Pricing strategy - what price to list at?

NameUnavailable

I personally hate the 'guide price' approach - that should be kept for auctions. Most buyers will probably start at around £300K and you have to haggle them up. Likewise the 'offers over' as it suggests you would be happy with £300K but will try for a bit more.

Better IMHO to list at £325K.

I'd be interested to hear the feedback from your viewings to prove me wrong!

julicorn

NameUnavailable said:

I personally hate the 'guide price' approach - that should be kept for auctions. Most buyers will probably start at around £300K and you have to haggle them up. Likewise the 'offers over' as it suggests you would be happy with £300K but will try for a bit more.

Better IMHO to list at £325K.

I'd be interested to hear the feedback from your viewings to prove me wrong!

Honestly after sitting on it for a week, £300k seems decent to us and would get us the sort of house we're looking for, £310k we'd be happy with, and if it's somehow more than that then it's more than that. All the different listing strategies have their disadvantages, and we ended up going with the one we felt would attract interest, but also indicate that we're ideally looking for offers somewhere in the middle ("offers over" always feels like £500 over would do the trick), while still playing the silly Rightmove price band game all the EAs seem to be playing around here. 
I'll definitely report back though

julicorn

Might also mention that in the meantime another flat on our street has gone on the market. Slightly bigger (we're talking 5sqm), but no separate kitchen (i.e. the kitchen is part of the living room) and a balcony instead of a garden - £285k. 

steampowered

These days, anyone can look at sold house prices on Zoopla and immediately have a very good idea of what the property is worth. 

Maybe it worked to drum up bidding wars and play mind games a few decades ago, when you had to rely on estate agents to tell you what the going rate rate.

These days personally I think it is silly playing games by over- or under- pricing the property.

List the property a little bit higher than what you think it's worth so there is room for negotiation, and go from there.

alanobrien

if in doubt a simple approach is to take an average of all the valuations provided.    Compare that to the the minimum selling price you will accept and go from there. 

julicorn

As mentioned, our flat is on the market now - I'll report back with how the open day goes, but won't change the list price now of course

propertyhunter

I went with a lower price range for my flat, and it served me well as it got a lot of interest. I managed to get £3k over my minimum acceptable amount. This was at the start of last year when COVID was a bigger deal than it is now and the cladding crisis was completely unresolved and leaseholders were expected to foot remediation bills. I think the market for flats is better now. Good luck for the weekend!

julicorn

Thank you @propertyhunter !  

julicorn

julicorn said:

NameUnavailable said:

I personally hate the 'guide price' approach - that should be kept for auctions. Most buyers will probably start at around £300K and you have to haggle them up. Likewise the 'offers over' as it suggests you would be happy with £300K but will try for a bit more.

Better IMHO to list at £325K.

I'd be interested to hear the feedback from your viewings to prove me wrong!

Honestly after sitting on it for a week, £300k seems decent to us and would get us the sort of house we're looking for, £310k we'd be happy with, and if it's somehow more than that then it's more than that. All the different listing strategies have their disadvantages, and we ended up going with the one we felt would attract interest, but also indicate that we're ideally looking for offers somewhere in the middle ("offers over" always feels like £500 over would do the trick), while still playing the silly Rightmove price band game all the EAs seem to be playing around here. 
I'll definitely report back though

Final update: We've accepted an offer of £310k today. Thank you all again for your help  

propertyhunter

So happy you got a price you're happy with! Good luck with the sale!