Reducing the price VS length of time - which matters?

Mody123

Hi all,

We decided to sell our 3-bed property 3 months ago and had it valued from a few agents. It (now) seems like they inflated the price and we havent been able to sell yet. We reduced the price after one month, then again after the second month, and now the agent is recommending reducing it again. In hindsight, we should have priced the property to about £5k less than the price the agent is now recommending we reduce to.

My question is that if we reduce it for the 3rd time in three months, does this look bad to potential buyers? Or is the concern not on reductions but on how long a property has been up for sale, which in our case isn't that bad (I think).

Any advice would be welcome!

RelievedSheff

You have already reduced it twice so it already looks bad to potential buyers. At this point a third reduction won't really hurt anything.

eidand

Not necessarily, reducing the price further brings it to the attention to other buyers.

If I were you, I would ditch the EA, take the house off the market for a bit and re-advertise later with whatever price you think is achievable. I've done the same thing with my property and it worked just fine.

Also, 3 months is not exactly a crazy amount of time to be on the market, but if you're not getting viewings then the price is clearly too high.

Thrugelmir

Has price been the feedback issue when potential purchasers have viewed? 

kasqueak

Have you had much interest in the house? Has the price been putting people off offering or just putting people off getting in the door to have a look? 

I’d agree that if it were me I’d take it off the market. Give it a month or so to reevaluate and also for the pressure of the stamps duty holiday to end. Then re-market with a different agent. 

Mody123

We had a half offer where the buyer mentioned a price but then withdrew. Feedback has generally been that the garden is smaller than they’d want even though the property itself has been liked.

Maybe we’ll try the reduction and see out the remainder of our agreement with the agent (couple of weeks) and then look for another.  

Mody123

And we’ve had about 9-10 viewings, at least 6 were by people who the agent had verified were in a position to buy.

AnotherJoe

Will the new price drop you under a threshhold like £200k or £250k or £500k or whatever, that might bring it to the attention of a completely new demographic?

If you had 6 potential buyers and none even made a derogatory offer though, coudl there be something else thats a real show stopper? Or, the price was so high above reasonable that people thought it wasnt worth making an offer?

Mody123

The second reduction put us in the 475-500 bracket and the next one will keep us there (if we proceed with it). Thinking of it in light of the responses above, it must be the price.

getmore4less

What does your market research tell you?

3 months is plenty of time for analysis and will have sell through prices hitting the land reg to verify what people were actually paying.

What have people been buying and offering on in the 450-500 bracket?

That's where you are now what were people buying over 500 if you failed at that.

Thrugelmir

Mody123 said:

The second reduction put us in the 475-500 bracket and the next one will keep us there (if we proceed with it). Thinking of it in light of the responses above, it must be the price.

How does your property compare to others in the locality in the same price bracket. Be objective!  Those proceedable buyers found an alternative. 

The £500k stamp duty threshold will become an issue.