A common complaint about some estate agents is they overvalue properties to get them on their books. This does no one any favours. The hapless seller is given unrealistic expectations, buyers show no interest because the property is overpriced and the agent is carrying stock that will not sell. When, inevitably, the property is re-priced you see big reductions. Big reductions get people talking about a price crash and sentiment gets rattled. Today the FT reported that a one bed flat in Birmingham had seen a price reduction from £158950 to £99950 (some 37%). The report did not mention whether or not the price was realistic to start with. My guess is that if it had then it wouldn’t have been newsworthy.