Should you reduce your house asking price?

It's the first suggestion your estate agent will make

But is it the right one in your situation?
Do you have your house on the open market with an estate agent? They might be pushing you to reduce your asking price, but is it the right move for you.

As sell house fast experts, we like to think we know a thing or two about selling your home as quickly as possible!

So we’ve compiled a guide on reducing your asking price, what you need to consider and whether it’s actually the problem.

Is the asking price the problem?

Your estate agent will always ask you to lower the asking price if there’s a lack of interest initially, of course, they will, it makes their job 10x easier if you’re the lowest priced property in the area.

At the end of the day though, you’re paying them to sell your property so they should be putting the effort in.

The point we are making is it’s an easy suggestion for them to make – but is it the right option for you?

There are times when you do need to reduce your asking price, but it should be something you look into yourself and determine whether that is the REAL issue.

How can you determine if the asking price is the problem:

Ask why they think you should reduce

Assuming that the price that you originally listed your property was heavily influenced by what the estate agent told you that you should list the property at. Why the change of tune? Put the onus on them, will they accept the blame for misjudging the market or has the demand for housing changed in the period since your house was listed, get them to explain their reasoning.

Are the estate agents doing enough?

The next question is are the estate agent really doing enough to sell your property? As we mentioned the easy way out is to reduce the asking price.

There are a few things you should ensure that your estate agent is doing to maximise your properties potential of sale, and a few questions you should ask them to see if they are in fact doing all they can:

• The property should be on all the available portals, the main ones being Rightmove, Zoopla & OnTheMarket.

• What are the photos they have taken like? Have they suggested adding or changing the photos to give the listing a bit of a refresh?

• They should constantly be making tweaks to the description of the property, ensuring absolutely every selling point is in there.

• Sign up for their email list – do you see your property regularly getting pushed through?

• Are they recommending your property to potential buyers that are viewing other comparable properties in the local area?

Get other agents or property experts in to value your home

If they feel it’s the asking price that’s the problem, you can always shop around other agents or ask other people in property what they feel your home is worth.

There’s also no harm in going with multiple agents, as long as your contract with the initial estate agent allows.

Research the local comparable properties yourself

The best way of finding out if you’ve priced your property correctly is by doing the research yourself.

Even if you’re a self-proclaimed novice when it comes to property, there’s enough information out there that even with a little bit of research you should be able to determine the rough value.

• Use websites like Rightmove to determine the sold house prices in the area to reflect the actual value properties nearby sell for, you need to find one that is similar to what you have in terms of size, bedrooms and condition.

• Use online value calculators but take their results with a pinch of salt. There are a couple of online calculators that will value your home, but some of these can be manipulated and they don’t really take into account the condition.

• Are you above the ceiling price for your road? Every road will have a maximum price that a property will sell at, if you’ve priced your house higher than all the recently sold properties on the street, you might need to reconsider.

What’s the interest actually like?

You might be getting several viewings and no real offers, if that’s the case then reducing the asking price probably isn’t the answer.

It’s more than likely there’s some aspect of your home they’re not liking, which you might benefit more from staging your home slightly differently as opposed to reducing the asking.

If the property was of interest, even if the price was higher than the viewer expected, you would have usually seen a few offers by then even if they are on the cheeky side.

What to consider before reducing your asking price

It seems at this point like we’re telling you not to reduce your asking price, that’s not the case!

We just want you to think it through when you make the decision, so we’ve put together a list of things that you should consider before deciding to drop your asking price:

• Dropping to Rightmove’s next price alert band

If and when you do decide to drop your property price is the correct decision, you need to make sure that you drop it enough to attract a new Rightmove “alert” band.

People set up email alerts for when properties in a certain area go below a certain price, usually set at 10k increments.

• It’s permanent! 

Once you have reduced the asking price on your property, it’s at that price for good. If you put it back up to its original price, there are tools and information out there that will tell you the previous listing price.

• It makes you look more desperate to sell

When you reduce your asking price, it alerts people that you want to sell quickly.

As a potential buyer, you might take this as an opportunity to give a cheeky offer, gambling on the fact they’ll accept it just because they need to move.

• You might need to drop by a fairly considerable margin

This ties into triggering the alerts, however in order to really attract a higher level of interest you might need to reduce your property fairly significantly.

• Can you actually afford to reduce the asking price?

This is a question you need to ask yourself, can you take the hit on the value of your house to try and achieve that sale?

You have to also remember, if you reduce your asking price, it’s also likely that you will receive offers below the new and updated asking price unless it generates a significantly higher demand.

How do I lower the asking price of my house?

You’ve made your decision, you want to go through with lowering your asking price, how do you actually go about doing it?

Well, it’s pretty straightforward, all you have to do is ask and have a discussion with your Estate Agent and they will change the price on your listing, as soon as they do so, it should hopefully generate the Rightmove alerts and you should see a spike in views and hopefully viewings pretty quickly after the change.

You should see what we can offer first

Before you jump and adjust the price of your listing, why not see what we can offer you for your home?

It’s completely no obligation, but if you reduce your asking price we then in turn have to reduce the amount we are able to offer you.

If you come to us before reducing your price, although our offer will be below market value, it may be higher than the reduction you are planning and the offer you will get off the back of that, and in turn, you get a quick sale that’s completely hassle-free!

Why a fast sale might be suitable for you

It’s not for everyone, that’s what we’ll start off by saying.

We operate a sell house fast service, which essentially means we can buy your home very quickly for cash, in as little as 7 days, but we offer you below market value for it.

It offers the perfect solution if you need a guaranteed sale of your property quickly and can afford to take the reduced offer.

There are a few other perks of the service as well, for one you don’t have to pay the expensive estate agent fees, and we actually cover all the costs inclusive of the solicitors.

On top of that, we take all the hassle and stress out of selling your home, as you get a dedicated contact that will handle everything for you.

Why choose us

Finally, if you want to explore a quick sale, why would you choose us to sell your home too?

There’s a lot of competition, but we like to think we’re a little bit better! We’re one of the leading UK property buying companies for a reason, but we’re a bit more than just your standard house buyer.

We’re owned and managed by property professionals throughout the business, we offer the best trade prices and we’re 100% cash buyers – not one of those middlemen!

We’re also registered with The Property Ombudsman, members of The National Association of Property Buyers & highly reviewed on platforms like Trustpilot, so you know we’re a name that you can trust!

If you want a professional, reliable and stress-free house selling experience then you are definitely in the right place!