valuation for a divorce

jordygal

My husband and I are getting divorced and i need to get 3 valuations on our house, do I tell the estate agents the reason I want the valuation or do i pretend I am looking to actually sell the house? does telling them the reason I want a valuation make any difference to how much they value the house at?

martinsurrey

well, if you ring an agent up and tell them that you have no intention of selling the house, why would they come around and spend an hour doing work for no possible income?

JQ.

Is this seriously what your solicitor is advising? If so change your solicitor.

EA's have their own motivations for putting values on houses which very often don't mary with your own - some will value low to get a quick sale, some will value high to ensure they win an instruction and some are idiots and will just get it wrong.

The valuation you are getting is going to have a serious impact on your future financial position - get it valued by a qualified Chartered Surveyor, it's what they do for a living and are trained for. An EA is a salesman.

hazyjo

As above, go with a chartered surveyor. I'd take any EA 'valuation' with a pinch of salt. Asking prices are merely that. Not valuations.

Jx

Kynthia

Estate agents tell you what they think you should market the property at, not it's true value or even what price it is likely to sell for. They are also motivated by trying to get your business and therefore may tell you what you want to hear.

Only an RICS surveyor is qualified to give you an actual valuation of your property. You can find one in your area and pay them to come round and do this. It's what mortgage lenders insist on before lending on a property as they wouldn't trust three EA's opinions.

agrinnall

I guess the problem is that if 3 valuations are really needed then that's going to cost a good few £hundred using a surveyor, compared to nothing from an EA. Personally I would challenge the need for 3 if the valuation is coming from a professional surveyor and just get 1 done.

Kynthia

agrinnall wrote: »

I guess the problem is that if 3 valuations are really needed then that's going to cost a good few £hundred using a surveyor, compared to nothing from an EA. Personally I would challenge the need for 3 if the valuation is coming from a professional surveyor and just get 1 done.

It depends though on the reason for the valuation. If the OP is going to be buying out their ex the using a surveyor's valuation could save them thousands compared to an EA's valuation.

agrinnall

Kynthia wrote: »

It depends though on the reason for the valuation. If the OP is going to be buying out their ex the using a surveyor's valuation could save them thousands compared to an EA's valuation.

I agree that it could, but I've never come across any other situation where the same property would require 3 seperate survey valuations - if all of the surveyors are 'experts' in the local market then they should come up with the same figure, and if they don't then how can any of them be believed?

JQ.

agrinnall wrote: »

I agree that it could, but I've never come across any other situation where the same property would require 3 seperate survey valuations - if all of the surveyors are 'experts' in the local market then they should come up with the same figure, and if they don't then how can any of them be believed?

You're missunderstanding. I have absolutley no doubt the OP has been told to get 3 Estate Agent "valuations". It's a common misconception that if you get 3 EA's round and take the average, that's provides the correct answer.

agrinnall

JQ. wrote: »

You're missunderstanding. I have absolutley no doubt the OP has been told to get 3 Estate Agent "valuations". It's a common misconception that if you get 3 EA's round and take the average, that's provides the correct answer.

What is it that I'm misunderstanding? I accept what you say; what I was saying is that if the OP gets a valuation from a surveyor then only one should be necessary.

warwicktiger

You get 3 EA's round and take the average, that's provides the correct answer.

Thats what we did, but do NOT tell them why, they may well charge!