Q. I have been marketing my property for sales for several months now and have still not sold. My agent has said it’s the price so I agreed to bring the price down to my bottom line in order to establish some interest and encourage an offer at least. I have now at last received an offer, however the offer is still way below my new reduced price, I’m so confused – how can you pitch the price right in such a difficult market?
A. This is the question I am continually asked right now, and to be honest it is very difficult to get this right. Problem is to sell you need to be competitive on the price from the onset otherwise there will be little or no interest at all as you have already discovered. I suggested to one of my vendors who needed a ‘quick sale’ to market their property at their absolute bottom line stating ‘no offers’ this certainly bought in the buyers but psychologically even though they knew the property was very cheap they did not feel they were getting a deal, unless they made an offer. Buyers are constantly being fed news via the media that the market has dropped between 10 – 20% so they feel they need to have this kind of discount taken off the marketing price regardless of how low you are pitching.
The only advice I can give is A) Only sell in this market if you really need to. B) Be both realistic and competitive on the price and C) discuss all offers at length with your agent – these are after all the people with their finger on the pulse who will be able to advise you correctly. If they think an offer is realistic for the current climate they will tell you that, they will also tell you whether or not you are likely to receive a better offer given the market conditions, their advice should at least go some way to helping you to make an informed decision.