In the first episode of our new podcast, The RWW Property Show, John Salasen, Lewis Woodcock and Danny Power sat down to talk through the state of the local market. Amongst everything the team covered, one theme kept coming up more than any other.
The price you go to market at matters more today than at any point in recent memory. And getting it wrong at the start almost always costs the seller more in the long run.
It’s tempting to aim high but it usually backfires
There is a very old practice in the industry of overvaluing to win the instruction. An agent walks through the door, tells the seller their home is worth a big, cheerful number, and the moment the contract is signed the phone calls start: “Let’s reduce it a little. And a little more.”
John, who has been in the business for over 30 years, is refreshingly blunt about this in the episode. It’s not new, it isn’t particularly honest, and nine times out of ten the seller ends up worse off than if the property had been priced sensibly from the very start.
The first three weeks are the busy weeks
When a home first hits the market, it enjoys a real burst of attention. Rightmove alerts go out, portal listings ping across timelines, and buyers on our register get in touch. That first flurry of interest is where a well-priced home tends to find its buyer.
If a property is priced too ambitiously, that flurry passes without an offer. The listing lingers. It starts to look “stale”, as Danny memorably put it. And when the price is finally reduced, weeks or months later, buyers can end up assuming there’s something wrong with it. Often there isn’t. It has simply been on the market too long.
The numbers back it up
Homes that price well from day one sell more quickly, more smoothly, and often for closer to (or above) the asking price. Homes that come out too high tend to end up going through several reductions and eventually selling for less than they might have made at a sensible starting figure.
As Danny put it in the episode: get it on the market at the right price in the first instance, and you will sell for the best price possible. Get it wrong at the start, and you’ll find yourself on the market for months and months often selling in the end for less than you might have.
Evidence, not guesswork
When Danny values a property, he brings comparable evidence. This includes recent nearby sales that show what similar homes are actually achieving right now. Not a finger in the air and certainly not just a number the vendor wants to hear.
If another agent has offered a higher figure with no comparables to back it up, the honest question to ask is simply “where’s the evidence?”
What this means if you’re thinking of selling
If you’re thinking of selling in the coming months, the message from the podcast is consistent. Get the price right at the start. Ask any agent you meet to show you comparable evidence for their valuation and be a little wary of the highest number if it isn’t backed up. And remember that if you’re buying and selling in the same market, prices are relative. A lower sale price for yours is offset by a lower price on the next home.
As Danny said in the episode, the market is tough but it’s absolutely not impossible. Get the basics right and you will sell. And the single most important basic is the price you go to market at.
If you’d like a proper, evidence-based valuation on your home, with the comparables to back it up, we’d be very glad to help. And if you haven’t yet, do give episode one of The RWW Property Show a listen. You’ll hear the whole conversation for yourself.
