Reducing house price

HotShot2011

Hi,

We've recently put our house on the market (within the last couple of weeks) and have had one viewing that has not proceeded. I have just seen that another very similar house nearby has gone on the market today with another EA £15K below our asking price. There is very little between the 2 houses ... we want to sell and I'm now thinking that we will need to reduce our asking price, but it seems early days to do so. I don't think the property market is particularly buoyant in our area, but there are sales and our house is in excellent condition inside and out. Clearly if there is a buyer in the area it is unlikely they will want to pay £15K more for a remarkably similar property ...

Would it look bad to reduce the price so soon? Any tactics, strategies, etc? Any advice very gratefully received

Many thanks!

jjlandlord

I'm no expert, but presumably if someone is interested in buying your house they'll notice the other property and the lower asking price and they'll thus base their offer on that lower price: basically using that lower priced identical property to drive their bargain.
I would not rush into a price war with the other property, you cannot 'win'.

InkZ

check houseprices.co.uk to see what stuff has sold for in your street.

SG27

jjlandlord wrote: »

I'm no expert, but presumably if someone is interested in buying your house they'll notice the other property and the lower asking price and they'll thus base their offer on that lower price: basically using that lower priced identical property to drive their bargain.
I would not rush into a price war with the other property, you cannot 'win'.

I doubt anyone would do this. If they are similar and there is nothing setting them apart then people will just go for the cheaper one. There is a road near me with about 5 houses for sale, all identical ranging from £150k to £180k I only bothered viewing the two priced at £150k. I think you need to at least match them for price and if you want to sell quick maybe even undercut them.

ashaput

"very similar house" doesn't mean it is exactly the same as yours, am I right? If I were you I wouldn't drop the price you had before. If there is someone come to see your home and find the price you offer is higher, believe me they will start a bargain. When they drive the price lesser or even equals with other property mention some great things of your home, be it wider land area, bigger building, etc.
It's just my personal opinion, I only put an "if" here
Others may come with greater advice. Good luck.

paulsad

Too early yet I'd say - give it more time; for such a relatively small difference people will still want to see both properties IMO. Mine's been up for over 6 months and I've just reduced it, but we've had no viewings for quiet some months now. You also don't know the other house owners situation.

Seanymph

'Mine's been up for over 6 months and I've just reduced it, but we've had no viewings for quiet some months now.'

And that's why the OP is looking at being competitive and sensible straight away surely? So that six months on she isn't saying 'the house nearby sold for less money than us, and we've had no viewings for months'.

Only you know your circumstances. If you are happy to sell it for less and want to sell it quicker then drop the price. I dropped mine once, then, after thinking about it for three months and being approached twice by the same people accepted something less again. But it was around what I paid for it, with everything else coming down it gave me enough money to buy what I wanted WHERE I wanted - and I decided that the chances of someone else coming along where slim.

So, you think about your circumstances, whether or not you would be ok with, say 20k les s- then put it on for that - and don't accept offers. Put a fixed price if you want, but a lower one than you now have. That's what the one I'm buying did. They put a lowish price, but a clear no offers fixed price statement all over the particulars.

It worked for me.

KateLiana27

What is the minimum you would accept for your house? (This should be based on what it's actually worth at this point in time, ie what similar house are actually selling - not being marketed - for).

I'd go £5K above that and refuse to budge below your minimum price. There's no point artificially inflating your asking price to leave room for negotiation - all it means is that people won't even bother to look.

I wouldn't reduce the price JUST because a similar property has come on the market lower, but it is relevant if that is an indication of the actual going rate of your type of house. Maybe find out a bit more about the second house to try to establish if there is anything significantly different about it. Worse decor? Costly issues to fix? Can you send a friend round to look?

jjlandlord

SG27 wrote: »

I doubt anyone would do this. If they are similar and there is nothing setting them apart then people will just go for the cheaper one. There is a road near me with about 5 houses for sale, all identical ranging from £150k to £180k I only bothered viewing the two priced at £150k. I think you need to at least match them for price and if you want to sell quick maybe even undercut them.

Perhaps. I'm surprised you say you would not bother with the second one, though... You cannot get an idea without visiting, and as I said if you do visit and you prefer it you'd have 'ammunitions' to bargain.

clueless1682

When we had our house up for sale last year, we had ours priced in the 'middle' for our area, some houses where up to £20k cheaper, some where about £15k higher. In the end, we got FTB's who had been round a lot in the area and liked ours as the cheaper ones needed work doing and with a newborn they'd rather pay a bit higher to walk in somewhere that was sitting nice.

When we were looking to buy then, if we found an area we liked, we went to view a few houses in the area, of various prices as you cant really get the full idea from the pictures.

Personally, I wouldn't be too concerned about this other house for now, just see what happens over the next month or 2 and take it from there.

Good luck!

BornAtTheRightTime

OP could you post links to both houses and you'll get better-informed opinions back?