Properties are more likely to find a buyer if the initial asking price hasn’t been altered, Rightmove claims.
The portal tracked more than 300,000 homes that were first put up for sale between May 13 and July 31 and found that sellers are twice as likely to find a buyer for their home if the asking price it is first listed at does not have to change.
Out of all properties put up for sale that were not reduced, 63% of them have been marked under offer or sold subject to contract.
In contrast, only 32% of properties in this cohort that have reduced their price have gone on the be under offer or sold subject to contract.
In the current market, the average number of days from first listed to finding a buyer is 21 for properties that haven’t been reduced.
It rises to 47 days for those with reductions.
Currently one in six properties (16%) on Rightmove have had at least one reduction since May, the portal said, which is an improvement on the 18% for the same period last year.
The average size of a reduction is also slightly lower, at 5%, compared with 5.2% last year.
Tim Bannister, director of property data, for Rightmove, said: “This analysis shows just how vital it is that sellers listen to their agent when they recommend the asking price that the property should be listed at. If sellers are serious about selling, then starting with too high an asking price can cause unnecessary delays, and also make it a lot less likely they will actually find a buyer in the end.
“The temporary Stamp Duty holiday means more sellers are in a hurry to get a sale through conveyancing, and with this also taking longer at the minute a realistic asking price could soon end up being the difference between completing in time or losing out on the savings.
“A number of properties are reduced every year, and it’s important to say that not all cases are down to over-pricing.
“If there’s an area of lower demand than supply then a reduction may be needed if the seller needs to move.
“Also, if prices have gone down in an area it’s understandable that a seller will be hesitant or may not be able to afford to put their home on for a lower price than they bought it for.
“But in the busy market we have right now there will also be some sellers who may think it’s worth a punt to ask for their home to be put up for sale for the same price as their neighbour across the road, when their neighbour may have extra room or their home may be in a better condition.”
Well, talk about stating the obvious!
Has correct pricing not always been the key to selling or is this a new thing?
Maybe it’s a guide aimed at the likes of PB etc.
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It’s not very clear but I think this is a piece of advice from Rightmove for public consumption- listen to agents; they know what they are talking about.
The problem with the advice is that it doesn’t help differentiate between the professional agent who has got their assessment of the market correct and those who’ve been trained “no-one ever went to jail for an over valuation”
Price juggling- ping-ponging the price up and down by 2% to get the portal notifications sent to prospects is still a thing. The portals know its going on but don’t do anything to stop the practice. Gaming listings increases traffic and the bigger the traffic stats, artificial or genuine, that’s what’s fed back to agents as digital King’s new clothes- only a fool can’t see traffic sell houses….
This IS what every good agent knows so perhaps this article is the first shoot of Rightmove recognising agents are their customer and with all that going on….. and apparently coming, its time to be customer rather than consumer focused.
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Intuitive…………………
Thanks Rightmove, for your help…… rolling eyes….
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Hearing too many properties sell within a week at the asking price – valued too low.
And far too many properties sell themselves – London etc
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Shame the conveyancing take 4 months now. It’s the worst element of our business. Not all the conveyancers’ faults, but the system is appalling. Selling a property in 7 days is almost pointless. Better to instruct your solicitor the day it goes on the market and price it high enough to take 4 weeks to find a buyer, by which time your conveyancer might be ready to issue contract papers.
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Or …….. buyers can see that the price is right between those that are over or under priced (often meeting the vendors instructions), that is one of the major advantages for them on large web portals. Buyers have always been able to see if the price is right.
As to selling themselves, that’s a new one. Never seen a property take photos, measure, phone people, list on the web, sort out the all survey issues that the property tried to hide and all too often **** conveyancing so the sale doesn’t fall through!
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There is a fine balance in a rising market between over valuing and testing the market. As agents our duty is to assess the highest asking price that will generate viewings which result in a meaningful offer at an acceptable level.
Having done this for 38 years, sometimes we get it wrong, not intentionally but if every house was a clone of another then valuing would be easy. Better to assess on the slightly higher side and be able to adjust downwards after 2-4 weeks than to undervalue and sell in a few days knowing you could have got more.
Zoopla valuation tool is also a disgrace as the range of values is so wide and many people believe they know what it’s worth before you get there and just won’t listen to reason. Just want an agent to go in and say ‘Yes, of course we can try it at that price’
Valuing is not an exact science. “A property is worth what someone will pay for it” underpins our housing market as with any free market. How can anyone accurately predict that every time. Rightmove stats do not show how many of the properties sold quickly could have achieved more. Never can.
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Very well said!
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Valuing is an exact science- knowing exactly who is in the market for every home visited cannot be more exact than that
I am deep diving right now into the difference between traditional, proper, full service agency; the stuff you know and remember and what agency has become because property browsing can be done anywhere, at any time by anyone with absolutely no barriers of cost, time or effort.
The disruption of agency hasn’t come from disruptors but from the ease of making an enquiry.
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Hi Robert
When I was in my twenties and thirties I used to know the asking price of every house on every street, through hours and hours of research each week. Undertaking real, properly worked out valuations was also key to being credible.
These days, the dark art of valuing has given way RM and Z (and others) house price reports. The man in the pub approach if you prefer.
No longer are agents trusted valuers. Often the instruction is given to the agent who guesses nearest to what the client is thinking. Rather sad really.
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The week before lockdown our village filled with expensive motors, most had a tell tale residents parking permit on display. I worked out what was happening and had a conversation with an agent. “Forget the local market the money has arrived, add 15%. Sure enough 15% happened and on one tender at the weekend £190k asking just hit £250k.
The valuation models won’t reflect that instant change in a market up or down- they can’t. You watch what happens now; the algorithms are wrong footed by events, suddenly the dark art is back!
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You lost me at ‘deep diving’….
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Pricing property…
Properties sell when their listed asking price is suitably close enough to their ‘True Market Value’ which is the figure at which it will definitely sell at today, even in a poorer market. List the property with some small optimism in the asking price but don’t overdo it to get the instruction. If you have presented your valuation figures well showing your own credibility as a very experienced local estate agent then you shouldn’t need to inflate the figure to get the instruction.
In the true ‘Hybrid’ agency model you will review the initial asking price with the client on a call for the Weekly Marketing review in order to determine the asking price that is close enough to the true market value, based on the data, to get it sold. No guess work, no under-hand practices, just logical test and respond method of pricing to give the best outcome for the client. Working this way makes it very hard to not sell a house for the optimal price for the client as long as the vendor client has a genuine and invariable need to sell when the true market value is established.
Read more in this book on Amazon “No.1 Bastard Estate Agent. (someone no longer in their original form) How to Evolve in Property Selling”
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No POO sherlock
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Just thought that ‘Price at what the vendor wants to hear’ agents needed a nudge in to a method which doesn’t undersell the property in 5 minutes or leave the price at some fantasy figure for a year…
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And on the other side of the coin …… So how do house prices climb! (not talking over valuing)
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Economics – demand and supply. 10 buyers for the same property increases its value. Agents over valuing to win instructions has contributed to rising prices over the lat 20 years but the sense and reason brought by the mortgage valuers more recently has detered us from getting to the 20% house price rises of the mid-noughties.
Price accordingly, ask the buying market what they want to pay with a data driven model, listen and relay that to your client.
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Supply and demand with affordability. It is buyers who hike the price, if they didn’t put their hands in their pockets it would stay flat and then not forgetting most buyers are sellers.
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