The master plan is that you have your property valued by a few Estate Agents, you come to the market, have a good amount of viewings and sell…..but sometimes the market has other ideas and turns around and bites you in the …..

This could be due to a number of factors, time of year, the amount of similar properties that come on to the market,  a pandemic and just general market forces……some of which you will never know or understand but it happens, despite trying your best.

The ‘R’ word……the dreaded price reduction when your home is for sale on the market. Price reductions are the last thing to discuss when selling your home, but after everything has been tried and tested or changed, it may be the next best option.

It is always a very sensitive subject to approach but if there is very little interest in your property then it may be something that is needed. This may help you get into that sold position and allow you to get to the next stage to be able to find your next dream home.

So, you’ve been on the market and either had no interest or had a good bit of interest but not managed to get any offers, or the offers you have had are not the correct level for you…..what do you do next?

Now, I will not have this discussion until I know that I have tried everything possible: changed any photos, text, bullet points and anything else that can be altered in an effort to find that buyer. Sometimes it could be the smallest change that manages to attract that buyer to your home….hence why everything needs to be checked first.

The first thing you should do is look through the marketing material and find out if all the positive and selling features have been explained. Are the photos good; are the selling photos in the most prominent places in the marketing, do the bullet points and text highlight the best information about the property and the location to attract all the buyers attention?

Is the text correct and is there any glaringly obvious mistakes that will affect how the property looks?
Is there a property video/3D tour etc?

All Estate Agents will have access to Rightmove and Zoopla stats, as well as there own database to give an in depth idea of how the property is performing and from there we can gauge the next step. Looking at the stats you will get one, two, three thousand people, maybe more, looking at your details and if you are not getting any viewings from thousands of viewing hits, again you need to consider the price.

I work to two rules. provided all the marketing has been checked and there has been a reasonable amount of marketing time, (approximately 4-6 weeks) the rules I work by are as follows:

If, from the launch you get no, or very little interest, then sadly the market is telling you that the price is not working in the current market place. Why is this? You should naturally get an influx of interest on a property from the people who have automatic notices set up on their accounts, coupled with the viewings that an agent can generate. If this does not generate any viewings then you need to look at the price as clearly it is not in the right price zone to get people interested to view.

If you get a lot of viewings but no offers, then your price may need just a little tweak to bring it in to an area where people get excited to make an offer. People are genuinely attracted to the property but after viewing they say ‘yes, it was good, but I want to keep looking’. They may be looking at 10, 20, 30 properties so will be laser guided on what is available to them and your property is just not tipping them over the edge into making that offer.

The market is the bigger beast out there and people coming through the door will tell you all you need to know about how your property is being perceived in the market place.

Estate Agents will do everything we can to get viewers through the door…..we don’t get paid until it completes so makes sense for us to do everything possible to find those viewers for you and leave no stone un-turned but sometimes forcing people through the door is not going to find you a solid buyer.

When considering a price adjustment you need to consider two things – The first is that for Rightmove to refresh it like a new listing the price needs to be adjust by a figure greater than 2%.

Secondly, if possible, always try and hit the property portal price points to maximise your property search results. People can only search to certain prices which is why the £499,995 price strategy is old news and you may as well stick at £500,000. For example, you then get seen for people looking up to £500,000 and also people looking at £500,000 and above.  Both of these should be considered when making price adjustments to maximise exposure in the market place.

It may not be possible to hit a price point, but if you are near a price point it is worth hitting it….if it is possible of course in your budget and planning.

The last thing I will mention, and food for thought – We are in the busiest market place we have seen for a while so if you are not getting any interest you need to consider a revised price to breath a new lease of life into your property marketing.

If you would like to talk this subject through in depth please give me a call on 07595 473891.

www.chrisdurrant.co.uk