Estate Agent Valuations

diystarter7

Btw

Apols I forgot to say.  I do not and never have trusted an EA I met and when I was younger, I recall one of them being quiet insutlsing when I said our property was worth  ???? when EA was saying lower. I based my price on the fact it was one of the very few houses in the area with OSP not for one car but several. The EA said something like 2why sould someone pay ?? for this area as up the road (half mile away a really nicer area thna the average we lived i) houses are selling for that. Guess what,
another EA wanted to lower price but we agreed to test the market for two weeks and almost got 100% of the asking price.

The above was due to the facts as stated above and the gardern, boundaries of our proerty were almost double of most of the others.

So if you feel your home has features others in area dont that will help sell/increase price, test at a price at that price for a week or 2 and see how it goes.

Thanks

eddddy

user1977 said:

But have any of the agents provided any sort of methodology behind their figures? You can use different types of properties as comparables, you just need to make allowance for different size/rooms etc (and add extra margin for error).

That's not really how estate agents generally do their valuations. It's based more on "intelligence gathering".

They talk to dozens of prospective buyers each week, they might show dozens of prospective buyers around properties each week, they negotiate offers between buyers and sellers, etc. They note what the prospective buyers say.

So they know the types of properties buyers are looking for, they know their budgets, they know the types of offers they're making.

(They also watch their competitors to see what they have on the market at what price, how quickly their properties are going under offer, etc)

They bring together that kind of information to decide on a valuation.


Sometimes it causes problems, because some buyers are prepared to pay more than their mortgage lender thinks a property is worth.

ansaryon

I always thought if you had several valuations, you got rid of the highest and lowest, then took an average of what was left.

Mind you, it caused fun for my neighbour's daughters. I had first refusal on her tumbledown WW1-officer's-hut bungalow and when my neighbour moved to a nursing home, the daughters had three valuations:

Auction, 140K, 160K.

Dissatisfied with that, they then had four more estate agents who, strangely, were much more upbeat about valuation:

Auction, 240K, 280K, 360K (the 2xx ones based on 2 houses being built there, the 360K one for three houses).

In the end the neighbour told the daughters to offer me a lower price than that, as I'd been a good neighbour for 40 years. We agreed 180K in the end.

I've nabbed half the plot (as I wanted to preserve the trees I've enjoyed looking at for 40 years - expensive trees, but well worth it to me, as they'd have gone forever by now). The remaining half? 100K according to a chartered surveyor, with the bungalow itself valued at zero.

I think I did well - but those last three estate agents were clearly chasing big commissions!

fackers_2

ManuelG said:

I'm in a murky world...

Have had five estate agents out to value my house this week. Four of them all ended up in a similar ballpark (around £225k). I thought this was too much for the house myself, but once I had four of them kind of agree, I was coming round to it.

The last one (and it would be the last one!) threw a curveball however, with a valuation £45k under that... along with warnings to not be tempted by agents overvaluing to get my business. I hear this warning loud and clear! But surely four of them wouldn't overvalue by *that* much? It's a big gap between them!

Am I overreading things into the valuations, and should I just go with whoever of the higher ones I preferred? I'm even wondering if the last has undervalued because they don't want my business! One of the others wanted to do offers over at a high price, and I'd be happier if they lowered the price by about £15k and still did offers over. Surely it would still end up right if I *am* being overly pessimistic on the price?!?

I would personally try find 3 comparables, keep widening your search until you do… Are there smaller and bigger properties near you can get a gauge on? Not knowing much about your area or the property you’d have a few options. 

1 - Trust your gut instinct with these valuations
2 - Have a RICS surveyor come out to value it
3 - Try it on at the top valuation, if it doesn’t get viewings within a couple of weeks, consider reducing the price. I would caveat with that and be mindful about chasing down the market if the property is valued too highly. 


Best of luck!

NameUnavailable

£45K is quite a difference. I would search online to see what is listed similar to your house in the area (currently for sale and under offer/sold recently) to see whether your competition is in line with the lower or higher valuations.

Maybe get another couple of agents round as well?