Inflated house price.

Muzz1

Hi all. I am in Scotland. I am looking to buy in a particular area but I have reason to believe that an estate agent in that area is paying surveyors to over value its properties when performing the initial home report. Is there someone I can speak to regarding this? That may be able to investigate this.
Thanks!

anselld

Muzz1 wrote: »

Hi all. I am in Scotland. I am looking to buy in a particular area but I have reason to believe that an estate agent in that area is paying surveyors to over value its properties when performing the initial home report. Is there someone I can speak to regarding this? That may be able to investigate this.
Thanks!

What reason do you have?

What would be the point? If all their properties are overvalued then nobody would buy them. If people are buying them, by definition they are not overvalued since the market value is what people are willing to pay.

glasgowdan

Does the name of the agent behind with C, by any chance?

AnotherJoe

Muzz1 wrote: »

Hi all. I am in Scotland. I am looking to buy in a particular area but I have reason to believe that an estate agent in that area is paying surveyors to over value its properties when performing the initial home report. Is there someone I can speak to regarding this? That may be able to investigate this.
Thanks!

Is this estate agent about to go bust because they aren't selling any houses due to them all being priced too high? Arent their clients somewhat concerned they are unable to sell their houses ?

Caz3121

Muzz1 wrote: »

I have reason to believe that an estate agent in that area is paying surveyors to over value its properties when performing the initial home report. I

with similar properties, do the homes from other agents have lower home report values?

AdrianC

Offer what you think the property's worth. If it's not accepted, walk away - there's plenty of others.

exiled_red

The valuations are somewhat subjective, I would assume that to prove something systematic you would have to find alot of similar houses valued by two different agents / surveyors, and show that the ones on the books of this particular agent were consistantly priced significantly Out of interest how much over priced do you think that they are going?

Without this I doubt anyone would take any notice. What is your interest in this are you looking to buy if so the best advice is to only offer/pay what you think the property you are looking at is worth. Out of interest how much do you think they are over pricing by (as a %)

Davesnave

To be fair to the OP, I think over-pricing is common, but it's not necessarily the agents to blame.

Where I live, in a country area, there are two agents who pick up much of the local business. I notice that their houses hit Rightmove at what I'd call 'hopeful' prices, and then, over 6-9 months, they reduce to something bordering on realistic. Last week, exactly half of one agent's newspaper ad was of properties at 'new' prices. They never say 'reduced!'

This is a fairly slow-moving market, but despite this, anyone signing up with these guys will be lucky to get decent photos or a floor plan. This leads me to think that much of the local populace is unsophisticated.

I don't think it's necessarily the agents over-pricing; it's more likely that the vendors have an idea of what they want and the agents just roll with it, rather than upset them. They know that many locals will stick with them rather than employ someone from out of the area.

If everyone was objective about the value of their property, there would be no problem, but that's not going to happen. The result is plenty pf property sitting there for upwards of a year, but then, life here is slow anyway!

davidmcn

Muzz1 wrote: »

Hi all. I am in Scotland. I am looking to buy in a particular area but I have reason to believe that an estate agent in that area is paying surveyors to over value its properties when performing the initial home report. Is there someone I can speak to regarding this? That may be able to investigate this.
Thanks!

Do you any evidence to back up your "reason to believe"? Valuation isn't an exact science so yes, surveyors may be inclined to be" helpful" to their client. But they can only go so far before straying into expensive professional negligence claims.

Otherwise, I doubt you can do much unless and until you suffer a loss due to faulty valuations. If you don't trust the home reports, you are free to ignore them and get your own survey.

marksoton

Muzz1 wrote: »

Hi all. I am in Scotland. I am looking to buy in a particular area but I have reason to believe that an estate agent in that area is paying surveyors to over value its properties when performing the initial home report. Is there someone I can speak to regarding this? That may be able to investigate this.
Thanks!

What reason to believe? Proof?

I suspect the answer to the second question is none.

bouicca21

The market is different in different areas - if it's hot the EAs will push for higher prices and stand a good chance of getting them. The only 'true' indicator is what people are actually prepared to pay. A good clue to how hot the market is, is an open day with people bumping into each other as they try to view.