Setting The Right Asking Price For Your Watford Home
January 10th, 2021
How much should you price your Watford home?
Watford Property Market
Setting the right asking price is one of the most important ingredients when selling your home successfully. However, the problem is that getting your figures correct can often be a decision more based on emotion than facts. A lot of market research needs to be done, and you need to find a place that fits your properties worth, whilst ensuring you get viewers and serious buyers visiting your property, it is about finding that sweet spot.
If you set your property too high, anyone wanting to move in the Watford area may well pass by your property when searching. Unfortunately, there are only so many active buyers in the market at any given time. Then by the time new buyers enter the market, your property can be much further down the list or deemed problematic as it had been on the market for too long. As you can imagine, this isn’t the ideal situation when you are looking to sell quickly and move into a new home.
Why setting the right asking price for your property matters?
The first few weeks of any property sale are critical, so you must price your home correctly from the start if you want to maximise interest. Naturally, achieving a sales price representative of what your home is actually worth is the aim, but you’ll need people to be interested enough to view first.
If you go too high and you’ll struggle to get people through the door. Go too low, and you’ll leave money on the table. Finding a balance and staying realistic is essential. That is why it is vital that you work with a local property expert that knows the market and understands the importance of a realistic property asking price.
How to price property properly
Take advice
The most common first step 99% of homeowners take is to get an estate agent to value their property. This is a sound strategy, but your work doesn’t end there. You need to do your own homework, too. You are the one who makes the final decision on your properties price when it hits the market, so it’s essential to collect as many facts as possible to help guide you into making the correct decision. Remember, when taking advice, leave your emotions out of it. This is one of the hardest decisions you will ever need to take, so facts are all that matter.
An estate agent will offer you a market appraisal and then leave it up to you to decide whether or not you feel their assessment is correct. It is then up to you to determine whether that estate agent is working with your best interests and not just concerned about another transaction or figure on a spreadsheet. This is why I love the independent estate agency model, there is no setup fee, and you only payout once the estate agent has sold your home – making the estate agent your ally throughout the entire process.
Remember, some agents might leave you feeling as though you have no choice but to market your property at the price they advise, but that isn’t the case. You’re in charge, but you do need to take responsibility for what comes your way once you instruct. If you decide to go against your agent’s asking price recommendation, you need valid reasons that go beyond what you would merely like a buyer to pay.
Providing you have chosen the right estate agent to work with, you should feel confident in their appraisal. Some agents may indeed value high to gain the instruction, but a little homework should flag up such shenanigans pretty quickly. If you feel that may be the case, it’s probably a good idea to instruct a different agent altogether.
Your Estate Agent Should Be Honest, Caring, And Have A Track Record In Selling Other Properties Within The Local Market.
Ask Your Estate Agent To Show You Some Case-studies And Recent Testimonials.
Take note of your own timeframe
This can be easily overlooked, as, on the face of it, it seems to have very little direct connection to the asking price itself. However, the speed with which you need to move can have a huge impact on how you price your property.
In short:
If you need to move quickly, you should be willing to accept a little less for your property in exchange for heightened interest and the opportunity.
On the other hand, if you’re moving out of luxury rather than a necessity, you have time on your side and may comfortably be able to wait for the right buyer to come along and offer a higher price for the property.
Both approaches have pros and cons, but you shouldn’t ignore the fact that your moving timeframe will affect your home’s asking price. It should be one of the first considerations you make when setting your own valuation.
Measure the market
It has never been easier to see what’s going on in the property market, and it’s essential to use all of the available information to your advantage.
Take the time to fully explore all of the online property portals to get a feel for what’s selling locally. Does your home fit the criteria for what’s moving through agent’s books? Are prices being lowered frequently before sales are made? How do those sales compare to the figure you have in mind for your own home?
Market value is constantly changing, so if you did a little research six months ago, don’t trust what you found to be true back then.. do it again. Get an idea of what similar properties are fetching and go from there. A good rule of thumb is to set your property’s asking price somewhere within 5-10% of market value.
If you have done your research but are not happy with the current market value, you have two choices. Stay where you are and wait for the property market to improve, or reduce your estimated asking price, knowing that other properties and like your next home will be having to lower their prices too.
Bear in mind micro-markets, too
Local house price data is far more valuable than national data, as it narrows the field considerably. That said, you can go one step further and explore your area’s micro-markets as well.
Micro markets can exist within local areas and can even extend to certain streets where one end of the street will fetch better prices than the other. Recognising these minor details and adjusting your asking price accordingly will ultimately stand you in good stead, so do keep an eye out on what’s happening close to home.
Harness the power of price brackets
Be fully aware of the importance of property portals. What being on the property portals means for you, is that your asking price is now crucial – more so than ever before. A mere £50 difference could affect which set of buyers you attract. This is thanks to how the property portals allow visitors to filter their results, with a key part being the price’s filtering process.
I hope this helps. Should you be looking to enter the market in and around the Watford areas, give me a call. I have been serving the local community for longer than I care to remember, and I would love to help you make your next move, too.
Joe Rylett – Your Personal Estate Agent
01923 549 037