Worried about overpaying

WilliamJH

I've had an offer accepted on a house for £260K (asking price was 270). The area is a Cross rail town, and thus the market is a little crazy at the moment.

The worrying thing is that zoopla estimates the house at £190k, although a similar almost identical property on the same road is valued by zoopla at £230k. Mouseprice estimates the house at about £250K, massively different from zoopla, more like it.

The last house to sell on the road, that is similar sold for 230k about 6 months ago, but as stated, the market is a little crazy now as a result of crossrail. Other similar properties in the area have asking prices between 260k-280k, although who knows what offers are actually accepted.

I expect if we really are overpaying the mortgage valuation report will identify this. We are having a building survey conducted ourselves, but this explicitly does not include a valuation.

The OH and myself really do like the house, so I would like to proceed, but I also don't want to look the other way if we really are overpaying by a substantial amount.

Any thoughts/advice appreciated.

Hoploz

Ignore the online estimates, they are all rubbish, as you have discovered -they bear no resemblance to real life.

G_M

zoopla is meaningless.

jimbog

Zoopla is pathetic. Friend had a terrace house valued by a reputable local agent at £310K (which is what they actually go for). Zoopla? £190K.......

Look at rightmove actual sold prices to see what they actually went for:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html

TranceNRG

Haha very true about online valuations.Zoopla had estimates up to 200K less than the asking price on some of the properties I was interested in.

Your best guess is to look at sold properties in the area.

Running_Horse

Did Zoopla explain what date they visited the property with a qualified surveyor to come up with their "valuation"?

pleasedelete

Zoopla rates my mothers house at £150k less than the identical one next door. hers is a bigger plot and much higher spec inside. It is all based on sale date and price- next door bought 5 years before her new and paid top whack- hers was a repossession on which she did a lot of cosmetic work (she paid less than new price). The actual worth is probably somewhere between the 2.

Running_Horse

In a way, when you drive down the price and get that bargain you are stitching yourself up for when you have added value and want to sell, as a simplistic benchmark has been set.

Perhaps we should all volunteer to pay more than the asking price, so that extra can be added to by normal house price inflation. Think of it as an investment rather than a place to live!

Rollinghills

Zoopla rates are based on the price of last sale. If the previous owner got a bargain, the house will have a low zoopla estimate. If they paid over the odds the house will be zoopla valued at a much higher rate. Effectively it's pretty irrelevant. You can check last months sold prices in land registry although those may have been agreed several months ago.

Happier_Me

Ignore Zoopla. My house is valued £80k cheaper than the exact same property next door. Why? Because we purchased ours in 2009 when the market had stalled from a property builder that had gone bust. It looked a bargain at the time for £300k - we got it for £250k.

DRP

WilliamJH wrote: »

I've had an offer accepted on a house for £260K (asking price was 270). The area is a Cross rail town, and thus the market is a little crazy at the moment.

The worrying thing is that zoopla estimates the house at £190k, although a similar almost identical property on the same road is valued by zoopla at £230k. Mouseprice estimates the house at about £250K, massively different from zoopla, more like it.

The last house to sell on the road, that is similar sold for 230k about 6 months ago, but as stated, the market is a little crazy now as a result of crossrail. Other similar properties in the area have asking prices between 260k-280k, although who knows what offers are actually accepted.

I expect if we really are overpaying the mortgage valuation report will identify this. We are having a building survey conducted ourselves, but this explicitly does not include a valuation.

The OH and myself really do like the house, so I would like to proceed, but I also don't want to look the other way if we really are overpaying by a substantial amount.

Any thoughts/advice appreciated.

the recent changes in stamp duty tax will account for the price jump from sub250 to 260 plus.