In life the rule is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you invite three agents to value your home, you’ll usually get one who values it for much more than the others.  This is the agent I wouldn’t choose.

In fact, consumer champion Which? actually tell sellers to be wary of agents overvaluing properties.

In researching the effects that over-pricing has on the overall sale price achieved, the results are startling.

I’m going to cut to the car chase here.

If an agent gives you an unrealistically high valuation, it’s very likely in their interest not yours.  It gains them an instruction, but not you a buyer. 

What it will do is make sure that you’ll need to reduce your asking price to eventually find a buyer – and as the Which? consumer survey confirmed, that means it’ll take longer to sell your property and the price you eventually achieve WILL be lower.

Buyers are attracted to NEW properties, not so much the older ones.  If your property advert isn’t attracting viewings, then in all probability you’ll need to reduce your asking price. 

You absolutely need to cast your net as wide as possible, because you never get a second chance to make a first impression. 

The rules are very simple. 

Properties that are priced too high, usually take longer to sell, end up having price reductions and sell for less than those properties that priced correctly at the start. 

Rightmove also says that all properties attract the most page views in the first week of advertising, and if you price too high, that first week of potential viewers would have skipped on past your advert and you’ve missed an opportunity.

Price your property at the market value (and maybe use an ‘offers in excess of’ or ‘guide price’ approach), and you’ll attract higher viewing numbers which usually results in more offers and more intensity from buyers.

Properties that attract more offers and more interest naturally sell for better prices as buyers will feel compelled to outbid one another. 

A website such as Getagent.co.uk measures local estate agents sold price ratio, so you can see how agent perform.

If you’d like any market information about your specific hyper-local property market, please do get in touch as I have lots of useful data I would be happy to share with you.

Call James on 020 8432 1505 or email me at james@fishneedwater.com

If you haven’t requested a Homesearch Valuation Report for your property, watch the video here.