When to reduce a sale price - NW Lancashire

Albermarle

Have you considered an auction?  If you decide to go down that route - always check in detail their costs if sold and costs if remain unsold, and reserve prices. I watch a lot of Homes Under The Hammer - and at times the properties sold in London, often go for the preice IMO of what they may have sold via an EA, but, I've never bought or sold via auction, so check prices and T&C's

What you see in that programme will be highly selective.
I guess most of the footage is never seen, and/or people don't want their business being broadcast.
Or is too boring or a disaster.

surreyworries

Thanks again, all. @Bigphil1474 - it’s a guess and would have course depend on quality of fit and finish. The property is solid, very large (approx 4k square feet), never had central heating (relies on fires and storage heaters), one bathroom for six bedrooms, kitchen unchanged since the 50s, with an AGA that is 55 years old and so on. It’s very Brontë, but absolutely possible to live in. It’s a really good point as to how the price could possibly have been right, four short weeks ago. 

Albermarle

surreyworries said:

Thanks again, all. @Bigphil1474 - it’s a guess and would have course depend on quality of fit and finish. The property is solid, very large (approx 4k square feet), never had central heating (relies on fires and storage heaters), one bathroom for six bedrooms, kitchen unchanged since the 50s, with an AGA that is 55 years old and so on. It’s very Brontë, but absolutely possible to live in. It’s a really good point as to how the price could possibly have been right, four short weeks ago. 

You still have not said where that £200K renovations figure came from . From what you say above it sounds like it needs more of a significant upgrade than a big renovation, which should cost less than £200K .

youth_leader

Do be careful with your old Aga @surreyworries.  My friend's parents had a similarly aged Aga and during the night her Mum smelled burning ... they'd recently agreed to have the 'additive' added to their oil.  Her Mum was half asleep, tripped over the hall carpet, and fell through the not safety glass kitchen door.  Cut everywhere except her juglar thank heavens.  Her screams woke her husband and when he got downstairs the Aga was smoking and the plasterboard above it was smouldering.  Scary stuff.  I used to be nervous with the sooting up of ours and stopped having the additive.

ReadySteadyPop

surreyworries said:

Thanks again, all. @Bigphil1474 - it’s a guess and would have course depend on quality of fit and finish. The property is solid, very large (approx 4k square feet), never had central heating (relies on fires and storage heaters), one bathroom for six bedrooms, kitchen unchanged since the 50s, with an AGA that is 55 years old and so on. It’s very Brontë, but absolutely possible to live in. It’s a really good point as to how the price could possibly have been right, four short weeks ago. 

Initial price will be the EA getting you on to their books, they will try to reduce it later if there is little interest.

vic_sf49

I wouldn't expect to drop the price on a regular 2 bed end of terrace, let alone this, after just 4 weeks, unless desperate to sell. 

This is a unique property, that may be on the market longer than most, due to the building size, remoteness, plot size, and needing some reno work.

This would be a much more considered purchase, than "we can live there for 5 yeas, before upsizing" type of property. 

It only needs one interested party, but they may take longer to find. 

ReadySteadyPop

surreyworries said:

Possibly a piece of string question...our family house went on the market four weeks ago. We researched loads of agents, got it down to three, and then picked our current one. On reflection, we were crazy to be rushed into putting it on the market during the school holidays, but hey ho, that time has gone.

They valued the property at £600k - £650k. It's a five bed detatched property in need of overhaul (est £200k as needs rewiring, central heating...).

After 22 days on the market (including RightMove, in the agency window, one social media post, emailing to their own matches...), the agency started suggesting that we drop the price, and saying that this is most effective within the first four weeks of it going on the market (which we're now just on the cusp of). It's had one viewing so far, and the viewer was put off by an external factor some distance away that we have no control over. No negative feedback on the price that we've been told about.

We don't think four-five weeks is long enough to try to sell the property at its original asking price, because there's no going back from reducing the price.

Help - thoughts?

1/ Does anyone have any knowledge of the NW Lancashire market? Is this typical...?
2/ Are people waiting for the budget to come out...?
3/ Should we drop the price at this early stage and accept that it was never worth the higher value?
4/ If we were to go with another agent at some point, could they return to the high value again?

 We are not in an urgent urgent hurry to sell, but wouldn't want to still be here in eg, a year.

Are you using one of the various apps that track price changes, this lets you track what sellers of similar properties are doing, also people check price history, if say you bought only a few years ago for much less than your asking price this could be a negative due to changes in borrowing costs etc.

ReadySteadyPop

vic_sf49 said:

I wouldn't expect to drop the price on a regular 2 bed end of terrace, let alone this, after just 4 weeks, unless desperate to sell. 

This is a unique property, that may be on the market longer than most, due to the building size, remoteness, plot size, and needing some reno work.

This would be a much more considered purchase, than "we can live there for 5 yeas, before upsizing" type of property. 

It only needs one interested party, but they may take longer to find. 

That is a good point, the "Race for Space" craze was really the sweet spot for these sorts of sales though?

UnsureAboutthis

It's widely accepted that people are waiting to buy/sell properties over 500k and more so over 1 mill due to
the rumours of possible new taxes re property, well, almost everything.

RAS

Is it a 5 bedroom or 6 bedroom house?  Does it have fires or stoves? 

I know a large house with an AGA, with some quirks and heating issues. It took some time to sell although Covid didn't help. 

Several offers that fell through. One proved to be a serial nuisance, a buyer's buyer fell through, an employer went bust, etc. Interest was sporadic but the failed offers were due to external circumstances not the property. 

If you can afford it, I'd look at installing one more bathroom or shower room, perhaps taking a bit of a bedroom adjacent to the existing bathroom to utilise water and waste connections? Heated towel rail and electric shower.

I'd also be quite explicit about the arrangements for the maintenance of the private road, septic tank etc. Are these sole costs or shared?