The danger with over pricing your home
Of course every seller wants the most amount of money for their home but listing it at a price that’s too high can actually have a negative impact on the final sale price. Let me explain why.
I’ve been on some appraisals this month where the owners have said that my ‘valuation’ isn’t as high as another agent.
Now there a couple of things to note. Firstly, our job isn’t to value your house per se. We don’t know what it will sell for so how can we say it’s worth an exact figure. If an agent says a home is worth £350,000 what happens if it sells for £340,000 or even £355,000. Our job as agents is to achieve the highest selling price for you as the seller.
Many agents will ‘over value’ just to get the listing and then spend the next few weeks trying to get you to reduce the price but let’s say that you list with the agent that quotes the highest price despite the evidence of recent comparable sales and the experience of the agent.
You set a high asking price in the hope that you receive a high offer, however, no one makes an offer so you wait and hope that a buyer comes along.
As you’re waiting, your overpriced home means other homes look far better value for money so suddenly you’re actually helping other sellers to sell their homes.
Eventually you decide to reduce the price as you definitely want to sell but the problem now is that so much time has elapsed that it’s become a stale listing. Buyers are starting to ask what is wrong with it.
In order to generate offers, you have to reduce the price again to counteract the negative feeling attached to your property which ultimately results in a lower final selling price.
As you can see, properties that are advertised above market value actually tend to sell for less than they could have achieved if the original marketing price was more attractive.
Therefore when choosing your agent, you should always make the choice based on their marketing strategy and the experience of the agent not the highest valuation you have received.
If you’re starting to think about selling or if you’re stuck on the market at the moment, you can contact me on 07969 638349 or duncan.kaye@keysandlee.co.uk for help or sales advice.