? Estate Agents price cut ....

bukup

In my opinion if one main agent was to cut house prices by a fraction then all other agents would follow and a healthier market would be achieved. What do you think?

Mrs_Thrify

How can an EA cut the prices when it is up to the seller to reduce the price after several wks with no sale? Now if the EA were to lower their fee I would agree

bukup

julie_d wrote: »

How can an EA cut the prices when it is up to the seller to reduce the price after several wks with no sale? Now if the EA were to lower their fee I would agree

But its the agent who sets the price in the first place !! IF agents just took a realistic view in the first instance and marketed the property at a true value, then the whole market would be better now !! I work for a solicitors and for the past six months every sales memorandum I have handled contains drops of at least £5k to £10k !! proof is in the pudding !!

BrixMorta

With the onset of a buyers market, experienced agents will change their tack and decline overpriced instructions. This has already started in Kent.

Running_Horse

BrixMorta wrote: »

This has already started in Kent.

Can't say I've noticed. One house in Kent we looked at last year for £165,000 has just come back on the market for an extra £20,000. Those who do not accept lower selling prices will probably just not put their houses on the market for a while, leaving those who insist on higher prices. Whether they get them is another matter completely.

Mrs_Thrify

The agent suggests a price, the seller sets the price and trys there luck.
Quite true though, often a drop in price. In my case a drop of £5,000 twice = £10,000 and a lot of declutering to show off the best features.
My mistake was to listen to EA and sign a sole contract for 16 weeks & 2 weeks notice = total of 18 weeks.

BrixMorta

Give it a chance, market correction only kicked in in September. EA's would have waited a little to see if it was more sustained before changing their tactics. It's about now that they are working on reductions and being more selective about the listings they take. Even then it will only be about 15% of their clients that accept reductyions are needed. Its a slow process.

bukup

BrixMorta wrote: »

Give it a chance, market correction only kicked in in September. EA's would have waited a little to see if it was more sustained before changing their tactics. It's about now that they are working on reductions and being more selective about the listings they take. Even then it will only be about 15% of their clients that accept reductyions are needed. Its a slow process.

Agreed it can be a slow process but it is incredibly frustrating when you know part of the answer could be if just they lowered the price market!!! The trouble is more and more new builds are coming onto the market which tries to pull in more first time buyers but in effect this doesnt stablise the actual market but because there are new builds which hold a higher price, the older houses try to sustain the same market but this fails and only those in either the estate agency world or solicitors market can see this.

Running_Horse

bukup wrote: »

Agreed it can be a slow process but it is incredibly frustrating when you know part of the answer could be if just they lowered the price market!!!

Just out of interest, why do you find it incredibly frustrating? Are you a buyer, a seller, or an EA? You can berate total strangers until you are blue in the face, but the market will find its own level.

bukup

Running_Horse wrote: »

Just out of interest, why do you find it incredibly frustrating? Are you a buyer, a seller, or an EA? You can berate total strangers until you are blue in the face, but the market will find its own level.

I work in a solicitors conveyancing department so have the best interest of all parties involved. The first port of call is the agent - therefore if they set a realistic price in the first place, then the process is made swifter. It is a trend now that hardly anyone gets the asking price no matter what you read or listen to via the media. Estate agents will always talk the market up but I dont see the need to especially when the prices are not being met. Most sales memorandums I see the prices have been cut by £5k £10k + and to me this isnt realistic. You say the market will find its own level which in a sense is true but we are at a stage at the moment where it is hit and miss. More and more chains collapse due to people procastinating as they see unrealistic prices increase in their area in a matter of weeks when they have sold and pull out hoping to achieve the price increase since their sale.

nobblyned

The market will provide the decreases in price, rather than the EAs.

If properties don't sell because of the market, then EAs won't get their commission, and will be then advising their clients to reduce their prices to get the sale.

For the record, the last crash saw nominal decreases of about 14-18% from peak to trough and took around 5-6 years to bottom out.

At the bottom of the cycle interest rates were still well over 6.5%, with mortgage rates around 8%. If there are price decreases and interest rate cuts, buyers could be quicker to come back to the market then last time when the memory of 15% interest rates was still fresh, particularly if there are IR cuts later this year or early next.