House now valued at £13K less!!!!

HugoSP

gilly41 wrote:

Hi
Thanks again for the replies. We have been with this agent for 6 weeks and are tied in for a 16 week contract---therefore til March! I did have another valuation done in the summer and that was for 125K----when we got this EA out and she said that the 125K was way below what we should be looking for I just assumed she was right! As I say i havent sold for 18 years so havent really got a clue---but I am learning fast!
x

Stamp duty threashold is £120k

I think you have a case for coming out of the contract with the estate agent because they have been incompetent and therefore IMO effectively broken their part of the contract - have a good look at the contract you've signed then go to the NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) and put it to them.

Another thing you consider is to renegotiate your commission. if you're currently on 2% negotiate it to 1% or 0.5%.

Good luck

silvercar

HugoSP wrote:

Stamp duty threashold is £120k

Increased to £125k.

devils_advocate

skim wrote:

We put it up for sale at £145 & sold in 10 days for £140k

I guess the real market value would have been about £150k

No. The market value is what you sold it for. That's why you didn't sell it for £150k.

Alan_M_2

gilly41 wrote:

Hi

So what do we do?? I have definately decided to sell but 13K drop is huge!!!

It isn't a drop if it isn't or ever was worth £138k.

tomstickland

Go and look on rightmove to see what similar properties sell for and how they are marketed. Use nethouseprices etc to see what the sale price was for properties in the local area. It's just basic research really.

Milky_Mocha

Get a few EA opinions but by no means should you trust them completely.

One estate agent valued our house at 10k below what the other two did. He said it was worth 215k. The other two said 225k. Before we put the house on the market and before we even decided on an asking price a couple offered 225k. The EA (the one who valued at 215k) said we should accept the offer, throw everything in a box, take the money and run and that if the sale goes through for that much we would be the highest selling property of its kind in the area. He also added that even if we decided to wait a few months in the hope of getting more money we'd be kidding ourselves.

2 weeks after this wise man's words we sold for 235k. Hmmm. Throw your things in a box and run? I think not.

real1314

Milky_Mocha - Hope the buyer doesn't come back in 18 months alleging valuation fraud!

As for OP, although you say you're tied in to the contract with the EA, I'd suggest that the apparent over-valuation gives you the right to break it.
Are they with any regulating bodies? If so it might be worth checking their terms.

skim

devils_advocate wrote:

No. The market value is what you sold it for. That's why you didn't sell it for £150k.

I sold it cheap because I was in a rush to move - I'm sure I'd have got more if I'd have waited. I didn't get £150 because I never asked for that amount

courtjester

Ian_W wrote:

In fairness to the EA, valuing houses isn't an exact science in many ways - there are so many factors that make very similar houses worth 1000's more or less than each other - but your house is worth only what someone is prepared to pay for it. If it was over-priced then I wouldn't worry about the price drop unless it prevents you buying the house you'd like, even then you can't do anything about it except lower your sights if you want to move.

But I wouldn't have only one EA value a property anyway as my experience is that some over-value simply to get you to sign up with them, then encourage you to drop your price rather quickly when it won't shift. I'd get at least 3 valuations and look to put it on around the middle one. Valuations are free and they give you an opportunity to weigh up the different agents.

It's about time agents were prevented from using the term 'valuation' when giving advice on marketing - their so-called 'valuations' are nothing of the sort, but the use of the word implies some kind of professional approach. Agent's figures are often guesses based on what they think the property could be marketed for adjusted for various factors including greed (higher values attract clients to sign up, even though the property will never sell for that), that month's sales targets, developer tie ups (where the agent has a known purchaser in mind already that they know will buy the property at "the right price" :cool: ), etc.

The only true valuations are those done by mortgage lenders surveyors which base their values on actual prices of comparable properties sold recently in the location. It varies from area to area, but agents values (or asking prices to give them a more relevant name) will generally be pitched at something like 5-10% above actual sold prices. As buyers and sellers have been drawn into the negotiating game - never offer the asking price first - land registry prices viewed on 'sold price websites' will be a bit below what you expect to see on the street.

devils_advocate

skim wrote:

I sold it cheap because I was in a rush to move - I'm sure I'd have got more if I'd have waited. I didn't get £150 because I never asked for that amount

That's precisely my point, Skim. 150 can't be the market value because it didn't sell for that. In a rising market, I'm sure that if you'd waited long enough, you would have got 150 for it. Then that would have been the market value, at the time you sold it.