how much is a house worth

sonnythecat

This may be a silly question, but here goes:

when you're selling a house, instead of asking eas to suggest a price wouldn't it be better to get a valuation from a surveyor? A surveyor wouldn't have any reason to inflate the price or play silly beggers or whatever.

I'm guess I'm missing something here, but I'd love to know what it is!!!!

Appreciate your comments...

GavB79

You have to pay the surveyor?

googler

You have to pay the surveyor, and there's still no guarantee that any buyer will pay what the surveyor thinks your house is worth....

However, we already have this system in operation in Scotland. Sellers must have a Home Report (similar to a HIP) in place before marketing their property, and part of the HR is a surveyor's valuation. Seems to have been working OK since Dec 2008.....

sonnythecat

thanks, good points. But to be honest, I wouldn't mind paying a surveyor as opposed to trying to pick my way between wildly differing valuations.

tyler80

I would have thought in the current climate the cost of the surveyor might be worth it. A lot of those buying currently are reliant on sticking in a LTV band which means the valuation needs to line up with the sale price. It might prevent a fair few sales falling through

GavB79

AFAIK you are just as likely to get three different valuations from three different surveyors as you are from three different Estate Agents. There isn't some guide like used cars have.

sonnythecat

anyone got an idea how much a surveyor's valuation costs these days?

olias

I've never known EAs come up with wildly differing valuations. There is usually at the most maybe <10% difference, usually a lot less. The only time this might not ring true is with an unusual or one of a kind property.

Olias

ladymarmalade1970

olias wrote: »

I've never known EAs come up with wildly differing valuations. There is usually at the most maybe <10% difference, usually a lot less. The only time this might not ring true is with an unusual or one of a kind property.

Olias

I was just going to say this. At the end of the day a house is only worth what someone will pay for it and if a house is quirky or off plan etc then some surveyors may undervalue it whilst others, that like it will over value it!
I guess you just have to pick the EA that suits your house. My OH and i like quirky but one house we were particularly interested in was valued at 50k less than what the seller wanted, and the buyers wanted to pay for it, by the surveyor. The sale fell through in the end and the buyer had to drop his price because of this but that couple and my OH and i felt it to be worth the original price.

mufi

olias wrote: »

I've never known EAs come up with wildly differing valuations. There is usually at the most maybe <10% difference, usually a lot less. The only time this might not ring true is with an unusual or one of a kind property.
Olias

We wheeled in four EAs. £200,000 difference between lowest and highest valuations and it wasn't a million pound house, or even half a million.

olias

All I can say to that is that the EAs in your area must be a right bunch of muppets! I have sold at least half a dozen properties in 4 different counties and 2 different countries and the various agents I have got to value have always arrived at broadly similar figures. I am currently selling and all 3 of our local agents have at least one partner who is RICS qualified and it is they that carry out the valuations for the practice.

I would argue that just by keeping abreast of the local market and doing a few Google searches would give most people enough information to value a property to within about 20%.

Olias