Advice on reducing asking price

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone. We have been trying to sell our house since January - when we first marketed it sold the day after first viewings, but we lost our buyers when the property we were going to buy had serious problems in survey and we had to pull out. We remarketed it in September but of course the market is completely different now and whilst we have had a good number of viewings, no offers. Interestingly no one has mentioned price in feedback (which has all been different so no themes) although we’ve had no lower than asking, either. 

Our EA is putting quite a lot of pressure on to reduce the price before Christmas as they say there will be so many hits on Right Move over Christmas and we will miss out if we don’t.  3 weeks ago they were saying reduce by 10 K and now they are saying reduce by 20 K due to possible further interest rate rises and no viewings for a couple of weeks now. 

It’s hard to know whether it’s a sales target issue or whether this is the right thing to do - similar houses in our area range wildly in price so I can’t get a handle on what price is reasonable. We haven’t got a house lined up to buy yet. Part of me just wants to get Christmas over and see what happens. Any advice welcome and thanks for reading long post! 

fackers_2

It's almost always due to price. Better to slightly under value than over to drive footfall. It would be much better to now remove from the market, wait the 7 weeks (I think) to re-list as a NEW listing and in time for the early spring.  Sorry it's not great news but the market has changed. 

Do you have compatibles to see where it might list at now? I don't know the value of the house but taking EA advice here and knock off the £20k. But people will only doubt the house as it's been on for so long. 

Re-list in the Spring is my advice.

lookstraightahead

As a buyer, I wouldn't buy anywhere if I had to wait a long time for my vendor to find somewhere. So it might not be price, it might be your situation. are you happy to move out or are you expecting buyers to wait?

BikingBud

Both £10k and £20k are meaningless. Is this 5% or 25% reduction.

If you reduce although you may appear to clear less from your sale, you may find other properties are also reduced and the capital cost of moving has reduced.

Prices varying wildly in the area will include those speculating and expecting the house price inflation to persist and those who are more circumspect and realise thy need to move and price accordingly.

You may also find that the available mortgage products are at a higher rate and you may be paying more over the full period of the mortgage. The BOE interest rate rose again today but we'll see how that plays out.

Principally, as you need to find someone willing to buy your house and then see what you can afford I don't see how you would do anything different this time around.

badger09

fackers_2 said:

It's almost always due to price. Better to slightly under value than over to drive footfall. It would be much better to now remove from the market, wait the 7 weeks (I think) to re-list as a NEW listing and in time for the early spring.  Sorry it's not great news but the market has changed. 

Do you have compatibles to see where it might list at now? I don't know the value of the house but taking EA advice here and knock off the £20k. But people will only doubt the house as it's been on for so long. 

Re-list in the Spring is my advice.

I think it’s 12 weeks in order to appear as a ‘new’ listing. 

MikeJXE

Christmas is not a good time to sell, Agents will want you to reduce your price because they know that and they need to move properties to survive. I heard yesterday from a chippy who works on site that the big builders are getting roofs on, installing windows and making their new homes weatherproof, Then shutting down because they are not selling. I am an ex builder and that is what they do. 

[Deleted User]

Probably there are more bargain shoppers in the market right now, with others holding back due to the volatility. The idea of relisting in spring is a good one.

fackers_2

Prices are likely to only reduce due to further volatility and people not being able to afford their mortgage renewals since their bargain low 1% rates when they are up... A lot of people who moved in early 2020 bought hiked up priced houses on low rates, maximising their affordability... when these come to renew there will be a lot of serious conversations regarding downsizing etc.

Schwarzwald

Deleted_User said:

Our EA is putting quite a lot of pressure on to reduce the price before Christmas as they say there will be so many hits on Right Move over Christmas and we will miss out if we don’t.  3 weeks ago they were saying reduce by 10 K and now they are saying reduce by 20 K due to possible further interest rate rises and no viewings for a couple of weeks now. 

Reg Hits, yes likely to be many more than average as people have time off work and often sit at their family’s houses bored and so view houses online, but guess while number of hits significantly up, guess quality is really down, people not in town for booking visits, etc
can EA prove that sales are really up in late Dec/early Jan? Sounds more like EA wants to push a sale

as others said, 10-20k reduction hard to assess if relative starting point remains unknown. And ultimately a question of how much you need these 10-20k for your own onward purchase?

MobileSaver

fackers_2 said:

A lot of people who moved in early 2020 bought hiked up priced houses on low rates, maximising their affordability... when these come to renew there will be a lot of serious conversations regarding downsizing etc.

Well for a start a third of those lots of people will have bought outright in cash so they couldn't care less what happens to mortgage interest rates.

Most of the rest will have taken out a five-year or longer fixed rate so they won't be worrying about renewing for at least another three years yet...

Zerforax

If you haven't got a house lined up, maybe time to delist and wait for the new year and decide again?