Selling Dilemma - what price?

UsernameAlreadyExists

I am just about to put my house on the market this weekend.
It's a 3 bed semi with integral garage deep down on the south coast. I have a gut feel that it's worth £180K any day of the week and would accept that for it ... so I guess I should "ask" a little more with room to accept offers.

Now the problem is my neighbour entered the market over a week ago. It's the other half of the semi (obviously mirrored) ... and I personally think there's very little to differentiate them.

He's put his on with an asking price of £199,950 and has had only a single viewing so far (ok, it's less than 2 weeks). I don't think its worth that much ... so was thinking of asking for £195K and accepting as much as I can get over my bottom line of £180K.

I've seen another similar spec/sized house in the very near vicinity (next street) that has been on the market for months for £199,950 as well but noticed today that it has been reduced to 195K.

So ... do I potentially annoy him by going in at £195K with a hope for a quicker sale and therefore "devalue" his? ... or if I do ask that price, take less, and he then sells for more later I will kick myself! ... or maybe he won't sell at that price at all?

What would you do? opinions please!

Lokolo

2 flats are for sale (well were) in my block.

1 was put up in June for £170k.
1 was put up in November for £155k.

The second property has just sold. The first property has just reduced their asking price to £162k.

They are very similar in sizes (the first one is about a foot smaller). The second one was a ground floor and the first a second/third floor (maisonette).

However you both could end up playing an asking war with both of you wanting to be the lower price.

Tancred

UsernameAlreadyExists wrote: »

I am just about to put my house on the market this weekend.
It's a 3 bed semi with integral garage deep down on the south coast. I have a gut feel that it's worth £180K any day of the week and would accept that for it ... so I guess I should "ask" a little more with room to accept offers.

Now the problem is my neighbour entered the market over a week ago. It's the other half of the semi (obviously mirrored) ... and I personally think there's very little to differentiate them.

He's put his on with an asking price of £199,950 and has had only a single viewing so far (ok, it's less than 2 weeks). I don't think its worth that much ... so was thinking of asking for £195K and accepting as much as I can get over my bottom line of £180K.

I've seen another similar spec/sized house in the very near vicinity (next street) that has been on the market for months for £199,950 as well but noticed today that it has been reduced to 195K.

So ... do I potentially annoy him by going in at £195K with a hope for a quicker sale and therefore "devalue" his? ... or if I do ask that price, take less, and he then sells for more later I will kick myself! ... or maybe he won't sell at that price at all?

What would you do? opinions please!

How desperate are you to sell? It basically depends on that. if you want to sell soon then market it for a lower price than your neighbour. Simple.

DRP

Tancred wrote: »

How desperate are you to sell? It basically depends on that. if you want to sell soon then market it for a lower price than your neighbour. Simple.

I don;'t necessarily disagree with this but im not so sure of the tactics of simply lowering the price. I think that setting a lower asking price will possibly just lower the eventual selling price of both properties even further... a similar situatio has happened win my mothers street, where a neighbour who was desperate to move for family reasons marketed and sold their house quickly at 15-20% or so less than 'market price' - this meant no one else selling has had a sniff of a decent offer because the ceiling price has effectively been lowered.

If the OP is confident his house is more sellable then I would be tempted to match the neighbours' price - what you don't want to get into is a spiral of one downmanship with your neighbour...

UsernameAlreadyExists

I am not desperate to sell at all, but I think it's realistically worth 180, and nowhere near 200. I think he might be being a tad greedy given that he moved in in 2006, and paid almost double what I did when I moved in back in 1999. I don't want to unnecessarily drag his house price down though, as I'd obviously be more than happy to take more than I think it's worth!!

I have my eye on a place that's been on the market for well over a year now, so I don't think going lower for speed of sale is strictly necessary - but on the flip side, I don't want to match his price which I think is artificially high and neither of us sell for ages.

