Are you a winner or loser in the property stakes asks Adrian Thompson of FoxWood Maclean?

Price governs property sales. It is not the location. It is not the size. It is not the condition. It is the price. Location, size and condition influence price. But price still governs everything.

So here is a fun game to play with your own home. Estimate three prices. The first figure, a very high amount, beyond even your most rose-tinted view is the figure that your home would never fetch in a month of Sundays.

The second figure, a very low sum, is the sort of price at which a frenzied hoard of ruthless cash buyers would bite your arm off on the first day of marketing – and each then be prepared to gazump wildly if they were unsuccessful.

The third figure is between the other two. This is the amount your property might fetch if pursued by a couple of ready, willing and able buyers after several weeks of marketing. These buyers wouldn’t have been alone in viewing but the others will have decided against proceeding further for whatever reason. You can play this game with any property and all three figures determine the speed at which the property will – or will not – sell.

Clearly human nature demands a preference for a seller to try and achieve the first figure and a strong reluctance to descend to the second. But the clever player will steer the third, middle course.

In a property sale you can determine the price you get and you can determined the time it takes to sell. But it is tricky to determine both together – especially in this market. To achieve a perfectly timed and priced sale the seller has to move the price more towards the realistic than the optimistic, and in some cases, sadly, even nudge the pessimistic. Or they must be lucky. The question every seller has to ask is, am I lucky? Or, do I have time to be lucky?

That first highly optimistic figure is reserved for a bull market with buyers scrambling for what little there is available, where lenders are throwing money at borrowers, where there is much less unemployment and no austerity cuts.

Can there be any reasonable person in this country who feels we have these conditions right now? Price realistically to win the property game.

For more information, contact Adrian Thompson on 01233 812060 or email athompson@foxwoodmaclean.co.uk