discrepancy of selling price (between 2 estate agencies)

dilemma001_2

Hi,

Wonder if anyone can shed some light on the following subject.

We want to put our house on the market because we want to move to another county to be nearer family. Two estate agents came to view our property. One of them said they would put it on the market for £138K and the other said £120K. We paid £148K for it (we own the property - no mortgage). We are wondering why there is such a discrepancy in price? One of the estate agents is based in a normal town and the other estate agent is based in an exclusive town - where property prices are almost double compared to the surrounding villages/ towns. The estate agent from the exclusive town is the one wanting to sell our home for £120K.

Of course we don't want to sell for £120K, but I do find it baffling that there is such a huge difference in prices and was wondering why that would be the case. Is there something one of them is not telling us....or knows something that we don't regarding selling our property?

Any constructive and useful thoughts on this matter would be appreciated.
Regards
Kay

devilot

Is it possible to get a third valuation and see what they say?

uropachild

I think that some estate agents will give you a higher price indication for your home because they think that you will be more likely to use them because of it. It's counter productive though because putting too high a price on your house will only lead to it taking a much longer time to sell.

I would call in a few more estate agents to get more valuations. You can't have too many and it's best to get as many as you can.

Also, have a look at Nethouseprices: http://www.nethouseprices.com/index.php?con=Search-Sold-House-Prices to do a search for what properties down your street / in your area have sold for.

Plus, it's good to bear in mind that there are three prices you should ask for when getting your house valued - 1) What you should advertise it at, 2) what you might expect to get an offer for, and 3) What you would ask for to sell the house fast.

QTPie

Because valueing houses is more of an art than a science?

If you think your discrepency is bad, then consider when we sold our previous house (late 2003). It was a two bedroom mews house in a historic city centre, all estate agents were from the city centre. Our 3 valuations came out at £215k, £260k and £290k! We actually ended up selling privately (not through any of the estate agents we used for a valuation) for £256k. Ok we might have got more if we had tried to sell with the estate agent that we got the highest valuation from, but we were happy (and had a VERY convenient private sale).

It really IS difficult at the moment... you need to be priced VERY competitively to even get interest, but obviously you don't want to undersell. Plus it is hard to tell if the lower estimate is coming from that estate agent being "more realistic to obtain lots of interest and a good offer fairly quickly" OR whether they are just concerned about "selling it quickly to get their commission with minimum hassle".

When did you buy your house (for £148k)? What area of the country do you live in?

Have both estate agents sold properties similar to yours recently? If so, for what prices?

The "exclusive town" estate agent may not be as familar with property in your area or your type of property OR they may (perhaps incorrectly) not appreciate the true value of your property. The "normal town" estate agent MAY better see the value of your property. How does your property "fit" (both type and price-wise) within the current propeties that both agents sell?

Why don't you get a third agent in? See where their valuation falls? We got three valuations before putting our current house on the market (and ended up going for something in the middle).

The other thing is to ask them WHY they have valued it as they have - that is what I did. You will find that most estate agents will be fairly flexible about what they put in ont he market for (providing you are fairly realistic): you if you prefer one estate agent, but another valuation, talk to your favoured estate agent and ask if they would be willing to market it at the other valuation (and if not, what are their arguments against it).

Choosing the fit estate agent is very important: not just from the value point of view, but as to how suited they are to selling your property (will they advertise it and show it most aptly and are they likely to have buyers registered who would be interested in your property?).

QT

poppysarah

EA1 says price1. EA2 says price2. If EA was using a mathematical equation it'd come out the same. But selling houses is so much down to human intervention that there isn't a safe way of establishing price apart from putting it on market and seeing what the market thinks.
If you put it on at price1 and you get no viewings then it's too high. If price2 gets hundreds of viewings it's too low.
In a falling market you want to judge the EA as much as the price.
Ring their office a few times - see how quickly they deal with buyers (You might want to get a couple of relatives or friends to coldcall the EAs randomly)

Look at contracts too. Ask them about the buyers they have waiting for properties.

Darth_Marty

What do you want and what do you need for the house?

Check out what very similar houses have been sold for and you can come up with a price yourself, then select the estate agent with which you feel most comfortable with.

PasturesNew

When I first looked into selling my house, I had every estate agent round. The lot... that was about 7 of them. Prices varied by over £40k. An EA has no idea what your house is worth, they're guessing... maybe the £120k didn't want to take your house on because it's out of their way a bit (bearing in mind they'd have to do quite a lot of viewings), or maybe their list of people who are likely to be interested is very short.

On the other hand the more local, higher price, might be an agent who is keeping asking prices high and selling nothing.

In addition to what your house may or not be worth, there are personal agendas going on with the agents too.

barnaby-bear

dilemma001 wrote: »

Hi,

Wonder if anyone can shed some light on the following subject.

We want to put our house on the market because we want to move to another county to be nearer family. Two estate agents came to view our property. One of them said they would put it on the market for £138K and the other said £120K. We paid £148K for it (we own the property - no mortgage). We are wondering why there is such a discrepancy in price? One of the estate agents is based in a normal town and the other estate agent is based in an exclusive town - where property prices are almost double compared to the surrounding villages/ towns. The estate agent from the exclusive town is the one wanting to sell our home for £120K.

Of course we don't want to sell for £120K, but I do find it baffling that there is such a huge difference in prices and was wondering why that would be the case. Is there something one of them is not telling us....or knows something that we don't regarding selling our property?

Any constructive and useful thoughts on this matter would be appreciated.
Regards
Kay

I've seen EAs base their commission on a % of the initial asking price rather than actual selling price....

Robert_Sterling_3

devilot wrote: »

Is it possible to get a third valuation and see what they say?

.... and a fourth?

Pennywise

My family have had very bad experiences of EA dodgy valuations.

They know no more than you - there is no expertise. Years ago, before the internet, there may have been a place for their "insider" knowledge, but now you can view other similar properties on the market in a few seconds on your PC and you can view the actual selling prices as per the Land Register, again in a few seconds on your PC. Add into that mix your own personal knowledge - after all you've lived in your immediate area and know the good/bad points of nearby homes. Finally, take a deep breath and have long hard look at your own house and compare it with modern standards - don't wear rose tinted glasses! You can come up with your own "fair price".

There are plenty of unscrupulous EAs who deliberately over-value your home to flatter you and get you to sign up with them.

In my parent's case, they had a property which they genuinely thought to be worth around £100k in 1990. They got a couple of EAs around - inevitably one valued it at £140k, the other at £110k. Needless to say, the £140k got signed up. After a year, virtually no interest, price was dropped to £120k, after another year, down to £100k. By 1994, they were on their fourth agent and eventually the property sold for just £60k. They ended up chasing the market down just as the last recession was affecting house prices, and lost a shed load of cash. They would have realised a lot more money had they sold it for say £100k in 1990 before the house price crash! If only they had ignored the EAs and stuck with their instincts!

Darth_Marty

Estate agents get a shed load of grief, and rightly so in many cases, but to say there is no expertise there is just plain wrong, many of these guys have been doing this for a long time and many more have excellent qualifications.

Dont allow your own personal experiences to cloud your judgement, like most things its just not right to make sweeping statements like that.