Setting a sale price on your house

B

browser

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I was reading over some threads and see a growing problem in how to set a sale price for your house. I see this as different to valuing your house. If you take it that every one agrees that it is a buyers market and that a awful lot of people don't seem to be looking at the value of the house, but rather they are bidding as a percentage of the asking price.

For example, say a house is on the market for €400k - people are automatically bidding below by 10% or 15% - but if this house is only new on the market surely it has taken into consideration that the prices are falling and has priced it accordingly.

So if you want to get €400k for your house do you have to put it on the market for €450k and let the buyer think that he has "haggled" you down.

I know someone is going to come back and say it all comes down to what someone is willing to pay for the house and you should only pay what you think is right, but that's not the way I see things happening in a lot of situations, if it was then percentages would never be mentioned.

Any thoughts?
 
browser - your making one presumption here - that the buyer is an idiot. The buyer will most likely have looked at another x amount of houses before they look at your. They see yours is massively over priced compared to previously viewed place and adjust an offer occordingly.
 
I wouldn't necessarily go as far as calling them idiots, but ........ anyway I just think that some people are automatically just bidding below the asking price by a certain percentage instead of doing research - if you look at an earlier thread you will see one guy saying that he is going to bid 75% of the asking price on all houses - an extreme I know.

It is easy to compare similar houses in an estate, but when they are individual or one off housing it is harder to compare and so they go with the percentage of the asking price.
 
browser said:
I wouldn't necessarily go as far as calling them idiots, but ........ anyway I just think that some people are automatically just bidding below the asking price by a certain percentage instead of doing research - if you look at an earlier thread you will see one guy saying that he is going to bid 75% of the asking price on all houses - an extreme I know.

It is easy to compare similar houses in an estate, but when they are individual or one off housing it is harder to compare and so they go with the percentage of the asking price.
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That was me, and yes 75% is my baseline bid. This is based on the amount I believe the average house is overvalued by.

Some properties are more overvalued so I will probably bid 70% while other it may be less overvalued so I might bid 80%.
It has very little to do with the asking price of the property IMO.

If a house is over the average asking price of other similar properties in the area, then buyers probably may not even bother to view it at the moment.

Buyers aren't stupid, you can't just raise the price and then expect people to start their valuation at YOUR price.
 
"Buyers aren't stupid, you can't just raise the price and then expect people to start their valuation at YOUR price."

Or can you - there is still an awful lot of niavity in Ireland and don't presume that just because you are smart and well tuned in that everyone else is - a fool and his money and all that.

I think that people are now presuming that sellers are over valuing their properties because they know that buyers are going to under cut the offer by a percentage and therefore you are in a situation where the actual asking price of the property is deemed pretty much irrelevant - so with both sides "playing games" is really is very difficult to work out how much a house is really going for.

I am in a situation where I am going to be putting my house on the market very shortly, but I am more concerned about the houses I am going to be looking at to buy- there are some that are priced way out of my range and a few years ago I wouldn't have bothereed viewing them, as back then you saw the asking price and added on a percentage because they had the price lower to get people interested, but now they may be worth a look because people are starting higher and working down.


I thing Camry made a good point when he said -
"I think there is ample anecdotal evidence to suggest that there is a still large proportion of people in Ireland that believe if they lob 10% of an asking price (any asking price) it must be a good deal"
 
We put ours on at what we figured was a fair price in todays market and got the asking. you could also put it on at just 5-10 grand more than you want as people will offer at least this below the asking though you want to be careful not to put people off actually viewing your house.
 
If you price it at the price you are willing to sell it at then you will get more people interested . You or your EA can make it clear to all potential buyers that you are not playing any games or in EA language - 'PRICED TO SELL'. If your price is realistic then it should get that price. Any sort of pricing games reduce likelihood of people even finding your property in DAFT or wherever

If sellers offer a fixed % lower then that is because vendors generally price at a % higher. As a FTB myself, I would pay asking price if it is a good price but I have to find the property first and not be put off by the asking price
 
I know some people who very recently got 8% over their asking price as they priced low and generated enough interest to get a number of competing bids. What you need to do if you are selling is your own research.

If you live on an estate with 4 similar houses already on the market you need to take that into account. Talk to as many estate agents as you can. Make it clear that you are serious about selling and you don't want your house to sit on the market for 8 months+. Ask them what kinds of offers similar properties are selling for. Disregard anyone who is only telling you what they think you want to hear. And resign yourself that the actual value of your house is not the figure in your head nor is it the figure in your neighbour's head. It is what someone is willing to pay for it.
 
Buyers aren't stupid, you can't just raise the price and then expect people to start their valuation at YOUR price.
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Browser seems to have ruffled some feathers. Some arguments make it sound like its ok for the buyer to knock lumps off the price, but the vendor is treating buyers like idiots if he tries to counter this practice. Again either approach is too simplistic and it really comes down to location, local competition, house type etc there are too many variables to take a uniform approach to buying or selling.
 
I think "priced to sell" does give the message that you expect to make this price so it could be a useful way to set the tone and cut out the messing.
 
I think "priced to sell" does give the message that you expect to make this price so it could be a useful way to set the tone and cut out the messing.
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It really depends because sometimes it can be construed as 'desperate to sell' or this vendor is backed into a corner.
 
Hi,

I agree with MrMan -it depends on a lot of things such as location, local competition etc. It depends if your house is in an estate, a one off and so on, rural, suburban, city etc. Some locations prices are dropping more than others. Be practical about the price and above all have your house decluttered, neutral colours, no family photos. Best of luck with your sale.
 
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