Having to drop house price to fit in rightmove webite search criteria

Caroline26

Hello all, this is my first posting on this site so I am a little new to this but could do with hearing from other people who are trying to sell their house. Sorry this is a longish post.

We put our house (3 bed semi in Crewe) on the market in May – it was valued between £125k- £135k so we tried it at £133k, then reduced it to just under £130k to move it into a new Rightmove website search category. We changed estate agent in Sept and put the house on the market to just under £125k (thanks to the Stamp duty there is no point in putting a house on the market between £125k-£130k). We are keen to move before Christmas as I am now 6 months pregnant, and have been advised by the estate agent to drop the price by another £5k to under £120k because of the Rightmove website search criteria.
I have e-mailed Rightmove to ask if they can take the stamp duty figure into account with their search criteria but had no reply.
Are other people having the same problem with being stung by the Governments Stamp Duty and websites site forcing them to reduce the price of their houses in what is a difficult enough time to sell a house?

tr3mor

Sounds more like bullsh*t from an estate agent to me. He's trying to make cosy excuses for your house being overvalued in the first place.

Caroline26

The house was not over valued as other houses are going for that price, it is we want a quick sale and therefore need more viewings - but dropping the price to under the stamp duty figure has not actually increased viewings very much. So i am not sure drop by another 5k is going to get more viewings in a quiet market.

silvercar

Thats just silly, anyone who wants to pay 115-120 is going to search the next catagory up on rightmove.

tr3mor

Caroline26 wrote: »

The house was not over valued as other houses are going for that price, it is we want a quick sale and therefore need more viewings - but dropping the price to under the stamp duty figure has not actually increased viewings very much. So i am not sure drop by another 5k is going to get more viewings in a quiet market.

You're probaly right that dropping the price by £5k won't have much of an effect. I'm not sure there's much else you can do providing your agent is marketing it properly.

Maybe you just have to sit tight and wait? Or if you're really desperate knock a big chunk off?

Badger_Lady

Hmmm... this is difficult - they're trying to promote the house as much as possible, but you've taken a huge drop there. What do you need to sell for (I know markets define prices, not sellers' need, but I'm worried about you being taken advantage of!)? How important is it that you move quickly compared to price achieved?

A very low pricing strategy can work if you're likely to get bids over the asking price - for example, you can get into the lower Rightmove category by setting "Offers over £119,999", but you really need a vibrant market to get the bids above £125k.

Rightmove rarely take notice of private comments - it's set up and run by estate agents, so they consider themselves to be much more knowledgeable on the subject.

moneysavinmonkey

hello,

you EA is talking b*ll**ks!
you can search for property on rightmove to a maximum of £120 or £125k..

if your EA thinks that your property will attract more interest at a lower price then that's a fair comment but it's got nothing to do with Rightmove search criteria!

otter1_2

I'm looking for somewhere at the moment and I'm looking well above and well below what I hope to eventually pay, as I might be able to negotiate down, or find an unexpected bargain.

I would say that the important thing is to ensure that they have labelled your area correctly - make sure your agent hasn't described your property as being on the wrong side of the tracks, as with a lot of properties to search through, buyers can be put off before they check the streetname.

CHR15

How it is shown on Rightmove works wonders too.

I am looking to buy and a feature I think is fantastic is the floorplans.
I can't believe the amount of houses which appeal to me turn up as having a downstairs bathroom.
The EA's wording can be quite clever in disquising this fact.

Every viewing I have had, has been a property with floorplans, I seem to know what to expect more accurately than those without.

Biggie

I agree that the rightmove pricing is bull.

I search a sq mile area for house 3 x over my budget to half my budget

This is enables me to get good knowledge of the area i'm searching. I can spot a well priced house and an over priced house when I see one as I know what you can get for your money.

I know other won't go to this extreme but generally people will select slightly over their buget incase their room for negociation.

Also I don't think stamp duty matters all that much for 125k threshold, it's more of an issue for the 250k threshold as is substatially increases.

It's all EA Bull

otter1_2

Oh, and I agree with CHR15 - floorplans are a must for me. EAs don't seem capable of differentiating in their description between a reception room with a kitchen shoved in the corner and a flat with seperate reception room and kitchen. People often have very specific thoughts about the layout of a house.