House selling - valuations

strawb_shortcake

We've been talking about moving for awhile now and finally had it valued by 5 agents, 3 local, 2 a little further out.

I fully appreciate it's likely someone will say all the values below are way too much...

The further out ones came back with £320, with a view we may have to accept a lower offer.

The more local ones were higher, with the suggestions of achieving £325-340, one outlier at £350k - which I felt was too high, however it does sound as their local sales are achieving sales within a few k of the asking price I.e £382/385 and £242/250 - that's a huge amount of work needed with a poor location.

One agent has also suggested a clause (think overage?) That should the land be developed we'd benefit - I think this is low risk for a number of factors, but largely accessibility.

Our house, and neither of the others in our immediate area have never sold on the open market, ones in the same street have, but they don't have the same kerb appeal, and also have rights of access to the back garden through someone else's garden. So I think it's a bit more of an unknown what someone will pay for our house.

We do have a large plot, a much larger than average garden, but the real selling point is the view, that is unlikely to change, and beautiful hills and farmland - even if they built on the farm as its slightly lower than us it wouldn't really impact the view beyond. However any new builds are outside this vista. 

Other selling points are, it's in the catchment area for an excellent secondary school.
There is a huge amount of scope of extending without even impacting the size of the garden. 
Great transport links, and only going to improve with current planning/work. 
Both in terms of house size and garden, it's a lot more than currently available in other houses. 

Only downside is it's ex local authority which I know can temper the valuation, could benefit from a new kitchen, but its perfectly usable, solid and well fitted - but we'd change the kitchen if we were moving in fresh.

We want to move, but aren't in a rush to move, is there any value in putting it on at the higher side with a view of accepting that middle valuation? This feels like win win, but as we've never sold before we might be missing something? 

Putting it on lower and hoping to have multiple people interested to get that middle price feels more of a risk, and we aren't going to accept say £300-310k

If it doesn't sell, our plan is to stay have the new kitchen and move in a couple of years time when we aren't tied to a school. 

Sorry that's way longer than I thought, but  would appreciate peoples thoughts on my ramblings

TY

Bigphil1474

We were given 3 valuations all in a similar range, but we opted to market at the upper end and accepted a price a bit below. One EA did suggest going low and drumming up a potential bidding war. Would never have happened though I don't think. If all the EA's are saying your house is worth more than you think, then you're probably the one in the wrong  

My preference would be to start higher and be able to drop. IME, most buyers will be looking to offer below asking anyway unless a property is really in demand, so if you start low, you'll probably still have to drop your price and be even lower than where you want to be. At the end of the day, if it's over priced, you'll get no interest so can lower the price later.

From the bit of information you've given with a range of £320 to £350k, I'd probably plump for around £340k. Keeps you inside the range for people looking at properties up to £350k, and in the range of people with a budget of around £325k. 

Mr.Generous

I think some agents believe the agent who proposes the highest value will get the business, and some custoers fall for it. I was present at a valuation a few years ago and watched the agent play someone. He showed sold prices, starting with mid range, then showed the cheapest and watched the horrified expresion on the face of the vendor. Then he showed the highest sold price, and said 'I believe I could get even more for yours with a proper marketing plan' and watched the beaming smile appear. Valued it too high, got the business, no viewings so price drop after 4 weeks. But they got the listing on a six month exclusive, so the agent was right from a business perspective. 

strawb_shortcake

Bigphil1474 said:

We were given 3 valuations all in a similar range, but we opted to market at the upper end and accepted a price a bit below. One EA did suggest going low and drumming up a potential bidding war. Would never have happened though I don't think. If all the EA's are saying your house is worth more than you think, then you're probably the one in the wrong  

My preference would be to start higher and be able to drop. IME, most buyers will be looking to offer below asking anyway unless a property is really in demand, so if you start low, you'll probably still have to drop your price and be even lower than where you want to be. At the end of the day, if it's over priced, you'll get no interest so can lower the price later.

From the bit of information you've given with a range of £320 to £350k, I'd probably plump for around £340k. Keeps you inside the range for people looking at properties up to £350k, and in the range of people with a budget of around £325k. 

