Fixed House prices

[mums angels]

We are just about to put our three bed semi with garage up for Sale and whilst discussing prices with our Estate agent we expressed a wish to put it on as a Fixed price. We were told that this would be a bad idea because it puts protential byers off looking.

So, I was just wandering what people thought about fixed prices , I would have thought it would be easier than beating around the bush about offers over etc. I personally perfer fixed prices that way what you see is what you get.

Any advice much appreciated:D

[dozerboy]

I recently sold up from Caithness at the usual "offers over" and got a good bit more. I would be reluctant to go for a fixed, as you might lose out on a bit extra, although for potential buyers who have a limited or fixed budget a fixed price gives them a chance. With the offers over, you never know what it will end up going for. Hope that helps.

[cuddlepop]

I prefer fixed house prices.
What happens if you have more than one offer ?Is it the first one you have to accept.
I think your estate agent is trying to get you a better offer for your houseas houses in this climate tend to go above asking price.
Good luck.:D

[topotheuk]

I think you often find that estate agents want offers over as they usually work on a percentage of sale, so the higher the offer, the higher their fees!! I have sold two houses with fixed prices, both sold on the second day. I sold my third house at offers over on advice of the estate agent. It only took a couple of months or so to sell, but although it went for about 8 grand over the asking price which you might think is really good, it was the same sort of price we would have asked for at a fixed price, so I didn't get any extra as such. The estate agents usually lower the price a bit when it's offers over to encourage buyers to offer and to encourage buyers to put in good offers. So are you really getting extra on your offers over? or are the agents just making you think you are getting way more than the asking price? Personally, I think its swings and roundabouts. Any house Ive ever bought has been at a fixed price as I wont get into bidding wars with greedy vendors. Only my opinion and I work in the property sector.

[topotheuk]

I prefer fixed house prices.
What happens if you have more than one offer ?Is it the first one you have to accept.


The seller is not obliged to accept the highest or indeed any offer.
If you have a fixed price then you would possibley accept the first one, but it would maybe depend on whether your buyer had put ridiculous clauses in, then maybe the second offer didn't have these clauses, you would maybe go for them.

[henry20]

The seller is not obliged to accept the highest or indeed any offer.
If you have a fixed price then you would possibley accept the first one, but it would maybe depend on whether your buyer had put ridiculous clauses in, then maybe the second offer didn't have these clauses, you would maybe go for them.

Totally agree with you topotheuk. When I placed a bid for my house my solicitor advised to put in as few clauses as possible in order to have a better chance. As I was moving from my parents house, I did not need a specific entry date, so my offer was clause free. However, my solicitor also recommended I lowered the offer - thankfully my parents went to solicitors and wouldn't budge on offer as I know of someone who offered £1k less than me (and were also advised it was too high an offer).

[Victoria]

I'm looking at places in Caithness at the moment and I must admit that come from the Englash system the fixed price is a lot easier for me!

If your happy with the fixed price and you think it is fair then stick with that.

[peedie wifie]

As a buyer I would not be put off by a fixed price.

As a seller do you want the best price possible (possibly more than the value of your property) or are you looking for a quick sale at a price you'd be happy with.......... I guess the more you make the more the estate agent makes, if he's charging a percent of selling price!!

Do what's right for you!

[jinglejangle]

i would go for offers over - my house was valued at one price, the solicitor said to advertise it £4K higher than valuation price and I got lots of interest and offers for a 3 bed semi and it went at £10K higher than valuation and was on the market for less than one week! i could have hung on and maybe got more but as I had expected to get £12K less than valuation [£22K less than accepted offer] I decided not to hang around!

[mums angels]

Thank you all for the replies.

We need a quick sell to gaurantee the house we want , our estate agent wants to put it on for about 3 thousand lower than what we want to sell for but hes expecting 5 to 10% over the offers over price. I just find this odd I just don't see why we don't just say this is what we want and be done with it.

Will just have to see what he comes up with and wait and see:D

[Alice in Blunderland]

Having just sold our property a couple of months ago we went for offers over. The estate agent suggested a price based on what they were selling other properties like ours for. We could have set our property at a higher or lower price it was up to us. The reason they suggest slightly less than the value is to encourage buyers through the door, once in and they like what they see its hoped they would then go for it anyway. If not they can walk away.

Our property sold in three days and we could have held out as there was plenty of other couples still wanting to view it, we had in our mind a figure which if anyone offered near we would let it go , the first offer was that exact price, the second one was even more.

Its up to the seller who they sell the house to, highest bidder or not and if you have more than one bid set a closing date where all bids come in and then you can see who is offering what and as has been stated you sell to who you want to.

Personaly I would take the advice of the estate agents as they have been doing this for years , yes they are creaming a handsome profit but not much in this life does come free these days. :D

[mccaugm]

Why do Thurso solicitors and estate agents not put internal pictures of houses on their online adverts?

Also when they put adverts in the paper they do not put they asking price in the advert?:confused

[Alice in Blunderland]

Why do Thurso solicitors and estate agents not put internal pictures of houses on their online adverts?

Also when they put adverts in the paper they do not put they asking price in the advert?

We asked why they didnt put the price of houses in the paper when we sold ours and were told that if folk were truly interested they would wander down to the estate agents window and see or phone them.

I thought they should display the price in the paper but they disagreed and stated that there are a lot of nosey people in Caithness who look at houses and prices for no other reason than gossip........... :roll: Hello.... welcome to the real world they dont need to read it in the paper.....word of mouth.... this is Caithness. :eek:

[Buttercup]

We asked why they didnt put the price of houses in the paper when we sold ours and were told that if folk were truly interested they would wander down to the estate agents window and see or phone them.

I thought they should display the price in the paper but they disagreed and stated that there are a lot of nosey people in Caithness who look at houses and prices for no other reason than gossip........... Hello.... welcome to the real world they dont need to read it in the paper.....word of mouth.... this is Caithness.
Can't understand why they'd say that, when it's only relatively recently that they ceased putting the price in the paper. Anyway, it's easy enough to find out prices if you really want to (there's a web site specially for that) and anyone that wants to be nosey can still pose as a buyer.
BTW, is Caithness more prone to nosey people than anywhere else? :confused

[Valerie Campbell]

I think the fixed price idea is a good one provided you have had a survey done and your surveyor comes back with what the property is actually worth. this gives you at least a starting point, and once someone had fallen in love with the house, the deal is much more straight forward. First one to offer the fixed price gets it. However, it does run the risk of you maybe losing out on a bigger profit from someone willing to actually pay more.

[ginajade]

I agree that the offers over is probably better for the seller, however as a potential buyer who keeps getting out-bidded I would say the fixed price is better. Last year we went to see a croft house, close to where I grew up. It was one of the few properties in our price range. We decided we liked it and would put in an offer immediately. On going into the estate agents, straight after viewing, we were told not to bother. There had already been a phone bid by someone offering £100,000. The property was offers over £60,000. We had no chance. Fortunately in that case we had not had a survey done, but it is so demoralising when a similar thing happens and you lose the property and your cash. My partner is now very reluctant to even look at a property as we have had our hopes dashed so many times.
As for putting the price in the paper. I think it is a good idea. As for nosy Caithnessians, they are just as capable as me of phoning the estate agents and asking the price. Maybe that's what they think i am as usually i have to reply "sorry it's out my price range" and as a potential buyer, the first place I look apart from the org and websites are the Courier & JOG, so I think they should advertise in every media. After all wether buying or selling, they get a good percentage from you. So Good Luck sellers and buyers everwhere. I'll stop waffling now.