Widely varying valuations - great opportunity or crazy EA?

pie81

Cissi wrote: »

Ouch, yes do be sensible, please - I wish we hadn't fallen for a similar line when we put our last house on the market in early 2004! Our valuations all came in just below £500k, except for one agent who valued it at £599. We also weren't "in a hurry" to sell so thought it was worth a shot, went with that agent and an asking price of £575k. We did accept one offer at £535k but that fell through and then nothing. We had a baby and took the house of the market for a while, then the mini-slump of 2005 happened. We eventually sold in late 2005 for around £490k - probably what it was worth all along, but we could have saved ourselves a lot of stress and wasted time by going for a realistic price to start with!

argh. yes ok I'll be sensible! agree with your point re the mini-slump of 2005 (which is when I bought in fact) - i can easily see another one of those happening soon so we shouldn't jeopardise our good opportunity to sell now by asking a silly price.

well I've just talked myself out of a possible £90k

1echidna

pie81 wrote: »

argh. yes ok I'll be sensible! agree with your point re the mini-slump of 2005 (which is when I bought in fact) - i can easily see another one of those happening soon so we shouldn't jeopardise our good opportunity to sell now by asking a silly price.

well I've just talked myself out of a possible £90k

You mean pie in the sky £90k don't you?

chickmug

Emmzi wrote: »

heh, partly. *but* they don't have the same agenda as an EA, cos you have already chosen and paid them. I'd say *more* reliable if you are really conflicted.

Good point and I just remembered the people who asked us for a valuation saying the had no interest in selling as they just wanted their cyclical check on their biggest investment - their home.

So a nominal fee was agreed and more often than not they went on sale. They admitted their ploy was to ask for a 'paid for' valuation in the hopes of getting a realistic figure as they were so fed up with hearing the B/S figures from the free valuation agents.

pie81

1echidna wrote: »

You mean pie in the sky £90k don't you?

oh all right

silvercar

At higher prices you are more likely to be lucky with a sale where the buyer falls in love with your property and pays less regard to the price. They won't be brought back to earth by a cautious lender because the LTV is not likely to be approaching the 80%+ danger zone.

Round here in your price range a couple of properties have sat on the market for years yet others have sold very quickly at silly money.

If you genuinely don't need to move it could be worth a punt.

pie81

interesting to hear a different view silvercar. whereabouts are you?

we did a bit of googling last night and found a few bad reviews of the EA who gave the high valuation... talking about how they pressure sellers into reducing prices... also found out that EAs often get commission for each vendor they sign up (rather than just on sale). made me a bit sceptical.

overall I'm still inclined to ignore the crazy high valuation and go with a price at the high end of sensible. If there do happen to be some megabucks buyers out there who really want to pay 575k, well they can always offer over the asking price can't they

alternatively we might go back to the EA with the high valuation and offer them a deal - 2% if they get over 550k, or fixed fee of £250 (ie just to cover costs) if they get under 550k. See whether they are willing to put money where their mouth is.

will speak to an EA friend today and get their view on whether this is likely to be just a ploy to get our business... then make final decision on what to do.

thanks all for your help. any further thoughts v welcome.

djd68

When we sold our flat in London (admittedly a few years ago) we had 5 valuations ranging from £240k - £375k. We had a few nice features and a large garden and the EA said we had a unique proposition and that if we weren't in a hurry then we would probably find someone who fell in love with it. We agreed a tiered fee where they were heaviliy incentivised to get close to the asking price and there was no tie in after 4 weeks. After 2 months we accepted an offer of £370k and were very glad we didn't go with one of the lower valuations. At the time we thought it was ridiculously high but we didn't have anything to lose. That extra 50-100k we attained made a massive difference to what type of place we moved to.

pie81

djd68 wrote: »

When we sold our flat in London (admittedly a few years ago) we had 5 valuations ranging from £240k - £375k. We had a few nice features and a large garden and the EA said we had a unique proposition and that if we weren't in a hurry then we would probably find someone who fell in love with it. We agreed a tiered fee where they were heaviliy incentivised to get close to the asking price and there was no tie in after 4 weeks. After 2 months we accepted an offer of £370k and were very glad we didn't go with one of the lower valuations. At the time we thought it was ridiculously high but we didn't have anything to lose. That extra 50-100k we attained made a massive difference to what type of place we moved to.

Argh. now you and silvercar have made the decision difficult again.

What sort of tiered fee did you agree? They are already offering no tie in.

thanks

djd68

From recollection it was something like

1% flat fee
2% over £350k
£1000 bonus for attaining asking price.

I have used a tiered fee on the three times we have moved. In my experience you have to give them enough to do a good job for you hence the 1% basic fee but make the difference between any offer and a good offer significant enough for them to really push for a good price.

In my experience, you tend to get what you pay for with EA's. I went with a cheap one once who managed to get me a good price (three times) but on all three occassions the sale fell through because they didn't manage it closely enough.

If you do put it on at the higher valuation and then have to reduce it I personally don't think there is any stigma attached to that. People like to think that they're getting a bargain! I'd rather reduce something than run the risk of selling it for less than you could have got.

I don't think you have anything to lose if you are no rush.

54druids

Emmzi wrote: »

is it worth £150 to you to get a valuation from a surveyor?

If you have read my posts on here, you may be wasting your 150 quid as surveyors can vary also.