EAST Lancashire homebuyers are being urged to compare the prices houses actually sell for with their original estate agents' valuation to find bargains worth thousands of pounds.

Such an exercise by professional house buying firm Property Solvers has revealed that homeowners in the BB postcode area (covering Blackburn, Accrington, Barnoldswick, Blackburn, Burnley, Clitheroe, Colne, Darwen, Nelson and Rossendale) were reducing their asking prices by an average of £5,313 over the last 12 months.

It revealed the biggest drop to secure a sale, an average of £7,716, was in the BB6 postcode where 41 sellers dropped their prices by an average of £7,716.

Over the same period, the lowest hits on price were seen in BB11, where 35 home sellers reduced their properties by an average of £3,815 to get the sale going.

Property Solvers tracked 920 property transactions in the BB postcode area between June 2018 and June 2019 using the firm's the monthly updated local house market insights tool which shows the average differences between asking prices on Rightmove and their actual sold prices lodged at the HM Land Registry.

This data therefore monitors the entire house sale process from initial listing, viewings, negotiation, offers, agreement through to the survey process, conveyancing, exchange and finally completion.

The firm's boss Ruban Selvanayagam said: “Whilst it’s logical to expect a bit of ‘wiggle room’, its increasingly evident that something is amiss in the marketplace and properties are getting overpriced at the marketing stage.

“Some estate agents provide an over-hyped valuation to win the instruction and, in many cases, this leads to homes lingering on the market much longer than they need to.

“Pricing at the right level saves so much time and headaches.

“We always suggest looking at widely available online data from HM Land Registry which tracks the prices properties are sold for and not what they are marketed for. On Rightmove, for example, you can often see previous listings to see how yours compares.

“This tool will be updated on a monthly basis so sellers can see how realistically homes are being priced in their own postcode.”