When vendors are realistic with their asking prices more property is selling and at figures closer to that asked for, says county property expert Richard Powell.
Richard, co-founder at Naylor Powell Estate Agents, which has an office in Stonehouse, said sellers were requesting higher asking prices to test the market but he was not convinced that was the right approach.
He said: "Particularly going into the winter period vendors need to be sensible with their asking prices if they want to achieve a sale within a reasonable time period."
Richard added house prices had continued to fall slightly over the past 12 months and had now stabilised. First-timers could benefit from this but needed even more support, he said.
"Hopefully, the slight reduction in house prices will particularly assist first-time buyers and we are definitely seeing an increase in the number of sales achieved," he said.
"The main problem for first-time buyers still relates to the stringent conditions that banks and building societies are putting on the criteria for obtaining funding and I don't understand why this is still the case. "There is no doubt that the lending institutions have gone from making money too easily available to making the criteria for lending obstructive. There must be a middle course that looks after everyone's interest."
Meanwhile, with private rents forecast to rise by nearly half in the next eight years, the thought of renting out a property is becoming increasingly attractive to those who own one.
It is thought rents in prime parts of the county could rise by just under £380 by 2020.
