More advice needed on selling pretty please..

roosterbean

My position at the moment is house has been on market for 6 weeks or so now with only two viewings who gave feedback about the area not being upmarket enough. Have dropped price (not sure if its enough as we still haven't had any more viewings).

Stupidly, we had put an offer in on a property where we are relocating to, and it was accepted subject to us finding a buyer. Today, I noticed that their EAs have reduced the asking price on the house, and am expecting to hear that they have received other offers.

My OH starts his new job in July and will have to rent a room then travel back on weekends.

After following everyone's tips so far after posting my rightmove ref and still nowt, do I change EA once lock-in period is over or have a go at Housenetwork.co.uk OR do I reduce the price even further. The only problem if I do this is that we would have to reduce the offer we made and I DON'T hold with gazundering...

My OH is not keen on reducing our asking price again but I am getting so bogged down with it and need some good advice on what my priorities are.

kodokan

I'd say your priority is to successfully relocate your family to your new area, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I don't know the details of the house you're selling, but try adding up the cost of renting a room and the additional travel for, say, 6-9 months (not sure if there's a minimum contract for room rental like there is for house rental..?). Add on whatever amount you feel your/ hubby's general well-being is worth - this will NOT be fun for either of you.

Take this amount off your house price. Try to get a price that cuts across the Rightmove banding, ie, £250,000 rather than £249,950. Your house then looks excellent value next to the £250-£300k houses, and a stunning house next to the £225-£250k houses.

Consider renting in the new area, to get to know it. Renting in most areas is cheaper than buying at the moment (remember to consider the income you'd get from having any house sale money in the bank). Take a 6 month rental, and imagine how popular you'd be as a chain-free house buyer in December/ January - your bargaining position would more than pay for an extra house move, and you can't even begin to put a price on the stress this would save you.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your sale.

kodokan

roosterbean

Wow, thanks, thats a lot of info to digest! The house is presently on for £124,950 so how would you price this to stand out on Rightmove?

Might be stung on early redemption penalties though - I need to work the figures out...

kodokan

Ok, you've got me sucked in - had a look at your house on Rightmove; it's very well presented inside, got good photos, etc, so I don't think it's the marketing in this case.

I don't know the area, but a quick RM scout shows that VERY little around there has a 'Sold' flash on it - does this fit with what you're seeing on the ground?

Perhaps try the £120k price point - most houses up to that price only have 2 bedrooms, and the few that have 3 don't look as nice as yours (but may be in better areas?). We did this pricing trick a year or so ago, pricing our 4-bed house at £250k; it was the only 4-bed detached in that area for people looking up to £250, and it seemed really cheap next to all the others at around £270-280 (which, considering the Stamp Duty threshold, were only likely to get offers of £250 anyway). We had 2 asking price offers within a week (after a month of no interest at a higher price) - one guy offered £233 originally but we just kept saying no as it was already a steal at £250, and we both knew it - and we chose the chain-free buyers for a no-hassle sale (which it was, thank you lovely buyers).

Number 114 in your road sold for £106k a year ago - don't know if this is a similar house to yours..? And since then prices seem to have held fairly steady in your area - see http://www.upmystreet.com/property/prices/all/l/llay.html

Run this sort of 'how many have sold?' and 'how are the prices doing?' for the area you're moving to.

Early redemption penalty would be for redeeming the mortgage, I assume? Some lenders allow a break in this - some years ago we sold one house, rented in a new area, then bought a house 8 months later. We had to pay the penalty, but Halifax sent us a full refund cheque when we took out the new mortgage with them, because it was less than 12 months since we'd redeemed the last one. It would be worth asking your lender.

Overall, my advice would be to consider TOTAL cost. Play around with absolute costs such as sale prices, renting prices, interest on any money in the bank, travel costs, moving costs. Then take your best guess at things like the 'value' of being a chain-free buyer, particularly if you watch for houses coming in December (who does that unless they HAVE to sell for some reason?). THEN consider really intangible things like the price you and OH personally put on stress, family life, commuting, etc etc.

Then you can start trading these things - 'if we sell for £122, we can buy for £XX, if we only get £120 we can only buy for £XX-2, but if we rented really cheaply (consider monthly rent AND travel to work costs here) then we could make that £2 back in six months' etc etc...

Best of luck!

kodokan

PS: The house you've offered on - I'd suggest that the fact that they're still actively marketing it to the point of reducing the price means that they're not taking your offer at all seriously as you're not in a position to proceed... sorry...

garethhr

Pricing Advice: Make the Last 3 Digits -500

http://blog.redfin.com/2007/03/pricing_advice_make_the_last_3.html

roosterbean

Well, I'm glad that I managed to "suck you in" as your advice is in depth and well worth it and now I know what direction I should be going in!

kodokan

garethhr wrote: »

Pricing Advice: Make the Last 3 Digits -500

http://blog.redfin.com/2007/03/pricing_advice_make_the_last_3.html

"...Maybe rounding a list price to a nice, even "-000" is like putting a big "negotiate me" sticker on a house's back. Or, as Matt speculated, "A -500 ending sounds like you really thought about it, but it's not a nickel-and-diming gimmick like -999..."

Nice article, thanks. I can definitely see the logic in the -500 is better than -999, but I still think that there's a lot to be said for having a -000 price that therefore straddles 2 RM price brackets.

I suppose it's a bit like applying for jobs, where the CV is primarily to get you the interview, whereas the interview gets you the actual job offer. I see the RM listing as being your house's CV, with the viewings being the interview - so the more people who see the 'CV' the better!

Get the viewings, get the offers - THEN worry about the negotiation...

Doozergirl

kodokan wrote: »

Try to get a price that cuts across the Rightmove banding, ie, £250,000 rather than £249,950. Your house then looks excellent value next to the £250-£300k houses, and a stunning house next to the £225-£250k houses.

I love that. That's brilliant advice. I hadn't thought of that at all! Very clever.

roosterbean

I took all the advice given to me in this thread and my previous one (repainting bathroom etc), and reduced my price again - the same day had an offer from someone who hadn't even been for a viewing as he is in Cyprus (his mom and brother did viewing last night and loved it).:D

Offer is for the reduced asking price-hurray! A big thankyou to all of you and I hope you'll all give me such great advice throughout the transaction.

I am now addicted to MSE....:beer: