Thursday, April 23, 2009

One swallow makes a summer in newspaper land

I see in the Irish Times today someone asks about agents not providing an advertised price:

"Q What’s the story with “price on application”? I thought it was a country thing but in looking at various property websites I see that it is now being used in Dublin. What’s the point? If the agent thinks it prompts interest, it doesn’t. It’s a turn off .

A Price on application is indeed a silly extra step, because all it takes is a phone call to find out what the asking price is. It’s not as if there is some difficulty in getting the information. For new homes, it’s generally because an agent doesn’t want to broadcast the price drop due to the sensitivities of owners who bought at the top of the market and is also usually an indication that the developer is willing to do a deal.

For second-hand houses it could be the case that the house has been on the market for so long that there have been multiple price drops, with more expected, so the seller feels “price on application” will save on the embarrassment of advertising each of those price drops.

Agents might also feel that if they could get you on the phone even for the minute it takes to tell you the price, they might be able to lure you into a viewing.

Whatever the reason, it’s difficult to argue with you that it is pointless and only serves to irritate, not intrigue, prospective buyers."


It is an interesting niche topic for a few property business types, but in fact, when you look at the numbers, we have noted only 15 properties out of nearly 3500 since January in Dublin city without an advertised price, and only 12 out of over 1100 in Co Dublin. So I would not label this a "thing" with the sense of "issue of public concern" or "phenomenon" as the letter writer (never named in these Q&As) does and the paper too by addressing it. The newspapers have a habit of taking a notion about something based on one or two instances and turning that into "information". It's not such a problem with minor issues like POAs but when it comes to pricing and agent behaviour it can be a big problem.

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