Guide Price, Offers Over, Fixed Price etc

hethmar

Well Marc, if its been on the market over a year then no one thinks that is its value do they? You could always ignore the offers over bit and knock down the price to see what they say?

mlz1413

my first thought is the fixed price slogan on the lowest you can go leaves you with nothing, you can't go lower this is your lowest price, ok so you don't want people round to view and then offering much lower so you have been wasting peoples time.

personally I would have put a price tag of £105 or 106k on the house with the view that in this market most people will be wanting to knock something off, so you would hopefully end up with your target value.

But as you are near Scotland then maybe the fixed price won't bother people if EA use it all the time. You also say that you are now £20k lower than the neighbours so hopefully it will all work out.

Good Luck

Incisor

Marc1978 wrote: »

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.

The value of FTB houses is absolute. All other houses are relative to FTB houses.

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

Yes, I can think of 1 or 2 special houses like that. The key to their value is that the owners are unwilling to sell them for less, so they prefer to keep them. So it is not the houses which are special, it is the owners.

Imp

Incisor wrote: »

The value of FTB houses is absolute. All other houses are relative to FTB houses.


Yes, I can think of 1 or 2 special houses like that. The key to their value is that the owners are unwilling to sell them for less, so they prefer to keep them. So it is not the houses which are special, it is the owners.

The house is worth a minimum amount to the owner. Nobody can buy the house for less than that.If the owner values the house more than the market, then that is the value of the house as far as the owner is concerned.

RobertoMoir

Marc1978 wrote: »

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.

Fair enough, but the money you "need" from this sale isn't the problem of the person looking to buy your house. They're concerned about getting a good price for themselves, not with what you need from the sale.

Marc1978 wrote: »

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

You say "maintains its value no matter what", I say "sounds like it was overpriced to start with and hasn't improved with age".

I could put the house I'm in right now on sale for £500,000. I bet it would sit there for a year without any offers too, assuming I was able to find an EA that would list it without laughing so hard they coughed up their whole skeleton and died first. And that would be because it isn't worth the money I'd be asking for it.

PINGLEIST

Marc1978 wrote: »

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

Marc,

Don,t despair, there are still some buyers around and probably watching your every move.
Now the price has been considerably lowered stick with it, you had viewings at a much higher price and some of them will have feelings for your house.

I would still add the odd phrase to let every one know you are serious about selling, good luck.

scotsgirl_3

I would say from the Scottish point of view - as it seems that given your area this has a bearing anyway - Fixed price really doesn't mean it anymore. I'm in Edinburgh and it used to be that fixed price meant just that and making a lower offer, although it happened, was fa from normal. Recent figures from ESPC for here however showed that only 20-odd percent of fixed price properties which sold were selling for the advertised price - so people are now bargaining on them here.

Marc1978

RobertoMoir wrote: »

You say "maintains its value no matter what", I say "sounds like it was overpriced to start with and hasn't improved with age".

I agree with you on that. A friend of mine bought a similar house about 5 doors up for £190k last November. So surely the market value of this should be around 10% less (without taking account of future drops in value). So £171k - if it was priced closer to this I could reduce my asking price. But, of course I don't know what they need to be able to move, pay off debts or whatever.

hethmar

Why dont you try an offer Marc ?

monkeymaster

PINGLEIST wrote: »

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.

Reducing the price gardually in a falling market is financial suicide, you'll be forever chasing the market down. Best to knock as much off as you can and get rid rather than gradually come down to that price over 1 or 2 years and be behind the market.