Should I change my marketing price?
A client recently asked me for advice following guidance from their agent to drop their marketing price from £200,000 to £198,000.
I was a little surprised by the agents suggestion but thought it may be useful to share my thoughts. I always welcome any feedback on anyone else’s opinions. Feel free to register to enable comments on our blog page…
My humble opinion and response to the client’s query was as follows:
I would suggest you are just making it a little harder for yourself when it comes to negotiations and dropping it from £200,000 to £198,000 will not make any difference to viewing requests or generate 'new' interest from a potential buyer.
Any such drop in marketing price really needs to be a minimum 2% and then Rightmove will show it as a price drop and effectively put you back to the top of the search results as if it were a new listing.
The filters for maximum property price, that that are set for users on the likes of Rightmove around this particular property price go up at this price range in increments of £10,000. Ie max price £190,000, £200,000, £210,000
Dropping from £200,000 to £198,000 will not bring a listing into view to any different potential applicants? You are just effectively taking £2,000 off any future negotiations before you have started?
Put it this way – you are searching for properties and have a budget in the region of £300,000. If you saw it listed for £298,000 would that make any difference to your intial opinion on whether it fitted your preferences or not? The property would either appeal to you and may want to view it at £300k or you wouldn’t… Would seeing the same listing at £298,000 change your mind whether to pick up the phone and to go see it or not.. I would suspect not…
Think carefully before reducing or amending your price.
Such move may be required if the agent has miss valued your property (or dare I say - enhanced the price during your initial conversations to try when trying to win the contract/instruction, to sell your property).
Maybe they had not fully considered accurate comparables in deciding the initial marketing price, ( or maybe the market has shifted), but any amendment to your marketing price needs to have a strategy behind it that will enable such a change to have a positive impact (such as the 2% Rightmove rule to price changes).
Check out another blog on my website regards researching comparables to find an accurate expectation a property’s value.
I hope that helps in obtaining a more strategic approach in securing a buyer whilst ensuring the best price for your property is realised.
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