How not to Sell a Home in Newmarket Ely or Bury St Edmunds

Care study - 3 months on the market.  Unsold 

Sometimes a home doesn’t recover from a bad start……..

Example: A village new-build home outside Newmarket goes to market at OIEO £400,000. At the time, it was probably worth around £380,000, and local sold-price data supported that.

The facts

There were 17 other homes, all under three years old, either on the market or sold subject to contract, with similar square footage and the same “unlived-in” new-build presentation, all within four miles.

Their asking prices ranged from £360,000 to £385,000.

So buyers had plenty of choice.

The property spent 15 weeks at £400,000 and remained unsold.

As an aside, the agent’s brochure contained several basic errors. It stated that the property had an upgraded kitchen, when in fact it was the standard kitchen supplied with the house.

The main external photograph was totally uninspiring and had also been AI-doctored, changing the colour of the front door.

The garden was exactly as a developer would typically sell it: lawn, patio and shed. The brochure stated there was one bathroom when there are actually two. It also failed to mention the developer, whose properties command a premium in the local area.

Anyway, the owners changed agents and reduced the price to just under £395,000

Still too high for today’s market. And if you don’t attract interest, you don’t get buyers through the door.

Hence, still unsold.

The real problem

The best advice is simple:

Let the local market and the data dictate the price.

If you cannot afford to sell at the price the market dictates, then take the property off the market.

In my view, this property should have been launched at OIEO £380,000 on day one.

With a bit of luck, the vendors may even have achieved £385,000 if they could attract 2 buyers.  

But they appear unable to get the original valuation — and what they paid for the property — out of their heads.

Yes, the home may have been purchased three years ago for £380,000. But buying a new build off-plan comes with a premium. It is a little like buying a new car: the moment you take the keys, its market value is usually less than you paid for it.

And remember all those developer incentives offered on day one — stamp duty paid, solicitor’s fees paid, deposit contributions and so on.

Those incentives are generally non-transferable and have little or no value to an onward purchaser.

That is something to remember when buying a new home.

Back to this property

There have been schoolboy errors on all fronts that have not helped. 

Why waste 20 weeks of an agent’s time and buyers’ time and sellers time trying to sell something that simply isn’t worth the asking price in the current market — particularly when it is still incorrectly marketed?

Why have two agents not told the owner the truth, backed it up with the facts, which are readily available and been honest enough to say that it won’t sell at that price? So I can’t list it ?

So, while preparing this case study, I spoke to two local surveyors who are both on panels for mortgage lenders about this particular house. 

Both came back with almost exactly the same opinion:

£375,000–£382,000.

So even if the property had somehow sold at £400,000 — or even £390,000 — there is a very real possibility that a bank or building society would not lend against that level of value.  So those needing mortgage would have to put more cash in. 

The bigger lesson

When an agent has 50+ properties on their books, attention to detail, the facts and sometimes even the vendor’s best interests can go out of the window.

The advice becomes:

“List it.”

Rather than:

“Price it correctly and sell it.” :-)

Because ultimately, putting a property on the market is easy.

Selling it at the right price is the job.