In this blog:
- Should I price my home high and leave room to negotiate?
- Is autumn a bad time to sell a house in Leeds?
- Should I accept the first offer on my house?
- Should I wait for interest rates to fall before selling?
- Does a new kitchen add value before a sale?
- Why has my house been on the market for months without selling?
- Is it bad luck to complete on Friday the 13th?
It is the season for things that go bump in the night, so this seems like the right moment to talk about the beliefs that haunt the Leeds property market. Most of them are passed on from neighbours, relatives and people who last sold a house when the market was a very different place. They sound sensible. They feel like caution. And every autumn they cost sellers across north Leeds real money.
We have been selling homes in this city since 1859, which means we have seen every one of these in action. Here are the seven we hear most, why each one is wrong, and the one thing underneath all of them that is actually true.
Superstition one: price high and leave room to negotiate
This is the most expensive belief in property. The theory is that buyers always offer under the asking price, so you build in a cushion. The reality is that buyers with a saved search see your home the day it appears, compare it against everything else in Horsforth or Roundhay at that price, and decide in seconds whether it is worth a viewing. An inflated figure does not invite negotiation. It invites them to look at the next one.
Rightmove’s data shows more than a third of homes listed nationally are not going on to sell. In our experience the pattern is almost always the same. An ambitious price, a quiet first fortnight, a reduction in week six, and buyers reading that reduction as confirmation the original number was wrong. The cushion you built in becomes the discount you end up giving.
Superstition two: nobody buys after September
Buyers took a breath over summer. They have not gone home. Rightmove recorded a 5% rise in demand after the government confirmed there would be no property tax changes at the Budget, and the buyers active in October are the ones with a reason. A school place secured. A relocation date. A sale already agreed on their own home. They are fewer than in spring, but they are more decided, and they are comparing your home against the widest choice for a September in twelve years. That is not a reason to wait. It is a reason to be ready.
Superstition three: the first offer is never the best
Sellers turn down early offers because the speed feels suspicious. Surely if someone offered in the first week, somebody else will offer more in the third. Usually they do not. The buyer who moves in the first fortnight is the one who has been waiting for exactly your kind of home, has their mortgage agreed and has already seen the alternatives. Once that first wave of interest passes, the people left are more cautious and offer accordingly. We have watched sellers reject a strong early offer and accept a weaker one three months later more times than we would like.
Superstition four: wait until interest rates come down
Wanting cheaper borrowing before you move is entirely reasonable. It is also not something you control, and it is not something anyone can reliably predict. Every month spent waiting for a decision from the Bank of England is a month of serious buyers in Cookridge and Adel looking at somebody else’s home. What you do control is how well your home is priced and presented for the buyers who are active right now. That is where the result comes from.
Superstition five: a new kitchen adds value
It adds cost. Every buyer has their own taste, and the kitchen you choose is not the one they would have chosen. The same is true of bathrooms and of most work done in a hurry to impress a viewing. What does make a difference is preparation rather than renovation. Decluttering. The door that does not close properly. The garden while it still looks like a garden. Before you spend anything on your home ahead of a sale, ask us. We would rather tell you now than watch you find out in the spring.
Superstition six: a house that has been on the market for months must have something wrong with it
This one is believed by buyers, not sellers, and that is exactly why it matters. A listing that has been live since May with two reductions behind it carries a story, and buyers fill in the gaps themselves. Damp. A dispute. A survey that found something. Almost always the truth is simpler. The price was wrong at launch and nobody reset it properly. If your home has been on the market since spring, the answer is not another £5,000 off. It is a relaunch with the right price, new photographs and a plan for the buyers who are active now.
Superstition seven: never complete on Friday the 13th
Plenty of people avoid it. Rightmove’s data shows Friday the 13th has been the quietest completion day of any Friday since 1996, and it has been that way for long enough that it is clearly not a coincidence. There is one coming in November. Complete on it if you like. Nothing will happen to you, and the removals company will almost certainly have a slot.
The one thing that is actually true: your first two weeks decide your sale
This is not a superstition. It is the pattern behind every one of the beliefs above.
When your home is new to the market, the buyers with a saved search see it the day it appears. The people who have been looking for months finally get something they have not already rejected. That fortnight is where competing offers come from, and competing offers are what get you your price.
Overprice and you waste it. Turn down the early offer and you are negotiating with whoever is left once it has passed. Wait for a better month or a lower rate and you launch into the same fortnight later, with more competition around you. Spend on a kitchen instead of getting the price right and you have changed the thing buyers care least about.
Get the first two weeks right and most of the superstitions take care of themselves.
Serious buyers are not superstitious
The buyers we are working with this autumn know what homes in their area have sold for in the last three months. They know when a price is ambitious and when it is fair. They know a fresh listing from a stale one. They do not need convincing that north Leeds is where they want to live. They need a home that is priced honestly, presented properly and handled by people who keep the sale moving once the offer is in.
That is what we do, and we have been doing it for long enough to know which of the old beliefs to keep and which to leave in the past. If you are thinking about selling, or your home is on the market and not moving, a free market appraisal is where the honest conversation starts.