In these tough times the key to a successful sale is realistic pricing, says Ron Kennor of Robinson Jackson Estate Agencies

If you ever train as an estate agent – and I really don’t recommend it at the moment – one of the first things you will learn is that most people think their house is worth more than it actually is.

High cost maintenance items and ‘improvements’ to the property, often not appreciated by potential buyers, are subconsciously added to the value by the owner with the result that most homes we visit claim to the best in the road for the most bizarre of reasons.

This means that a higher price than the neighbours’ recent sale is expected.

Estate agents are always asked for their opinion on price but this is often disregarded and the agent returns to his office with instructions to sell at a price often optimistic but sometimes downright unrealistic – to the dismay of waiting sales staff who are anxious to start work on the latest listing. All of this is fine in a rising market where the combination of increasing values, a few price reductions and a cheeky offer will eventually get the house sold and the estate agent can cop his fee.

Things, however, are now much different in a falling market and vendors ignore advice at their peril.

Even with a few price reductions an initially wrongly priced property can ‘chase the market down’. Then as the length of time on the market increases its desirability to buyers falls as most don’t want to buy something that’s been kicking around for months past (which they can easily check) but, like estate agency sales staff, seem much more interested in the keenly-priced fresh stock that no-one else has seen.

Remember, exclusivity often sells better than wide availability.

In the current market the message to all properties coming onto the market is to not only have the best house in the road but also the cheapest one available and not to be tempted to ‘test’ a higher price than will be accepted.

Bear in mind that estate agency staff are surprisingly human and if they genuinely believe they are selling a real bargain this will come across to potential buyers, with beneficial results for the seller.

Ron Kennor is general manager of Robinson Jackson Estate Agencies. He can be contacted on 020 8316 6200.