Vendors cutting asking prices to encourage sales

With agencies across the country encouraging sellers to make repeated cuts to their asking prices in the hopes of achieving a sale, a growing number of vendors are choosing less traditional routes to find a buyer.
Selling a house is long and complicated process for any owner – but there is always an underlying feeling that it will somehow all be worth it once the sale is complete and you can revel in additional profit you have made thanks to your larger equity stake and the accompanying inflation.

Imagine, then, the distress felt by a growing number of vendors in the current economic climate who are being advised by their agents to drop their asking price if they wish to achieve a fast house sale.

Back in November 2017, the online property portal Rightmove revealed that more than a third of home owners in the process of selling their home had been forced to lower their asking price – the greatest number of cuts since 2012.

As the average cut appeared to be just under one per cent, it was easy to dismiss this as a negligible difference. However, Rightmove also revealed that vendors who had already reduced their prices were often being urged to make further cuts, and while a single per cent drop in price may seem insignificant given the average prices of houses across the UK, depending on the value of the house, that single per cent could end up costing a less-wealthy seller a larger than anticipated amount of money.

It is somewhat unsurprising to hear, then, that many vendors are choosing to investigate other possible means by which they can sell their homes, hoping to gain an advantage over some of the more depressing sold house prices of similar properties.

Some vendors are choosing to forgo the option of an estate agent at all – after all, with a hesitant market, a large number of agents are seeing their profits plummeting, and their motivation to encourage a seller to cut their asking price may not necessarily be for benefit of their client, but to ensure that they themselves can balance the books at the end of the month.

Other options include the use of social media and word-of-mouth to garner interest from potential buyers, as well as advertising on property portals directly – cutting out the middle man. Others, however, are choosing a more dependable path, such as the use of house buying companies.

Companies such as National Homebuyers aim to complete sales in an incredibly short timeframe, often in as little as two weeks. And thanks to the lack of an estate agent and their accompanying fees, these purchases will often be completed without additional expenditure on the part of the seller, allowing them to sell their home – regardless of condition or location – and move on with their lives.

Of course, some vendors will prefer to take the traditional route of high street agents, but more honourable established London based agencies encourage buyers to ignore their own agent’s calls for repeated smaller cuts in favour of a single larger cut to drum up interest in their home.

“It’s vital they don’t discount their home in dribs and drabs,” said Lucy Pendleton, of the London estate agent James Pendleton.

“By dropping the asking price in increments all you succeed in doing is making your property look stale and unwanted, with none of the surge in viewings that a keen discount can bring.”

Prefer to avoid estate agents? Why not ask National Homebuyers for advice, as we buy any house. Call 08000 443 911 or request a call back to find out how much you could get for your property.