House values on Zoopla?

smileytiger

Hi Guys

Have just had my house valued by a few agents and it's come back at £140K or there abouts - which is what i expected and is fine.

What bothers me is that if people check up on Zoopla and look for previously sold houses on our street - which lets face it everyone does these days - one of them appears to have sold for £39,600 (2010). One of my neighbours split with her partner & bought out his 25% of the property hence the low price - but no where on Zoopla does it say this.

There hasn't been any other recent sales to compare with ours as the top end of the road has totally different style/build of house - so the prices for those that have sold are not really comparable - but if you didn't know the area would you assume same postcode same houses - even though some are pensioners bungalows etc?

I'm maybe being paranoid - but i really want my house to sell and with the amount of research buyers are now doing - will they automatically assume ours is overpriced??

It's not actually on market yet so can't post a RM link - but you can find the road on streetview YO22 4JQ.

Thoughts anyone please?

thanks

Running_Horse

Search this forum for "Zoopla" and "rubbish".

Anyone dumb enough not to realise that missing £100,000 is not normal...is not normal, and shouldn't be allowed a mortgage.

reheat

I have the same niggle with zoopla, as quite a few of the houses round my way have been bought by council tenants at massive discounts. Gauging prevailing market value by previous sold prices is not always very reliable I suspect. And it does not reflect if someone sold up cheaply if circumstances meant they had to sell quickly.

I suspect it really means you put your property up at what you believe (after taking good advice) is a sensible price for you and your circumstances, and to hold your nerve long enough to see if you got it right.

Gromitt

I use Zoopla, but I completely ignore the 'Zoopla Estimate' figures as they are nothing like real world figures (Unless the house was recently sold and no modifications done since, then its a bit closer). Some goes for the other sites like mouseprice. The only way of getting a realistic figure is to go around and view the house yourself, and then look at the surrounding area.

Sadly, as stated in the press recently, many estate agents are overpricing houses in an attempt to get business ("They only valued your house at 130K? We are confident we could get 140K", then you end up refusing realistic prices because the EA has brainwashed you into thinking it's worth more).

If you think it's worth 140K, then go for it. If you get no offers within 3 months, drop it to 135K and see what happens. Don't do like a lot people around here seem to be doing - doesn't sell at 130K, so after 6 months they change it to "Offers in excess of £124,950".

Ivana_Tinkle

I don't think it matters too much. Zoopla estimates the value of our house at about £100,000 less than the price it's currently under offer at. When we were selling, we did have one offer of £100K under the asking price from someone adamant that they'd done their research and it definitely wasn't worth any more, but it went under offer, close to the asking price, the same week. I wouldn't worry too much - just be prepared for the odd person smugly telling you you've overvalued it.

smileytiger

Thanks for the replies - i'm open to sensible offers on it as i want a quick sale & agents know this. If we get something £130k - £140k i'd be happy - so hopefully I'm being as realistic as possible on the value i think.

Whitby is one of those places where prices vary so much from street to street it's unreal - a 2 bed flat can go for £250k cos it's a desirable building - whereas a 4 bed detatched i know of is on at £130k - it's a bit of a minefield.

Thanks again

DreamweaverB

smileytiger wrote: »

will they automatically assume ours is overpriced??

Don't worry about it, just be prepared to explain why one house price is so low if asked.

For the same reason my house on LR and Zoopla looks like I bought it for £60k a few years ago... I wish... I've just sold it for £415k and the buyer couldn't be happier.

Only the stupidest buyer or biggest chancer would make an offer based on that price.

Good luck with your marketing.

Better_Days

Yes, I don't give much weight to the valuations on Zoopla. I recently looked up a bungalow which Zoopla valued at £325k which was initially marketed at £250k since dropped to £230k and still not sold.

A property near us was marketed at £285k when in reality they would have been very lucky to get £220k (based on what a very similar property on a bigger plot 2 houses down went for a couple of months earlier). Yet this higher marketing price seems to have pushed up the Zoopla value for just this property as it is so out of line with the others in the small cul de sac of 9 houses. I should add that the property didn't sell and was taken off the market by the EA when the vendor wanted to raise the marketing price even further.

When I have checked Zoopla valuations for properties I have been researching I have often found them to be wildly inaccurate. Part of the problem is that there are a lot of properties round here which are individual, rather than streets of 2/3 bed semi's, or 4 bed detached.

The best indicator is the price similar properties have sold for recently, although as you have pointed out OP, this is not always easy.

There is also an element of luck in it all as well, which can make the whole house selling business so nerve wracking. When we sold our first house we changed agents as the EA's lied, misled us and were basically incompetent. They told someone who asked about the house that it had been sold. It was only because the chap's mother happened to see the 'for sale' sign still up that he contacted us and bought the house!

geoffky

zoopla valuations are as accurate as my wifes admissions on clothes prices....