Today I’m going to be talking you through how to set the right asking price for your property in Medway before you put it on the market.

Now the true value of your Medway property always comes down to what someone’s prepared to pay so the buyer’s opinion on the price of your property is the most important. You’ll have your own opinion of what you feel your property’s worth, the Medway estate agent that you’ll have around to value will have their opinion, also the surveyor for the for the bank will have their opinion on what the property is worth.

Ultimately it will come down to what someone’s prepared to pay. For example if you were to buy your property five years ago for £300,000 and you spent £25,000 on it that doesn’t necessarily mean that your property is therefore worth £325,000. It’s the same as if the news reports say that prices have gone up or down by a certain amount across the UK that doesn’t necessarily mean that your property has done the same. There are micro markets within areas and that will affect what what the prices are and of course effect the market conditions at that moment in time when you’re going to the market.

The Medway property market conditions are very important to take into consideration and your Medway estate agent will be able to advise you on that. You should be looking or your estate agent should be looking at comparable sales that have happened in the area so sales that have gone through recently or recently gone under offer. You should compare them in terms of how many bedrooms they have, the location that they’re in compared to yours and the comparison in size so square foot. Obviously these comparables are time sensitive so a property that sold six months ago may have been a completely different set of market conditions at that time that could affect its price that it sold for.

Also what properties are for sale at this moment in time, so what’s your competition like and if there’s other properties in Medway for sale, how do they compare to yours and if there are properties that are maybe one bedroom bigger or a detached rather than a semi detached then what’s the difference in that price. If a buyer can spend an extra five or ten thousand to get an extra bedroom or to go to a detached property rather than a semi-detached property then they’re going to likely do so you so you need to make sure you have a big enough gap in between to entice viewers through your door.

It’s always advisable to get 3 valuations from Medway Estate Agents that will give you peace of mind surrounding the the price to put it on the market for. For example if you have just one agent out and they may give you a completely wrong price or be too high or too low. If you have three, if one is saying much higher than the other that rings alarm bells. If that does happen try to ask the agent how they’ve arrived at that price, what comparable evidence do they have to support that price and if they are really confident then ask them to work on a two-week trial basis so they can show you what they can do and get them to perform for you before you sign into any agreement as this does happen if agents are desperate for for stock they may over over value your home in order to get it on the market and to secure your business.

Your marketing price versus your sold price can also sometimes be different, there needs to be a strategy in place decided by your Medway estate agent in order to achieve the best possible price and sometimes that can be asking price or offers in excess of that will drive viewers to your property and drive the price up purely because of the the competition element.

The Medway property market conditions at the time and the comparable properties that are for sale and your competition will have an effect on that. Your marketing price sole job is to get buyers through your door, it’s not necessarily the price that you want to achieve and its sole job is to drive interest to your property.

Medway buyers will make their decision very very quickly on whether they want to come and see your property so when they’re looking online they’ll make their decision in a split second based on four things, the photos that you’re showcasing, where the property is and its location, how many bedrooms it has and of course the last one is the price.

If you do overvalue your Medway property and put it on the market at too high price you’ll just deter viewers from coming to see it and they’ll be going to view other properties. All you’ll be doing is helping others sell. At that stage you’re going to be looking to bring the price down in order to get people through the door and you could then be chasing the market. Like bread and milk in supermarkets you don’t want them to sit there and go stale because otherwise you do have to reduce them in order in order to sell. Just like a supermarket if you do have to do a price improvement it’s not necessarily reducing your price it could be a strategy in order to get you sold. I’ve had it in many cases before where I had a flat that I reduced by £5,000 from £170,000 to offers in excess of £165,000 and we actually achieved £172,000 purely because of the interest that the price adjustment brought. So it’s not necessarily changing your mindset or your expectations, sometimes it can be a marketing strategy in order to achieve the result that you want.

If you are thinking about selling and are interested in a valuation I’d be happy to help. You can contact me on 07557783325 or tom.dix@exp.uk.com. For tips on how to select the right estate agent to sell your property click here.