents. He adds: "If you are fairly certain you are going to be in the property for three [or more] years, does it actually matter if the price comes down a little bit?"
lol
4. gone-to-colombia said...
The late and great Alistair Cooke first aspired to write for the Guardian, he succeeded in his aspiration. I wonder if a modern day Cooke upon reading this ‘article’ would have the same ambition.
What a sad indictment of a once great newspaper.
5. 51ck-6-51x said...
It only really matters to you if the market value of your home falls faster than that of your next home ...UNLESS you have a mortgage, whereupon you have the added problem of nequity.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
- Shakespeare (Polonius; Scene III, Hamlet)
6. will said...
Rightmove just don't get it do they? It is not a good thing that the average age of a first time buyer remains 34. The UK housing market is still massively overpriced. A few distressed sales at a discount and we are all now supposed to go out and buy. I am still waiting for any such falls in Devon, but as in the USA, two years after the first price falls, some parts of America are only just starting to drop. Patience.
7. paul said...
"some agents say buyers should be careful not to go in with ridiculously low offers that may alienate sellers and perhaps send a signal that you are not a serious buyer."
Hmm. And on whose behalf are the agents working again? Why any journalist would take any estate agents advice to buyers seriously is beyond me.
Oh, probably because they have a house to sell themselves ...
8. shipbuilder said...
With the current sales volumes, estate agents need to realise that their customers are the buyers, not the sellers.
9. jonb said...
Overpricing in the hope that people will think they are getting a discount isn't going to work.
If you aren't in the first two or three pages in Rightmove when viewing lowest-highest, I'm probably not even going to look at your property ad.
10. Greenshootsandleaves said...
Tinkering with asking prices, eh? All the more reason for NOT using them as a barometer of the property market or a supporting pillar for the current spate of recovery-is-on-its-way articles!
11. inflation is eating my savings said...
Most of the tips reflect the natural nature of the Scottish system, which was supposed to be both less inflationary and less deflationary.
Aggressive low asking prices are dangerous in a rising market- 40% over asking price was common.
I don't know how well low offers-over prices function in a falling market. I guess as the article says- they get people through the door.
It is interesting that at the end of the article, they seem to want to find a compromise between buyer and seller, although shipbuilder is correct.
A new event in scotland is that you are now charged (800 quid or more) for the HIP and schedule. I guess this keeps some money in the system.
12. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
"some agents say buyers should be careful not to go in with ridiculously low offers that may alienate sellers and perhaps send a signal that you are not a serious buyer"
or maybe
"some sellers should be careful not to come up with ridiculous high prices that will alienate buyers and perhaps send the signal that the seller is clearly out of touch with reality"
13. Redcellar said...
"some agents say buyers should be careful not to go in with ridiculously low offers that may alienate sellers and perhaps send a signal that you are not a serious buyer."
And the negative effect of that would be???? Sellers should consider - I didn't own the property before, maybe I don't get to own this one, but I do get to own another instead for the reasonable asking price that the you got all worked up over!
How about the truth - 'sellers should be careful not to go in with ridiculously high prices that do alienate buyers and do send the signal you are not a serious seller'.
Seriously. As a buyer why do I 'care' that I alienate a seller?
14. Flopsyuk said...
The buyers "advice" was pretty bad. Rightmove shows asking prices and these have no relationship to the selling prices. Estate Agents found ways to get around Propertysnake months ago and it no longer provides meaningful data.
Buyers are checking on the real sold prices and then making offers based on these, but as almost nothing is selling and data is months out of date it's still hard to gauge.
The problem is that sellers are still asking ridiculous prices and are happy to keep their property on the market in the vain hope of an upturn. Unless they accept that the new "sold" prices are the new benchmark then they all wasting our time.
What I'd like to see is all property taken off the market unless the sellers are prepared to negotiate. I'm sick of having my time wasted by these fools.
15. mander said...
May I just point out that estate agents would probably need a bail out soon if they fail to partner with buyer instead of partnering with the seller. It will mean more work for them needing to sell more properties instead of an overpriced one.
By looking to the global picture where overpriced property is getting closer to reality I think estate agents in Britain will better see the whole picture and partner with the credit worthy buyers sooner rather than later...
16. inflation is eating my savings said...
@12
By looking to the global picture where overpriced property is getting closer to reality I think estate agents in Britain will better see the whole picture and partner with the credit worthy buyers sooner rather than later...
HIPs and up front sellers fees force them to be on the side of the seller though. The seller is committed, to an extent at least, and you want her to commit with you the agent- it is the only cash flow.
You cannot charge a buyer for looking. You could try I suppose. You can at least delude them into being charged for making an offer, as is the scottish scam (via survey or otherwise).
17. amjidk said...
saw a house on propertyfinder.com, which i thought was fairly prices, tried to get the estate agent to send me details with no luck, tried emailing and telephone. Can't figure them out (do they want a sale or not) still a bunch of completely arrogant ba%tards
"some agents say buyers should be careful not to go in with ridiculously low offers that may alienate sellers and perhaps send a signal that you are not a serious buyer." these guys really do have got their heads up their ar&e, well i'm gonna phone that damn estate agent and make a really ridiculous offer tomorrow, and i don't give a sh*t if they think i'm not a serious buyer!!
18. Leeds-bozz said...
"Think of the property as a home rather than just a cash cow. I think we've got out of the habit of doing that," says Peter Bolton King at the National Association of Estate Agents. He adds: "If you are fairly certain you are going to be in the property for three [or more] years, does it actually matter if the price comes down a little bit?"
That's really rich coming from him and his mob. And who deluded people that a house was more than a home in the first place I wonder?
19. bystander said...
@Amjidk- I saw a flat for sale in a great area in SW London and it was already priced at 15% less than it's peak price and this was in November 2008 and I tried to arrange a viewing, it took until February 2009 to get in and see it. I saw it and put a cheeky offer in of 15% off asking and eventually paid 12.5% percent off asking. Now I know that is only 27.5% off peak and there is probably more pain to come, but..............................
@Amjidk keep pestering the agent.
20. Buyerinneedofmotivation said...
With sellers wanting to keep prices high and buyers wanting to go in with 25% lower than asking price as encouraged by press and many TV property shows - no wonder Estate Agents are between a rock and a hard place and can't work out who the customer is - because there's no payday!
But back to the original point - 'how to sell your house in difficult times' - surely price it to sell and present it well and get the marketing right.
Seems a shame despite awareness of the difficulties faced in selling that most properties across the majority of Agents have poor photographic images, not enough images to get a good idea of what the property looks like and most owners take less care when presenting their £500k+ properties than if they were selling a second hand car.