What do you think of this advice from an estate agent ?

hookbeak

Hi guys,

Today i was talking to one of our clients (i'm a web developer) who is the owner of a large local estate agent chain.

My house is currently on the market (not with him i might add) for £165k, although i really want £160k - the 5k is there just to be knocked off.

He advises i'd be much better off advertising at "offers over £155k", as this would get me a lot more viewers and i can always reject offers that i think are too low anyway. On top of this, i may get someone who falls in love with the place and may pay closer to my £160k anyway.

it is only 5k in reality we are talking about - he also mentioned that the property i'm looking at (239k , 1 yr on market, owners already running new house with 2nd mortgage) would easily drop by 15k as he thinks they'll really need it shifting now...

what's anyone else think ?

poppysarah

Dropping it to offers over 155k says to me that you're on the verge of snapping and you'll take 120k in a few months time

Poppy9

Without knowing the type of house, location and what others are selling for in the same area it's hard to comment.

A £240k house on the market for over a year could be either well over priced if no one has made any offer within that time. Is the £240k the value of the house 12 months ago as it's probably much less now but that's not to say the vendor will take a lower offer. They might decide to rent out till market picks up if they don't get the price they want.

Greenwellies_2

Having been there 'Offers over' sounds as if you're not flexible, and I'd expect to get the house for 155 if I was a cash buyer etc.

I removed 'offers over' from mine, and got an offer 5k less than my offers over price. (really wanted the exact price but hey, got to be flexible!)

I now don't bother looking at the houses labelled as 'offers over'

GW

hookbeak

poppysarah wrote: »

Dropping it to offers over 155k says to me that you're on the verge of snapping and you'll take 120k in a few months time

This is part of the problem, i've asked about 10 people this morning and they all seem to think it gives a different connotation.

I've only been on the market a month, plus i don't *have* to move at all, so that 120k would be a looooooooonnnggggg time coming!

googler

Are you selling in Scotland, where 'Offers Over' has been standard for a while.... or elsewhere?

hookbeak

I'm in Yorkshire.

themanbearpig

Don't bother with "offers over X" in the current market, its a dumb strategy, but I dont expect anything less from and estate agent!
It implies that you expect to get lots of offers over the amount, which only happens in a sellers market.
If you want to sell your house quickly, undercut the typical selling price by 10%, and just wait. So if there are similar houses on the market for £160,000 list your house for £145,000.

Also realistically, if houses like yours where selling at £165,000 at peak, you have close to zero chance of achieving £160,000, which is just 4% off peak. Rightmove has indicated on average the houses that are actually selling are selling for 25% less than asking!

hearts

QUOTE: "Rightmove has indicated on average the houses that are actually selling are selling for 25% less than asking"

That'll be the houses where they have set the price 25% high to start with. ;-)

chickmug

hearts wrote: »

QUOTE: "Rightmove has indicated on average the houses that are actually selling are selling for 25% less than asking"

That'll be the houses where they have set the price 25% high to start with. ;-)

Do you have any web site link to what they say?
Thanks.

speccyget

When I am looking on rightmove for properties I can actually afford I find that I tend to ignore properties that say "offers over", "OIEO" or "OIRO". I might be shooting myself in the foot and miss something I might like. But they just annoy me. Especially the OIEO. Why the hell would I want to pay in excess of an already overpriced house?