Estate agents: best strategy

HunterHome

We have had various estate agents come to our house one wants to put the house on at a higher price and the other feels putting it on at the price we should definitely get will create more interest and result in a higher price being reached as more people want it.

Is there a best strategy in regards to selling a house?


I always assumed people expect to pay less than the advertised price. 

MultiFuelBurner

Various (2?) Or are you waiting for other prices? 

RHemmings

I've been told that a property around my way went for quite a bit over asking. 

Another property, one that I viewed, was very popular on viewing and it was 'SSTC' within days.

Another property that looked competitively priced around my way had 15 viewings booked over a week ago. I must check what happened to that one. I'm guessing sold, and maybe a bidding war.  EDIT: It appears to have utterly vanished from everywhere. 

The last two were listed by the same estate agent. Maybe their strategy. 

I'm not saying it will work, but it at least looks like the strategy can work. 

user1977

If there's bidding between buyers then it will reach its natural price, which might bear no relation to the asking price. So there is a logic there - though the question is whether there will actually be a crowd of buyers all wanting to offer at the same time. Depends on the local market really.

HunterHome

MultiFuelBurner said:

Various (2?) Or are you waiting for other prices? 

Sorry, when I said various, I meant to say it was just one of four that suggested putting it on at the lower price and all the rest over the price.

But despite most wanting to put over the price, I quite liked the agent who had a different approach.  I was just concerned it would automatically result in offers that were under that price.

timehastoldme

We had two lowball agents and one over. We went with over because we liked them better, and ended up with a price higher than the other two had offered, but lower than listed. One tried to tell us that people would bid up but we didn't feel like the market round here supported that. You can tell them you like them, but want to list higher than they have suggested, it's a negotiation.

BobT36

Just be aware of the fact that there's been FOURTEEN rises in interest rates (including a massive rise of cost of living!) in the last year. Also that most younger estate agents will have only ever known sky-high & rising house prices and low interest rates, and never a situation like we have now. 

NameUnavailable

As a buyer I hate seeing the 'guide price' or 'offers over' type listings. It suggests to me that the vendor may have unrealistic expectations.

I would put a set price that is what I would really hope for on a good day and expect to take offers - if it happens that the property was in demand and several buyers were interested then you have the option to ask for 'best and final' offers before deciding which to take.

Remember of course, the highest offer may not be the best offer! There are plenty of examples on here of people suggesting to offer high to secure the deal and then negotiate once the survey is back.

Bigphil1474

Similar boat myself. We had 3 estate agents over the last week come and value our house - 2 suggested the same marketing price, and one said £10k lower (about 5%) on the basis that it will attract more offers. All 3 have a local shop, same fees etc. but we're not sure which way to go. On the one hand I think the higher price will give us wiggle room if someone offers below, but the lower price is pretty bang on what we need to get out of the house. Our house is also quite old so would expect the survey to pick up some issues. We're leaning towards one of the higher priced valuations on the basis that the estate agents have sold more properties in the last few months.

On their commission rates the £10k difference would only make £100 difference, so maybe it's in their interest to aim lower and sell quicker. On the other hand, the others might be over valuing to get the business then if we don't get much interest, we end up putting the price down a bit anyway. Dilemma. The £10k difference will probably mean the difference between having to borrow and not to borrow for our next property.

km1500

when I sold recently one agent said £410k and one £450k.

I went with £450k and was offered and accepted £425k

peterhjohnson

It partly depends on what you want to achieve. Some houses are priced such that they are SSTC within a couple of weeks. I think of that price as the "natural" price. Some people ask a bit more and generally have to wait a lot longer to go SSTC - or, in the current market  just fail to sell. So do you want some certainty and to get on with your move, or do you feel lucky?

Many agents compete to get your business by suggesting a higher asking price than the others. I've had an agent "explain" to me that the reason they suggested asking 5% over what another agent proposed was because she was a much better agent I ended up going with the agent who suggested a "guide price" lower than the other two and ended up with a nice little bidding war and an offer over guide price. Maybe the optimistic agent could have unearthed a more "generous" buyer but my own research suggests not.