Guide Price, Offers Over, Fixed Price etc

poppysarah

What does the local EA say? Has he got anyone interested in buying at that sort of price?

ad44downey

Marc1978 wrote: »

Hi All,

After a discussion with our estate agent we've put our house on at a fixed price of £99,950 down from £139,950 since Feb 08. At the moment £99,950 is pretty much the lowest we would be able to accept judging the price of the houses we have our eyes on.

Really just wondering what people think about the different ways EAs present the price. Would fixed price put you off viewing even if you thought it was a bargin?

Thanks

Fixed price, offers over, etc. = Estate Agent bullshiite. Most buyers will simply ignore your property and look at any of the others instead. And lets face it, there's plenty of others to choose from

monkeymaster

Marc1978 wrote: »

Hi All,

After a discussion with our estate agent we've put our house on at a fixed price of £99,950 down from £139,950 since Feb 08. At the moment £99,950 is pretty much the lowest we would be able to accept judging the price of the houses we have our eyes on.

Really just wondering what people think about the different ways EAs present the price. Would fixed price put you off viewing even if you thought it was a bargin?

Thanks

I sort of agree with what others have said although I'd like to think I'm inteligent enough to ignore the EA wording and decide whether or not I think it's worth the price. If there are one or two in a similar bracket, or even slighty more expensive I'd persue those rather than the fixed price one as it says to me the seller isn't willing to negoiate, which may or may not be the case.

Marc1978

Thanks for all the responses.

We are £20K cheaper than other 2 bedroom houses and cheaper than most 1 bedroom flats.

We're not in Scotland but not far from the border, estate agents around here quite often use fixed price and offers over.

Tried to persuade my wife last night that fixed price may put people off but to no avail. So we'll see how it goes over the next few months. I'll show her the responses on here and see if that helps.

We've had quite a few viewings over the months and have steadily reduced the price. Main feedback is the bathroom being downstairs is a problem. Unfortunately not something that can be easily solved.

Thanks again.

baileysbattlebus

having lived in Scotland and bought and sold there "fixed price" and "offers over" are the norm.

I did wonder if the OP was in Scotland - but the borders region is close enough - the borders area is one of the areas we are looking to downsize to, and I had noticed that a lot of ea's use Scottish terminology for house sales - it's not surprising really.

When we were in Scotland we were definitely "fixed price" when buy or selling as "offers over", meant sealed bids and generally surveys up front - not too good if your bid isn't enough.

I hate the OIEO you see here now - there are a lot of those where my sister lives - Whitley Bay - especially at the higher end of the market.

Even worse - POA - gives the impression (to me) it is too expensive to advertise the price - or they don't want anyone to know what they are asking for it.

OIRO - not so bad - gives the impression it can up or down.

Mutton_Geoff

£99,950 is pretty much the lowest we would be able to accept judging the price of the houses we have our eyes on

Marc, I think this is where the problem lies. You are marketing your house relative to something else. The price of houses you "have your eyes on" bears no relation to the worth of your current property. What if you looked at £1million houses? Would you have to market yours at £850k as that was the lowest you could accept?

Everything has a value, the price you will achieve for your place is a standalone issue but I understand that you won't be able to proceed if the price was too low, so rather than tell prospective purchasers that (which as you see can incense them), simply market at a price that allows a little room for movement (everyone likes to haggle with houses) but don't accept any offers below your threshold. This will soon tell you what the market will bear.

Personally I have found the normal buying chain frozen at the moment, but by February the government will have pressured the banks into lending again and once the first time buyers climb on, the whole thing will move again. At the moment there are just a limited number of speculators running round with money in their pockets.

pawpurrs

Oh dear, I have reduced mine to the least I can accept, and put it at OIEO, thinking the lower price may attract some peeps.
Didnt realise the strength of feeling on this! Perhaps I should not bother and put it up with room for negotiation?
At the moment its at least 50k less than other comparable properties.

PINGLEIST

Tried to persuade my wife last night that fixed price may put people off but to no avail. So we'll see how it goes over the next few months. I'll show her the responses on here and see if that helps.

Marc,

I think the damage is done if you have already marketed your property at the fixed price. You can,t ever raise your asking price in a falling market.

I would have been tempted to reduce the asking price gradually like you have been doing using phrases like "offers considered" or "make me an offer" which show a genuine attempt to sell giving any interested party the feeling of a bargain is to be had.

Marc1978

PINGLEIST wrote: »

I think the damage is done if you have already marketed your property at the fixed price. You can,t ever raise your asking price in a falling market

My thinking is to get rid of the fixed price bit and just have £99,950 on the details.

Marc1978

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

You are marketing your house relative to something else. The price of houses you "have your eyes on" bears no relation to the worth of your current property. What if you looked at £1million houses? Would you have to market yours at £850k as that was the lowest you could accept?

Surely all house prices are relative? We are looking to buy in roughly the same area as we currently live, so no regional difference (If I'm honest the area we want to move to is a little bit less desirable). We have reduced our price by 28% from last year but the houses we are looking at have reduced by 5% to 10% at the most from last year.

One house I have been keeping an eye on hasn't reduced at all but it must be one of these special houses that maintains its value no matter what - its been on the market for over a year at offers over £210k