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Selling

Pricing it right

The price is the marketing. Get it right and the phone rings in the first fortnight; get it wrong and the listing goes stale and buyers assume something is wrong with it.

Three free valuations

Ask three local agents to value it. It is free and they expect a share of them to sell privately. Ignore the highest (they are winning an instruction) and note the middle figure. Ask each of them what they would list at and what they would expect to achieve; the gap is telling.

What actually sold

Search the Land Registry price paid data (free at landregistry.gov.uk) for your street and the streets around it over the last twelve months. Sold prices, not asking prices, are the market. Zoopla and Rightmove show sold history too, with the listing photos, so you can compare condition.

Price bands

Buyers search in bands: up to £250,000, £300,000, £350,000, £400,000, £500,000. A home priced at £305,000 misses everyone with a £300,000 cap, and the extra £5,000 gets negotiated away anyway. Price on the band or just under it.

The first two weeks

New listings get the most views in their first fortnight. If you have had no enquiries in two weeks, it is the price, not the market. Drop it by 5% and share the listing again. Waiting three months and then dropping it costs you far more.

Guide price, offers over, fixed

"Offers over" a low figure works for unusual property with no comparables (land, equestrian, a barn) where you want the market to tell you. "Guide price" is a softer asking price. A plain asking price is clearest and what most buyers prefer. In Scotland "offers over" is the norm.

Rural and equestrian property

Comparables are thin. Price the house as a house, then add for land (typically £8,000 to £15,000 an acre for good grazing, more near towns), stables, arena and planning consents, and be ready to justify each element. Buyers of this kind of property know the numbers.

This is general information for people in the UK selling or buying privately, not legal or financial advice. Property law differs in Scotland and Northern Ireland; always use a solicitor.

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