We were pleasantly surprised with the valuations to be honest, we thought it would be closer to £300k and we wouldn't be able to afford to move - but that's largely me erring on the side of caution. But we have done a lot of work on the house. Hearing others talk about our house has made me fall in love with it again, and I'm really going to miss the garden and view when we go.

We'd been thinking £340k was a good figure to go for, I don't think we'll get that, but I'd we did that would be great, equally a lower offer would still be affordable to move too. 

strawb_shortcake

Mr.Generous said:

I think some agents believe the agent who proposes the highest value will get the business, and some custoers fall for it. I was present at a valuation a few years ago and watched the agent play someone. He showed sold prices, starting with mid range, then showed the cheapest and watched the horrified expresion on the face of the vendor. Then he showed the highest sold price, and said 'I believe I could get even more for yours with a proper marketing plan' and watched the beaming smile appear. Valued it too high, got the business, no viewings so price drop after 4 weeks. But they got the listing on a six month exclusive, so the agent was right from a business perspective. 

That's what we were conscious of, the outlier did make me think he was just looking to secure the instruction, bit with their others it does sound as though they have been in the right ball park. 

ReadingTim

Surely the more important question is what sort of figure you feel you need in order to move to the next place, and therefore whether the current place is likely to achieve it, based on a conservative average of the valuations you've had so far, plus whatever's currently on the market that's roughly comparable.  

The actual value is almost irrelevant - it's only whether it allows you to do what you want to do that matters.  

strawb_shortcake

ReadingTim said:

Surely the more important question is what sort of figure you feel you need in order to move to the next place, and therefore whether the current place is likely to achieve it, based on a conservative average of the valuations you've had so far, plus whatever's currently on the market that's roughly comparable.  

The actual value is almost irrelevant - it's only whether it allows you to do what you want to do that matters.  

Agreed, we likely wouldn't make the jump at this time if the offers were all lower 300's. 

On the other hand we have savings and flex with our mortgage to allow us to move. What we can borrow and what we are comfortable with borrowing are quite far apart. 

We have options which I thought was a good thing, but we still need to make a decision what way to go

ReadingTim

One way to play it would be put yourself in the shoes of your buyer: imagine you had whatever your asking price is to spend, go on rightmove and see whether you'd buy your place over and above what's currently on the market within a mile of you.  Adjust your "budget" until yours is the best you can buy for the price, and there you have it. 

Or push the agents for a probate valuation, or the sort of figure they could shift it for a "quick sale" by a "motivated seller".  

If it's a bit questionable whether that number would allow you to move, it might be better not to even start the process, as it may only lead to disappointment.  

Hoenir

Until you put the property on the market you won't know the level of interest. Nor how much one buyer is prepared to pay for it above all the others. Longer you leave it the quieter the market wil become over the summer. 

strawb_shortcake

ReadingTim said:

One way to play it would be put yourself in the shoes of your buyer: imagine you had whatever your asking price is to spend, go on rightmove and see whether you'd buy your place over and above what's currently on the market within a mile of you.  Adjust your "budget" until yours is the best you can buy for the price, and there you have it. 

Or push the agents for a probate valuation, or the sort of figure they could shift it for a "quick sale" by a "motivated seller".  

If it's a bit questionable whether that number would allow you to move, it might be better not to even start the process, as it may only lead to disappointment.  

Thank you, looking online, there are currently 4 3 beds on the market in our area for sale. Minus ours not having a modern kitchen 3 are around the £335-340 mark. One has some subsidence in the garage. One is around £100k less as it's Modern Auction and needs a full renovation.  

I've always thought it's the garden and view that will sell the house

strawb_shortcake

Hoenir said:

Until you put the property on the market you won't know the level of interest. Nor how much one buyer is prepared to pay for it above all the others. Longer you leave it the quieter the market wil become over the summer. 

Thank you, I'm actually quite excited to test the market. We do feel a little tied to delaying marketing the house until after our holiday in a couple of weeks