Major inconsistent property valuations

QTPie

Find out what similar has recently sold for - get your estate agents to justify their valuations... If the EA who suggests £225k can show you the details of a similar property that has very recently sold (or proceeding well) with a price in that region, then worth going for...

It is a funny market - I think that you want to work out what is "realistic": both over pricing and under pricing will do you a mi-service... Some EAs are pricing high (to get your business) others will price low (to try to sell very quickly).

When we sold our first place (a mews house - like a flat) we had three valuations of £215k, £260k and £290k. Making a judgement on the local area, we went with £260k and achieved £256k. I really felt that £290k was just too ambitious for our house and didn't want to hang around (but £215k was laughable!).

QT

coffee_king

Hey
The apartment is just an average size 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, BUT we are on the top floor and have a 1500sq ft private terrace area with amazing views of Birmingham. Which is what seems to be making it hard for any EA to come up with a figure as its absolutely unique for Birmingham to have such a large private outdoor area. From what I am being told this has the largest private terrace any EA has seen in the whole of the city centre.
An EA valued it at 370k the other day......needless to say I showed him the door......idiot.
Still nonthewiser, but we have more EA's coming round today.


Coffee_king

ILW

What did you pay for it, and when?

coffee_king

Hi
We brought it as a repo approx 1 year ago. I'm not about to publish on a forum how much I paid for it, but lets just say we got a bargain

coffee_king

Doozergirl

Have you had Knight Frank in? It sounds interesting enough for a premium agent and in my experience they are very good indeed at valuing. On one house they valued it within £2k of the eventual selling price based on something they'd already sold in another city! And we had valuations that ranged over £175,000 apart ...

The problem with having lots of agents in is that you tend to end up with more and more wildly conflicting valuations. When you are going through this process, make sure that the person valuing doesn't only value but that they deal with customers themselves. It's easy to overvalue when you don't have to face people on a day to day basis.

Jowo_2

My former neighbour is selling her 3 bed terrace house and the valuations ranged from 300k to 400k! It's a street with just a dozen or so properties that rarely go up for sale but some have sold in the past (£380k a year ago, 290k two years ago). She pitched hers for sale halfway through those extremes and got an offer within a few weeks.

Blacksheep1979

Doozergirl wrote: »

Have you had Knight Frank in? It sounds interesting enough for a premium agent and in my experience they are very good indeed at valuing. On one house they valued it within £2k of the eventual selling price based on something they'd already sold in another city! And we had valuations that ranged over £175,000 apart ...

Doesn't mean they got it right - could have put the price too low and someone thought 'brilliant, wonder if I can get an extra couple of k off'

Fire_Fox

Eton_Rifle wrote: »

The house valuations I've checked on Zoopla don't seem that far out in the area I'm focussing on. They seem to be there or thereabouts for properties' actual sold prices despite the asking prices on Rightmove being back to 2007 levels.
Maybe flats are harder for them to gauge, I don't know?

AFAIK the Zoopla valuation is simply based on postcode; mine is one of the cheapest blocks in the area due to the poor condition of the communal areas and no curb appeal. I assume this means it also undervalues the flats in the more desirable blocks.

Doozergirl

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

Doesn't mean they got it right - could have put the price too low and someone thought 'brilliant, wonder if I can get an extra couple of k off'

We're not really talking about the value of house where people really think getting a couple of grand off something is a deal

It wasn't a random recommendation, the example I gave was one of several dealings I've had with Knight Frank in the Midlands, B'ham office included; but that valuation was one pertinent example because it was a difficult property to value and it sold in the right amount of time esp considering it hit the market right in time for Northern Rock to go bump and the credit crunch to begin. They explain their valuations well, provide comparables and reasoning and talk with confidence.

They've never badly valued a house for us, but we've not always used them. They are quite realistic in their pricing, possibly erring to conservative but importantly they do not ramp; but look to acheive sales in a sensible timeframe - if it's not going to produce a sale, they're not keen in investing their time. They aren't cheap to deal with unfortunately, but it's up to them to sell themselves at the point of valuation.

coffee_king

The one person I spoke to at Knight Frank wasn't interested as it wasn't "Brand new". Even though it is in pretty much brand new condition.