Best Strategy for Optimising House Sales Price

Mummy2 on 19/11/2020 - 22:27

My parents need to sell their house (in the UK) as they are getting too old to live by themselves in a house that size. They have done their homework and narrowed down to 2 real estate agents.

Both have similar expectations of what the house will sell for and both reckon it will sell in a couple of weeks.

One agent wants to market their house at the higher end of valuation range to prevent time wasters/ending with a low final offer with buyers trying to get a bargain. The other reckons pricing it lower will generate more interest and start a pricing war where folk outbid each other to get the house of their dreams - resulting in a higher offer than the more "fixed price"/top end strategy.

Ideally my parents don't want to move until end Q1 next year, but now is a good time to sell in the UK.

Which is the best strategy for optimising the amount of money that will get.

Poll Options expired

  • 1
    Market at high end of valuation range
  • 3
    Market lower than valuation (hoping for price war)
  • 18
    Bickies
Home & Garden

Comments

  • Quantumcat on 19/11/2020 - 22:35
    +4

    Yum bickies

    • Mummy2 on 19/11/2020 - 22:52

      Seems a popular option !

  • Trying2SaveABuck on 19/11/2020 - 22:35
    +3

    Private sale - option 1- set price high and try get what you actually want (which i assume is under what the set price is)

    Auction - option 2 - set price low get as much foot traffic as you can create urgency (if you don't get what you want at auction go to option 1)

    Pretty simple…

  • funnysht on 19/11/2020 - 22:40
    +3

    You need to think what the real estate agents want- an easy sell and least amount of work…..pricing it low means that you are trusting the agent to get them tocompete against one another to get you the best price- but in the end they want it sold….and not spend an endless amount of time on the phone talking to buyers.

    Pricing it at a good price that you want- at least any offer will be what's expected..

  • [Deactivated] on 19/11/2020 - 23:09
    +2

    Leave some Earl Grey out with a side of crumpets and have the cricket playing on the tellie that's under a framed photograph of the Queen.

  • dasher86 on 19/11/2020 - 23:23
    +3

    A real estate agent wants to sell as fast and possible.
    The make their money on churn.
    That 'bidding war' may not happen. And your parents will be pressured to take the best offer they get in 'two weeks' which is an insanely short time on the market.

  • elgrande on 19/11/2020 - 23:34
    -1

    End of the day the market will decide the price, not the agent.

  • Nutrino on 20/11/2020 - 00:08

    "Which is the best strategy for optimising the amount of money that will get."

    You want this infomation for free? Hmpf!

  • TheBird on 20/11/2020 - 00:43

    Sounds like playing silly buggers to me.

    The best strategy is getting multiple people, who are willing to pay above market rates, to compete for the property. To do that, you need a property that people really want. Once you have that, you need a good agent who can extract the maximum price.

    With this strategy, the starting price isn't where you shoul be focused. It's all about presenting the value of the property to whom will pay the most.

  • Oofy Doofy on 20/11/2020 - 00:48
    -1

    Is this a trick question? You are not going to reliably time the market. The property will get what the market is willing to pay.

    Auction listing, advertise for a month, set a high reserve (on the market minimum) and let RE Agency do it's thing (along with their auctioneer).

    • Mummy2 on 20/11/2020 - 10:48

      The question is more about the strategy to get the best price at the time, rather than get the highest price ever by picking the best time to sell (as, as you say, no reliable method to timing the market).

      • Oofy Doofy on 20/11/2020 - 14:12

        There's no point in doing anything to the property other than making it decently respectable and fixing any fundamental problems.

        Auction would be something you'd be looking to do in a market that's hot, the area is hot etc…

        • Mummy2 on 21/11/2020 - 08:54
          +1

          They got some good advice from the real estate agents who came round. Small cosmetic things to do like move all the indoor plants away from in front of the windows so people can properly see the view of the garden when they are in the house (the garden is nice with a view of countryside beyond) which we hadn't thought of … and general declutter of ornaments, only a few pictures on the walls etc which we were already aware of.

  • JIMB0 on 20/11/2020 - 06:05

    Why don't you look at what prices the agents have achieved for similar properties.

    • Mummy2 on 20/11/2020 - 08:36

      We do probably need to get some more examples then. The 'price it low' agent recently sold a similar size house on the same road and ended up with a sale price 30% above when it had been put on the market for - marketed as " offers is excess of x" and it went for x+30% with 15 people fighting over it. He touted this as a good example… but could be his best example by far.

      • JIMB0 on 20/11/2020 - 10:47

        Look for one with a good track record.

  • sickllama on 21/11/2020 - 08:05

    A few here have suggested auction. I didn't think there was an auction market in the UK?

    • Mummy2 on 21/11/2020 - 08:48

      I've not lived in the uk for a while now, but never knew anyone to sell/buy a property by auction when I was there. I think they do sell properties by auction but it's not very common. I know my parents won't want to go down that route to sell.

  • Mummy2 on 21/11/2020 - 08:55
    +1

    Thanks for all your helpful comments everyone.

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