Thoughts on fixed price

katie4

If a house is marketed as a fixed price what are you thoughts on this?

Or Is it better to market it for more than what we want (£140k) and hope for an offer above this so advertise at £145/50k 

Albermarle

You can advertise it as a fixed price, but you will still get offers at different prices, normally lower.
Buyers tend to ignore statements like 'Offers above' etc.
In any case from your point of view, an offer of £5K less for someone not in a chain, could be better than someone offering the full 'fixed price' but in a long chain.
Normal practice is to aim a bit higher, but not so high you put people off.

ButterCheese

If someone is desperate to buy your house, you might well get offers over that to guarantee the purchase.  If yours is not reasonably priced, or if there are plenty of other options around then you might not get as much.  You might opt to accept less if it's a cash buyer.  it depends on how desperate you are to sell, and how desperate the buyer is to buy.  So many variables.  I would see what it's valued at, advertise it at that, and decide on what's the lowest you'll take.

david29dpo

Never understood why agents do this.
Most if not all buyers will offer what they think its worth to them, whatever the agents claptrap use.

TroubledTarts

New people, not versed in the housing market, and first time buyers may just not even consider the property if they have £137,500 if you put a fixed price on the listing.

I personally would alienate anyone and just list the property for its valuation and see what happens.

jimbog

For me a 'fixed price' indicates that a seller may be somewhat intransigent, wouldn't negotiate on price regardless of what a survey may reveal (do they have something to hide?) and may be difficult to do business with.
Best to just give a price to encourage viewings and negotiate further down the line if necessary. Any negotiations should be a dance rather than a battle

FlorayG

The house I eventually bought had been on the market with a fixed price and the vendors would not budge although they had several offers. It was empty and costing them...after it had been on the market over 12 months they accepted my cash offer of £30k less than they had previously been determined to get. I guess they were just worn down by the waiting and the costs

david29dpo

FlorayG said:

The house I eventually bought had been on the market with a fixed price and the vendors would not budge although they had several offers. It was empty and costing them...after it had been on the market over 12 months they accepted my cash offer of £30k less than they had previously been determined to get. I guess they were just worn down by the waiting and the costs

Just my point about crap agents

grumpy_codger

katie4 said:

Or Is it better to ... advertise at £145/50k 

This way is absolutely nonsensical IMO.

bobster2

katie4 said:

If a house is marketed as a fixed price what are you thoughts on this?

Or Is it better to market it for more than what we want (£140k) and hope for an offer above this so advertise at £145/50k 

It's quite common to set an "asking price" slightly higher than what you expect to achieve (are willing to accept).

On average, house sales complete at 3-5% below asking price. So marketing at £145k hoping to achieve £140k would not be unusual.

Both times I've sold recently I've taken this approach. Was happy with the price achieved - and the buyer felt like they'd done well negotiating some money off. But we'd ended up pretty much where I'd always expected we would.

cr1mson

Where are you based as in Scotland fixed price tends to be more of a thing?