"Nice" Road Premium and getting people "in the door"

JP08

Thinking ahead somewhat, but we might be (starting the process of) moving within the next year or so.

The house is a 3 bed semi in one of the - at the risk of appearing snobbish - "nicest" roads in the town. Non estate location and an effectively dead end road close to, but not too close to, river, pubs, church, shops so most basic needs physical, recreational and spiritual can be within walking distance .

A search within a half mile radius reveals little competition at the present, but what is available is about 10% cheaper asking price than that quoted by a local estate agent for ours*, despite being a bit larger / more than one loo. Within a mile takes in the other (and again taking the snobbish risk) wrong side of the river, returns a total of nine 3 bed semis and down to 2/3rds our likely asking price.

So, in the forum's opinion, how much does "location, location, location" add to a house value ?

And, when a basic rightmove search brings up cheaper properties apparently in the same area, what actually gets people in the door ?

*the price feels about right given the zoopla figure, what we paid (and we nearly didn't come and see the place - hence the questions), and the upgrades / kerb appeal improvements we've done on the house.

Grenage

Location makes all the difference.

Without links to the area and properties in question, it's hard to say much more. Percentages are a bit of a red herring; I wouldn't have paid 10% more for a second toilet (although I have one), because that would have been £40k.

Surrey_EA

There is no definitive answer to such a question I'm afraid. Ultimately your property, as with any other, is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

Location obviously has a significant impact on a property's value, as you can change much about a house, but not where it is.

How much does location add? Well, basically it varies.

david1951

There is not much you can do other hope that a local snob is looking for a house and finds yours in their Rightmove search.

Slinky

The houses on the other side of the river are not your 'competition' if your area is as nice as you say it is. We're looking at moving to a town which has a population of about 10,000 people. We're looking at a very specific area, 4 or 5 streets, probably about 200 homes of different types in total. These properties are in a price bracket of their own when they come up as they don't generally hang around for long. People looking for a 3 bed house, say, in this area, aren't looking at the other parts of town IMO as prices are upwards of £100K higher than the rest of the area.

The EAs refer to the area we're looking at as the Golden Triangle. It's a different market to the rest of the town.

JP08

Yes - I knew it was a "how long is a piece of string?" question - especially without the detailed location (which I'm a little uncomfortable with revealing exactly. Hence asking in % terms. But nobody has ridiculed the 10% for a bit smaller property so I'm inferring it's not unreasonable. To give you guys and gals something to go on though, we're talking the Eaton Socon side of St Neots.

Guess in many ways I'm more interested in the marketing tricks that will get the notice in the first place. As personal experience has revealed, getting someone to the door to get a feel of the area and in the door to get a feel of the property is 9/10 of the battle. Especially when it's this persons missus - it having one of the biggest kitchens of the 6 houses we'd seen that day pretty much swung the deal.

[Deleted User]

Maybe speak to a local estate agent who knows about the niceties of pricing in the area?

We paid 'more' on our house because it was facing a green... I do expect to make that back when we eventually sell. Probably only £10k-15k extra though against other identical houses (2% to 3% of the sale price).

Slinky

Where we're looking, people don't need to be persuaded to go and have a look, anything that comes up there's a stampede of people who are waiting to pounce.

JP08

Slinky - nice situation if you're a seller, not so great if you're a buyer. We're not in quite that kind of area, though stuff certainly isn't hanging around round here.

Cakeguts

In order to get people to view you have to make them feel that the price is fair. It is overpriced they won't view. The best that an estate agent can do is to guess especially if nothing has been sold recently. Zoopla is often extremely wrong so don't pay any attention to prices on there. What you have to do is find a similar house in a similar area and see what that sold for recently.

AdrianC

JP08 wrote: »

So, in the forum's opinion, how much does "location, location, location" add to a house value ?

As much or as little as putative buyers want it to.