The dangers of pricing property with …995

Remember the 1980s? Wham! Duran Duran. Shoulder pads. Asking prices ending in 995. Ah, the memories.

However, any estate agent using these price tactics in the twenty first century is really not responding to modern property search methods. They’re also losing their clients time, money and buyers. Let’s look at the multiple loss-making areas of this outdated and damaging marketing technique.

Loses money
A firm three zeros at the end of a price gives it a nice, solid and strong feel. The 995 is immediately knocked off by the vast majority of buyers before they even call you, so by using this style of pricing you are pretty much guaranteed to be losing every single one of your clients £1000, probably more. Why are you doing that?

Loses interest
Let’s do a test on how great and psychologically effective that £999,995 price sounds. Let’s pretend you’re advertising that ‘saving’ on TV. Now walk out into the street and shout at the top of your voice: “Come on down and get five pounds off this million pound property!” How did it sound? Were you trampled by passers-by rushing to take advantage of that once-in-a-lifetime offer? No.

Loses an audience
Oh yes, let’s fool those idiot buyers with only a million pounds to spend and keep that price under that magical million pound mark by quoting an asking price of £999,995. I’m terribly sorry, but duh! Let’s makes sure that nobody with a budget of £1m+ ever knows about this property. That’s right, when someone does their property search on Rightmove or Primelocation for £1,000,000-£1,250,000 (basically your entire target audience), they won’t see your bargain £999,995 property, which means the only people who will see it are those who are putting in £1,000,000 as the uppermost limit of their search. And we all know what that means: they don’t actually have £1,000,000 to spend and will be looking to put in a lower offer. Oops.

Loses credibility
Do you really want to say: “This property is on the market for nine hundred and ninety five thousand nine hundred and ninety five pounds”? You sound like a walking apology, and really a bit silly. It’s a million! Say it, and say it with pride. 995 prices display a complete lack of confidence in your belief that the property is worth the price you are quoting. Stop it right now.

Your mission: go and look at how the property portals use price bands for property searches and then make sure to exploit them to your clients’ advantage. Adding just £5 to an asking price could double the audience for a property immediately.