Can you have too low an asking price?

dander

I'm about to try and sell my house - I need a quick sale because I have seen my dream house that I want to secure. My own house is not obvious to value because I live in a road where houses are of many different designs and sizes so there are no direct comparisons. 
Estate agent suggested a price that is quite close to one they've just sold in about a week - which is in the same road but considerably smaller.

Obviously one prices to attract interest if you want a quick sale, but is there a price where people think there's something wrong with the house? If I come in at a low asking I have very little room for taking offers under, so I need to hit a sweet spot where people will come view, but not assume it's a desperate seller who will take anything. 

FYI: If I miss out on the dream house I'll just come off the market. Perfectly nice house with no reason to move otherwise.

Martico

This is a kind of "how long is a piece of string" question. In your position, I'd consider marketing at market value, but offering the EA a slightly higher fee than they'd normally get. If you can incentivise the agent, you may be rewarded

housebuyer143

I don't think you can go too low, people might ask what's wrong with it at which point the agent will say you want a quick sale to secure your next house. £10k-£15k under market price probably isn't going up freak anyone out. 

BobT36

I might think "hmm what's the catch", but I'd also still view and do my due diligence to ascertain that. 
If "I want a quick sale" was the reason then I'd weigh that up and judge it accordingly. 

Usually it's "I want a quick sale" and they're asking higher than what I'd expect and with a load of other problems, too lol. The last one I viewed who said that ended up taking it off the market 1y later as they didn't once drop the price, and clearly couldn't sell it. Obv lost out on that dream bungalow they were waiting for.. 

Bigphil1474

OP, I'd market it a bit above what you need. We're currently selling ours and most in our area seem to be going for about 5% below asking price. Bit of a buyers market and everyone likes a bargain, so if you advertise it at £X, people will expect to pay less.

Flugelhorn

not sure what to say about price, sometimes you put a house on the market and it sells really quickly and you think "woops could I have got more?" - you just don't know. No I don't think a low price would put people off - they may be tempted to see what it is all about. 
What would put me off is the fact that you only want to move to one specific house - if I liked your house and offered I would be pretty committed to it - not keen on the fact that you might drop out next week. 

dander

Flugelhorn said:

not sure what to say about price, sometimes you put a house on the market and it sells really quickly and you think "woops could I have got more?" - you just don't know. No I don't think a low price would put people off - they may be tempted to see what it is all about. 
What would put me off is the fact that you only want to move to one specific house - if I liked your house and offered I would be pretty committed to it - not keen on the fact that you might drop out next week. 

Totally fair, but there's not much I can do about that. I'd certainly make sure no-one spent any money on the process before I'd tied up an agreement on my potential purchase. 

Gavin83

I don't know how much under it's value you're thinking but if you go way under you might lose out on buyers. When I was searching for a house, using Rightmove I'd put in both a maximum and a minimum price. I did the minimum to weed out the cheaper houses I wouldn't be interested in. If your price was below that threshold I wouldn't have seen it and I expect I'm not the only person to do this.

NameUnavailable

dander said:

Estate agent suggested a price that is quite close to one they've just sold in about a week - which is in the same road but considerably smaller.

So are you saying you think that the EA has under valued your house? How do the two compare (smaller as in fewer rooms or ? ).

You presumably have a price in mind that you would like and a 'bottom line' that would allow you to make the move. Put it on at a price you're happy with, taking the EA's value as a guide.

Also, what is the vendors position? Have they got a property they're ready to proceed with or are they only going to start looking if/when they get a buyer?