01204 329975
237a Darwen Rd, Bromley Cross, Bolton, BL7 9BS
01204 329975
237a Darwen Rd, Bromley Cross, Bolton, BL7 9BS
  • BOLTON & BURY’S #1 BESPOKE PROPERTY SPECIALIST

  • With award winning service

  • Over 20 Years Property Experience

  • And Vast Knowledge Of The Local Area

  • Request a PROPERTY CONSULTATION With Us Today

01204 329975
237a Darwen Rd, Bromley Cross, Bolton, BL7 9BS

 

It’s true that for some properties, reducing the asking price can generate new interest from buyers who would have been previously unable to afford your home. It’s also a step that for some sellers is, unfortunately, necessary – if they have an urgent move, for example, or are facing repossession.

However, with many houses – particularly premium homes – dropping your asking price is not always the answer, and it can even harm your chances of attracting a committed buyer.

Whilst recent weeks have seen a pause in viewings, the buyers have simply been waiting in the wings for an opportunity to view homes, and now they can once again. Since we re-opened, albeit with safety measures in place, we’ve noticed an increase in buyers who are ready to offer, and willing to move quickly. To take advantage of this current heightened demand, now is the time to review your asking price and decide whether to stick to it or reduce.

To help guide you, we’ve compiled the DOs and DON’Ts of dropping your asking price to help you get the result you want and move on with your life:

DON’T drop your asking price by less than 10%

– Or it just won’t make any difference to the interest you get. Buyers will usually look at homes 10% either side of their budget anyway, so you’ll need to reduce your asking price by at least that to get your home noticed by a new set of buyers.

DO ask your agent why you need to reduce

– Your home was originally valued based on sound research and by an expert in the local property market. What’s changed? Understanding whether your agent misjudged the market, or the demand has changed for houses like yours, will help you make the right decision to either reduce or to stick it out.

DON’T keep making small drops in price

– A price drop can cause suspicion amongst buyers who may wonder what’s wrong with it?  Why have you lowered the asking price?  A buyer may not want to risk buying a house that seems to be falling in value. A property with lots of historical price drops is inherently unattractive to a buyer, as each drop can signify a red flag, so make your price drop big and impactful, but make it just once.

DO drop to the next Rightmove price band

– You can find these by going to www.rightmove.co.uk and entering a search. The list of price bands that comes up is your guide as to the price your house should be marketed at. For example, there’s no point in having an asking price of £399,999 when the Rightmove price band is £400,000. By positioning your asking price in alignment with the search bands, your house will effectively show up in up to twice as many buyer searches.

DON’T try to break the price ceiling for your road or area

– Not only does this make buyers jittery, it will also make a surveyor nervous too. Unless you really can’t avoid it, try to price your home at less than the highest price sold in your neighbourhood.

[Note: we have previously sold homes at prices that have broken the area ceiling, but they do need careful positioning to reassure buyers and surveyors, so please ask our advice if this is your situation too.]

DO ask your estate agent the right questions before you drop your price

– If you’re feeling pressure from your estate agent to reduce, or you have a moving deadline looming and can’t afford to drop your price, ask your agent what else could be done to secure that sale, other than reducing your asking price? Have a review with them and look at your marketing critically. Could it be improved? Maybe new lifestyle photographs would attract new buyers. Or showcase your home better with a ‘twilight’ image or aerial shot, to show your home in a new, imaginative way.

DON’T give your buyers an excuse to make a low offer

– Make sure your home is wonderfully presented, with every room polished and attractive, otherwise you’re literally leaving money on the table. Home styling can dramatically increase the ‘saleability’ of your home, and really helps buyers envision the lifestyle it offers. If you’d like to know about the home styling we offer as part of our marketing, we’d be happy to talk you through it and show you some of our styled photographs. Just drop us an email at mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we’ll arrange it for you right away.

DO give yourself some negotiation room – but not too much

– On average, you can expect to achieve around 95% – 97% of your asking price, with 3% – 5% ‘given away’ in the negotiations with your buyer. This will depend on other factors of course, like how fast your local market is moving, the confidence in the housing market while you’re selling and how long your home has been on the market. Taking 96% as an average, losing 4% of a £400,000 asking price means you will eventually receive £384,000 on completion. But if you reduce the asking price to £375,000 say, you’ll only get £360,000 – a significant drop. Not only have you reduced by £25,000, you’ll also have lost an additional £15,000 in negotiations, putting your total ‘lost’ sale monies at £40,000, a substantial ‘loss’ of 10% of your original asking price.