DRP

UsernameAlreadyExists wrote: »

I am not desperate to sell at all, but I think it's realistically worth 180, and nowhere near 200. I think he might be being a tad greedy given that he moved in in 2006, and paid almost double what I did when I moved in back in 1999. I don't want to unnecessarily drag his house price down though, as I'd obviously be more than happy to take more than I think it's worth!!

I have my eye on a place that's been on the market for well over a year now, so I don't think going lower for speed of sale is strictly necessary - but on the flip side, I don't want to match his price which I think is artificially high and neither of us sell for ages.

199,950 minus approx 10% negotiation with buyer = £180,000 so he may have marketed it correctly?

UsernameAlreadyExists

DRP wrote: »

199,950 minus approx 10% negotiation with buyer = £180,000 so he may have marketed it correctly?

and I'd be tempted to agree, but the similar house nearby at the same price has been dropped by 5K in the last week - hence my thinking it was overpriced ? or maybe THEY noticed the new competion on the market and reduced it for that reason?

Is offering as much as 10% under asking price normal practice these days? seems a hell of a lot! and I don't think I've be brave enough to do that myself!

dotdash79

Not being funny but when I see 2 or 3 houses next to each other for sale I always think one of the following applies:

They have had a massive falling out and are both on the market until one moves
They have won the lottery
Recently discovered major issue with the house
Or major changes to the area i.e. new airport, tip etc.

They become a lot less attractive to me anyway. Not sure if other people think this and if they do that would affect your house price.

mariejader

I would put it on the market at the same price as next door and let the people looking for a house decide which one they want to purchase, this way you don't fall out with your neighbour.

UsernameAlreadyExists

I don't think I am going to fall out with him as we're drinking buddies on a Friday night. I'd put this on here for other ideas/opinions and perhaps some thinking outside of the box.

I just a few moments ago emailed him and he admitted to asking "high" in order to "test the market" with a view to dropping his anyway if it didn't sell - he might have got lucky? who knows! I think he thought he had a little more time in order to experiment before I entered the market myself though

As it happens I am moving because I've recently received an inheritance that took nearly 2 years to resolve so I've been bleating about moving house for ages. I also think there's a modicum of "keeping up with the Joneses" on his part and combined with rich parents will be receiving some assistance to also jump the ladder to a similar level. Unfortunately, he's beat me to market as he didn't need an entire new bathroom or quite so much redecorating done as I've had to... damn! (at least mine is "fresher" )

AlexMac

I think it's up to you to price your house to sell- in consultation with an agent who I presume you'll have selected on the basis of comparative interviews/quotes and their local track record of success with local sales?

I'd be hesitant to over-value it because " I don't want to unnecessarily drag his house price down ..." as you say or because you " don't (want to) fall out with your neighbour" (as marie j says above). It's your call- it's more likely to sell if priced realistically, and once you've sold, you'll be in a stronger position to haggle down your next buy- so I favour 'cheaper /faster'.

But who knows; it really depends on the area? I get the impression, from recent experience of our two purchases ( a home and a BTL sell & buy- so 4 transactions) and from the grown up kid's recent family home sell-buy that in some areas you'll struggle to sell, and may end up reducing the price just to shift a house, whereas in other areas houses fly off the shelf.

Our previous home's sale was agreed in late 2011 after just 3 days on the market at a price well over the odds. And our kids were amazingly lucky by putting their small London freehold ex-council semi up at a cheeky price, achieving £15k OVER the 1% SDLT threshold within a month!

But contrariwise, the little BTL's we sold in 2011 went 5% below asking price, the one we bought was well more than 10% under the ask, and the the out-of-town place the kids bought, in a less popular area, had been on for a year and had had to come down 15% on the original asking, which we know hurt the vendor, who, like your neighbour, had bought it near the peak in 2006-2007.

What's turnover like in your area? If brisk, try £199k; if sluggish, I'd go lower. So what if your mirror image neighbour gets a few£k more? That happened to me 10 years ago- when I both sold simultaneously with the mate next door but I was really pleased to sell up and move on.

But it's really random- so who knows!