Some people have their property on the market, usually with less experienced agents, for too much money.  They ask us why it hasn’t sold, we tell them it’s too high, and because they don’t want to hear it they say to us “if it is too high then why haven’t people offered less?  We’ve not even had a significant number of viewings or offers to gauge the market feedback yet”.

Let me tell you something, buyers aren’t blind. If your house has been on the market for months, with a professional agency, and you haven’t had many viewings or any serious offers – that is your market feedback.

Let me explain how it works:

Firstly, you need to understand that people buy with their heart. Their head will get your property shortlisted if it is in the right town, has the right number of bedrooms and is within their budget – but a dozen other properties will be shortlisted too. It is their heart that will guide them to which to view and buy.

So let’s assume we know that your house is worth £295,000 to £300,000, but you have it on the market at £325,000 and have had no offers and few viewings.  This is how it works:

People who pay £300,000 for a house usually start off with a comfortable budget of say £280,000 to £290,000, and will find the extra for the right property.  They search for all properties from £275,000 to £300,000.  In their search your property on the market at £300,000 is the best, and it shines compared to those at £275,000.  Buyers will view and buy yours as an emotional reaction, they fell in love with it.

Now move yourself into the mind-set of a buyer searching £300,000 to £325,000.  Compared to property genuinely worth £325,000 yours looks like the poor relation; it is smaller, not in such a good location or just not quite as nice. The buyer has skimmed past yours and fallen in love with the bigger, better, shinier house.  They probably had a comfortable budget of £315,000, they could have bought yours for less, but they didn’t even consider it. They didn’t buy with logic, they bought with emotion.

So what have we learnt?

You could ‘test the market’ at a higher figure, but understand that no feedback is feedback in itself.  React quickly (4 weeks max) to save your property appearing stale.  No one pays the price for a property that’s gathered dust on the shelf.

Beware of the inexperienced or struggling estate agent who tells you a higher number just to massage your ego and win you over.  A good agent will get you the maximum the market will pay and will not leave you stranded above that figure where you have no option but to watch the price tumble, to (probably) lower than market value as it has lost its ‘new instruction’ shine.

Lancasters have a network of busy High Street offices in Cowes, Ryde and Shanklin, pop in for a chat.

We have helped thousands of families move home over the past 25 years.  You worry about packing and leave the selling to us. We’ve got this.