Advise on EA valuations

philo_2

Please could someone advise.
We are planning to sell our house as the stairs have become an issue due to dissability.
The house was built approx 1800 and renevated approx 1970 - it needs a bit of tidying now.
Obviously we want to get as much as we can to allow funds for a more suitable property for us. But we also want a smooth sale with the minimum of haggling.
We have had three valuations. Two agents valued the same but the third came in 30K higher.
The question is: Do we go for the Agent with the highest value (and slightly higher fee)
Instruct one of the others to go at this higher valuation
Go in at the lower valuation or somewhere in between.

Advise on how the market works would be so helpful eg. if the 30K is overvalued, how would potential purchasers view this, would thay walk away in disgust or be prepared to make a lower offer.

Just be very interested to hear other peoples opinions and experiences.

Many thanks Philo

Doozergirl

Can I ask what your valuations were? It's just that £30k is going to make more of a difference in some areas of the market than others!

I would grill the agent that has gone higher and ask if they would be prepared to take a short contract ie. 4-6 weeks at that price. If you make it clear that you will move agents after that time if they don't pull a sale out of the bag, they should give you either a very confident reply, or start backtracking.

I have one agent in my area who always overvalue and always end up dual agent as a result. Their boards are red too, which means they fade most easily in the sunlight and you can really see how long a property has been on the market!

On the other hand, I sold a London flat last year and the agent whose valuation came out quite a lot higher than the other two but he was supremely confident and actually ended up selling the flat for even more!

dnwilliams

I would start by asking the highest EA what evidence they have to substantiate their figure. My guess is that they wont have any reliable comparables and that there are other reasons behind the valuation.

As a rule, one would take an average of the three figures to arrive at what should be a more sensible level.

If you have a style of property that is commonly found in your area you can establish what others have recently achieved yourself, by visiting http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/

Best of luck.

philo_2

Thank you for your comments.

The valuations were 150k and 180k.

Your ideas re the highest EA is one of my favoured options but Im worried it will look bad if the value falls considerably if it does not sell on first exposure.

Regards Philo

Doozergirl wrote:

Can I ask what your valuations were? It's just that £30k is going to make more of a difference in some areas of the market than others!

I would grill the agent that has gone higher and ask if they would be prepared to take a short contract ie. 4-6 weeks at that price. If you make it clear that you will move agents after that time if they don't pull a sale out of the bag, they should give you either a very confident reply, or start backtracking.

I have one agent in my area who always overvalue and always end up dual agent as a result. Their boards are red too, which means they fade most easily in the sunlight and you can really see how long a property has been on the market!

On the other hand, I sold a London flat last year and the agent whose valuation came out quite a lot higher than the other two but he was supremely confident and actually ended up selling the flat for even more!

philo_2

All three agents thought that the property was unusual as in theres not alot to compare it with. It has quite a large garden and according to them is in a sought after area. They did all agree that this made it difficult to accurately value.

This also makes it difficult for us as we want to get the best we can on one hand but not appear so greedy as to put potential buyers off. As important is to get into a more suitable property as soon as possible.

Regards Philo.

dnwilliams wrote:

I would start by asking the highest EA what evidence they have to substantiate their figure. My guess is that they wont have any reliable comparables and that there are other reasons behind the valuation.

As a rule, one would take an average of the three figures to arrive at what should be a more sensible level.

If you have a style of property that is commonly found in your area you can establish what others have recently achieved yourself, by visiting http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/

Best of luck.

oodlenoodle10

Why don't you try another estate agent? That way if they value it nearer the two lowest you know that the highest is unrealistic... if it is nearer the higher then try it.... you could always lower at a later date if there is no interest.

We had this when valuing my dad's house his first valuation was a whopping £350,000 ! (considering we are buying the house!) two others said £280,000, £265,000. Dad decided to get a third just in case and they said £275,000.

Worth mentioning that the highest valuation estate agent did have a lot of houses that were on their website for a long time, plus I noticed one property had to lower their price. Maybe keep an eye on their website and see how quickly (or not) the properties are selling.

silvercar

We saw a house the day it came on the market, then when it appeared in the local paper it was on 5% higher. The sellers had decided to market it dual agent with the second agent known for marketing at high prices. We told the first agent that we were not prepared to make an offer while it was on at that price. If they were looking for offers around that price they would not take our offer seriously and we felt there was too great a risk that they would continue marketing even if they accepted out offer.

A fortnight later the price came down to the original point and we offered a price that still took them 2 weeks to accept, but we moved in July!

lynzpower

It may be that the "higher" agent has a larger suply of customers as well. Do bear this in mind. Where I work, we valued a flat at a 20k higher than another agent with another flat in the block. We had people queing out of the door to view it, and it reached AP & sold within 2 days.