In the current market, reducing your asking price can be the difference between receiving multiple offers and agreeing a sale. Or having to chase the market by making a series of reductions.

In our recent blog “How to move home in the current housing market” we talked about why it it is so important to be proactive about ensuring your home is priced competitively. We also covered why reducing the asking price by less than 10% isn’t going to attract viewings or competitive offers. We recently agreed a sale on a property, that is a perfect example of how a proactive approach to adjusting your asking price can make a real difference to a sale.

Case Study: Reducing your asking price

On the 19th June 2023 we began marketing a three bedroom, end terrace home in Sittingbourne with an asking price of £325,000

During the crucial first two weeks of marketing, the property attracted very little interest, despite the team at Harrisons putting a huge effort to gain interest and book viewings. There was nothing wrong with the property itself, we knew it had to be down to price.

During those first two weeks of marketing, we had several conversations with the property owners with regard to reducing their asking price. At first they felt it was to early to reduce, until we explained how important the first few weeks are if you want to get the best price for your property. The owners wanted to move, they decided to take our advice and asked to reduce the asking price to £315,000.

However, we didn’t feel this was right, a reduction of less than 5% would not attract any interest. Additionally buyers who use the online property portals create their search profile and set the filters according to their budget. The portal price parameters go up in increments, in this case the maximum price filters available are £300,000 and £325,000, When you are considering a reduction, you want as many buyers as possible to see it, buy reducing to £315,000 you are not reaching buyers looking in a different price bracket or generating any new interest in your property.

On the 4th July we agreed a price reduction to offers in the region of £300,000, we understood that the owners hoped to achieve around £315,000 on their sale.

The reduction had and instant impact, with the first offer coming in on the 6th July for £295,000, which was rejected. In the days that followed we had a flurry of new offers with two buyers bidding against each other. Until, on the 10th of July 2023, we agreed a sale with an offer of £315,000, which was the price the owners wanted from the start.

From listing to sold subject to contract, the whole process took just 22 days! If you are being told that houses aren’t selling at the moment, this isn’t true, houses priced competitively are still selling, and selling quickly, often for over the asking price.

If you want to move, ask the Harrisons team about how we can help 01795 474848