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It can be extremely frustrating when your house has been up for sale for a while. Your life can feel in limbo, you may seem so far away from selling and moving to a new home. The first thing your estate agent will probably tell you to do is to drop your asking price. Sound familiar? You may be thinking this is the answer and the only way to get a sale. Perhaps you feel you have no other choice? I’m here to say – don’t do it, or at least think very carefully before doing so.
‘Don’t drop your asking price’ isn’t something you usually hear coming from an estate agent. But there are many reasons why reducing your price can have a negative impact on your sale. It can create long term damage that is difficult to turn around. Here are the reasons why I think you should not reduce your asking price:
Buyers become wary. If a house has been on the market for a while and is reduced over and over, buyers become suspicious. They start to wonder what is wrong with the house. They perceive that you are desperate to sell your home and they make judgements based on this. They may start to wonder if your home is any good, why hasn’t it been snapped up? The unmerited perceptions they create have such an impact that they won’t even view your home, they will truly believe there is something wrong with it. Once this opinion is formed, it is difficult to turn around.
Lack of confidence. Reducing shows a buyer that you are not confident in your price. It leaves you open to being chipped even further. You, your estate agent and your buyer all need to be confident in the asking price. If you are not, this lack of confidence will show. It will show when your agent is talking to potential buyers about your home and it will also show if you, yourself, meet any potential buyers. This lack of confidence can be infectious and passes on to each person you meet with and talk about your home with. If you are not confident in your asking price, why should your buyer be?
It doesn’t work. We have all seen houses that have been on the market for a while be reduced and reduced and reduced and months later they still have not sold. Who’s going to want to buy something that is falling in price over and over? What signals is this giving off? How is this portraying your home to potential buyers? Would you want to buy a house that has been on the whoopsy shelf?
Where will it end? Once you start lowering your price, where do you stop? You may think that if you reduce the price enough someone is bound to snap it up. However, the longer the house stays on the market and the more it reduces, the harder it is to sell. This is mainly due to buyer’s perception and the impression you are giving them by lowering your price.
Price is not the main factor when buying a home. Emotions, senses and feelings play a huge part in the decision to buy a home. If someone falls in love with your home, they will buy it and pay a premium for it. Price often is not the driver in a sale. People do not buy purely based on price. To get a sale, you must appeal to a buyer’s emotions and clearly show them the kind of lifestyle they could have living in your home.
So, before you go dropping your price, think very carefully about what message this is sending out. What impression does this create? Once you have created an impression, it is difficult to turn it around. Not impossible, but it is harder. If your agent is pressuring you into reducing your price, ask them what else they suggest you can do to sell your home that doesn’t involve reducing the price. How a home is presented and how your agent promotes your home can have a huge impact on your sale. Be confident in your asking price. If your agent is not very supportive, think about changing them.
Are you struggling to sell? Contemplating dropping your asking price? Or perhaps you have already fallen into this trap and need to turn your sale around? The good news is, it can be done. There are other things you can do apart from lower your price that will sell your home. If you want to know what these are, get in touch. We’d love to help. Ring 01522 904 904 or drop me an email on hello@greenkeysalesandlets.co.uk