Free Market Appraisal.

Rdwill

Hi

We are in the throws of finishing off our extension, painters completing this week, patio being tiled over the weekend etc. Now, obviously I wouldn't mind knowing what the house is now valued at and whether I have got a reasonable uplift in houseprice for the money that we have spent. Although we have absolutely no intention of selling.

And lo!, a card drops through the door

"The directors of Jackson-Stops invite you to accept an offer of a free market appraisal of your property, please telephone Brian ...."

Question is, if I telephone Brian, what am I letting myself in for?

Will Brian do a search on zoopla or similar add a bit to make it enticing? Which frankly I can do.

Will I be pestered by Brian and his colleagues for the rest of my days with spurious offers and stories of 'hot buyers'?

Should I be content just to live in the house and not worry about the value, although I need something to put on my balance sheet. 

Any opinion warmly welcomed

TIA

FreeBear

Had the same from another national EA. They came in, quickly measured the size of various rooms, and then left. A few days later, got a multi-page letter giving a "valuation" along with a bunch of terms & conditions if I decided to sell via them.

No further contact, no pressure to sell, and my details were not passed on to a third party for "marketing" purposes. Can't comment on whether Jackson-Stops would be as good, but it isn't in their best interest to upset a prospective vendor.

twopenny

Just get a couple of local estate agents for a valuation. They all do it.

And they know the local market, work on the people they are selling for and to and I didn't get pestered at all.

Rosa_Damascena

Rdwill said:

Hi

We are in the throws of finishing off our extension, painters completing this week, patio being tiled over the weekend etc. Now, obviously I wouldn't mind knowing what the house is now valued at and whether I have got a reasonable uplift in houseprice for the money that we have spent. Although we have absolutely no intention of selling.

And lo!, a card drops through the door

"The directors of Jackson-Stops invite you to accept an offer of a free market appraisal of your property, please telephone Brian ...."

Question is, if I telephone Brian, what am I letting myself in for?

Will Brian do a search on zoopla or similar add a bit to make it enticing? Which frankly I can do.

Will I be pestered by Brian and his colleagues for the rest of my days with spurious offers and stories of 'hot buyers'?

Should I be content just to live in the house and not worry about the value, although I need something to put on my balance sheet. 

Any opinion warmly welcomed

TIA

That's what I plan to do in the autumn when I'm done with this build. I'm going to go with the EA that sold me my home (he's now working for himself) to do the valuation. I'm sure he'll be amazed at what's been done in less than 4 years. I'm going nowhere but I want to know that my efforts have not been in vain

Davesnave

Whoever you get, and an RICS chartered surveyor would put less spin on things but not be free, the appraisal will be very quickly out of date.

As twopenny says, out in the more rural areas local agents all do this and usually give two prices to work between according to speed of sale, but in cities you may get a greasy type in a shiny suit and more pressure.

Jackson Stops have been around a long time and are more of the traditional sort of agent with a reputation, so I'd expect a realistic appraisal  and no funny business.

PS Last time we did thi was in the tail end of the last recession and two managers, bored to death, showed up here, talked all afternoon and ate all our chocolate biscuits! Things are very different now, so that shouldn't happen, but this time next year? Who knows!