DON’T forget to calculate your price per square foot

– It can be a more accurate way to value a house than other methods. Not only this, but a surveyor will use a price per square foot analysis to provide a valuation to your buyer and to your buyer’s lender. If your agent hasn’t already done this for you, make a spreadsheet of the other properties for sale and sold in your area and calculate the price per square foot of each, then compare it to yours. If you’d like our help to create your price per square foot table, or you’d like our template to get you started, just email us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we’d be glad to do this for you. 

DO remember that sometimes it’s more valuable to you to be able to move on with your life, than to hold out for months – and sometimes years – for a few thousand pounds more. If time is not on your side, whether it’s a selling deadline, or a pressing personal reason for selling in a particular timescale, it may be time to let go of your price expectations, and time to start your new life chapter. Only you can make this challenging decision, but if you’d like to talk it through with us, we’re here to listen and guide, if that would help. You can reach us on 01204 329975 – just ask for Sam Newton, for a chat in confidence.

When your home hasn’t sold and you’re wondering if it’s the asking price to blame, use the above DOs and DON’Ts as a checklist to see if you’re doing everything you can to get your house sold. If your price per square foot is about right, you’re not trying to break the price ceiling for your area, and your home is presented in the best way possible, if your photographs showcase the lifestyle of your home, and you have time on your side to wait for the price you really want, then have confidence in your asking price. Because if you don’t, no one else will.

Your asking price isn’t the end of the story; it’s the opening chapter. Having a strategy in advance will save you emotional stress throughout the process and offers the reassurance of having a plan to fall back on when and if things get tough. Uncovering the reasons your home hasn’t yet sold can help you make the challenging decisions at the right time for you and your personal circumstances, and we can help you discover these reasons with an initial chat. Just drop us a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call us on 01204 329975 and ask for Sam Newton – and let’s get you moving onto the next chapter of your life.


 

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What Our Clients Say...

  • "Informed during each stage" We cannot recommend Newton & Co enough. The service provided by Sam, Laura and their team made the sale of our house seamless. The marketing photos really helped present our home to its greatest potential, resulting in offers being received within a week of first being marketed. Newton & Co then kept us informed during each stage of the conveyancing process until completion. An excellent service.”S & A Hollings
  • "Great service. Friendly" Lots of thanks to the whole team. Great service. Friendly, understanding of needs. Fantastic presentation and advertising meant we sold the house in no time at all, and for the price we wanted. Very professional, always keeping us up to date on all matters. Great go-between with buyers and solicitors. Family run, proud business, and it shows. Well done all."– R Baldwin
  • "Pleasure doing business with you" My thanks to the Newton & Co team for the help and support provided in selling my property. It has been a pleasure doing business with you and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending your services to my friends and family if they were to be looking for an estate agent."T Vesty
  • "Extremely helpful, professional and genuine" Extremely helpful, professional and genuine. A real pleasure to deal with, fast sale, great photos and excellent communication.”A Calderbank
  • "Very satisfied with the friendly help and advice " I was very satisfied with the friendly help and advice from the Newton & Co team when dealing with my house sale. Help was particularly appreciated in dealing with my solicitor when problems arose with my house. Thank you.”P Harper
  • "Very satisfied with the friendly help and advice " We had a few challenges with moving house but this had nothing to do with Newton & Co. We had used another Estate Agent to try to sell our home but when we moved to Sam and his team, we immediately knew we had made the right decision. The improvement in the number of viewings increased substantially and despite the challenges they worked with us every step of the way. We couldn’t recommend them highly enough”S & J Hyde
  • "Our home was sold within 2 weeks " Our home was sold within 2 weeks of Newton’s marketing it. We had the video tour and excellent photographs taken showing our property at its best, whilst Sam did all our viewings with enthusiasm. The whole team were extremely professional and were always there when we needed them helping us through the whole process. I would not hesitate for a moment to recommend Newton’s to anyone thinking of selling their home. Brilliant.”D & J Benigno
  • "Our home was sold within 2 weeks " Just wanted to say a huge thank you for all your hard work and effort on achieving our house sale. I cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for us, your support and constant updates throughout the sales process has been much appreciated. Don’t know how we would have got through without you. Will highly recommend you to all my family and friends and would not hesitate to use you again in the future”J Roland
  • "Serena Zahid " Extremely refreshing and different estate agent. Very accommodating and truthful about each property flaws and positives. Can’t praise enough – Very professional”J Roland

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01204 329975
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