Debate House Prices
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How much skill does it actually take?
VfM4meplse
Posts: 34,269 Forumite
To evaluate a realistic market value of a property that you have no emotional attachment to / financial interest in?
Surely its a case of looking at previous sold prices, market trends and current valuations of similar properties in the same neighbourhood, factoring local knowledge and benchmarking accordingly?
Is there really much more to it than that?
Surely its a case of looking at previous sold prices, market trends and current valuations of similar properties in the same neighbourhood, factoring local knowledge and benchmarking accordingly?
Is there really much more to it than that?
Value-for-money-for-me-puhleeze!
"No man is worth, crawling on the earth"- adapted from Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio
Hope is not a strategy
...A child is for life, not just 18 years....Don't get me started on the NHS, because you won't win...I love chaz-ing!
"No man is worth, crawling on the earth"- adapted from Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio
Hope is not a strategy
...A child is for life, not just 18 years....Don't get me started on the NHS, because you won't win...I love chaz-ing!0
Comments
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This may be true for the average property - but apart from identical new-builds very few properties are identically average - and even then they tend to have different size gardens, different aspects, different distances from junctions/main roads/railway lines etc etc.I think....0
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There's no much skill, but you need a lot of context/work/familiarity. All sorts of local factors can affect what someone is willing to pay for a property.0
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I think it's obligatory to answer this question with "why don't you do it then".
I expect any of us would be happy to spend half an hour looking round a property for a hundred quid and say "yeah it's probably worth about £300,000". Would you still be happy to do it if you were liable to be sued by the mortgage lender if your valuation was way off and the lender ended up repossessing a house that was worth much less than they'd shelled out? Or if the valuation was being carried out for Inheritance Tax purposes, and you might be responsible for someone paying thousands of pounds too much tax or getting in hot water with HMRC?
Most jobs up to and including rocket science are pretty easy to carry out as an amateur, less so when there is anything at all riding on the outcome.0 -
I know what you mean, but we can be too reductionist, like the "why do we still need schools and teachers for our kids now that google's been invented?" brigade.
Some of the job could do with sound local market info.
There's a few chunks of SW London where you see massive houses and gardens for affordable prices, but if you view on a hot day the smell from the nearby sewage farm soon explains the low price.
In London, the market is dominated by older houses with "charm" (ie needing loads of work). New builds aren't always much desired, and in general the quality (and especially the value for money) of housing compares very poorly with other parts of the country. Someone from elsewhere would find it difficult to understand how the prices are so different.There is no honour to be had in not knowing a thing that can be known - Danny Baker0 -
In London, the market is dominated by older houses with "charm" (ie needing loads of work). New builds aren't always much desired, and in general the quality (and especially the value for money) of housing compares very poorly with other parts of the country. Someone from elsewhere would find it difficult to understand how the prices are so different.
Know someone that's just bought a 2 bed apartment in St Mawes. Absolutely stunning. Given a choice of there or London for a second home I know which I'd choose every time.0 -
We bought this house when it was about 12 years old. The decor was outdated and some "improvements" had been made to the property that made it worth less.
Other similar houses (same layout, different exterior and plots) have been in better condition and consequently sold for more. If you look on Zoopla, our house is supposedly worth less than those other houses because we paid less. It takes no account of the fact that not everyone is willing to redecorate an Arsenal room (and seriously, every room was like that). Unsurprisingly, the Gunners shrine has been redecorated and recarpeted.
If an estate agent came here and told us that our house was worth less than the others because s/he had looked at an algorithm and decided that must be correct, we'd hire a different estate agent.Please stay safe in the sun and learn the A-E of melanoma: A = asymmetry, B = irregular borders, C= different colours, D= diameter, larger than 6mm, E = evolving, is your mole changing? Most moles are not cancerous, any doubts, please check next time you visit your GP.
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When my brother lived in Redditch, we had a family day out to Stratford-upon-Avon ; and my parents noticed in some Estate Agent windows, that house prices there were much higher than where my brother was living. He pointed out to them, that no residents of Stratford were having a day out in Redditch.0
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Just looked at property in Redditch.. wow it's cheap. 3-Bed semis for £175kWhen my brother lived in Redditch, we had a family day out to Stratford-upon-Avon ; and my parents noticed in some Estate Agent windows, that house prices there were much higher than where my brother was living. He pointed out to them, that no residents of Stratford were having a day out in Redditch.
4 bed detached for £270k
(Goes back to cry at St. Albans house prices)
Estate agents have it easy near me - the area was build to rehouse 1950s factory workers so there's about 60 identically-built houses. They just alter the price to fit the change to the building (loft extension/conservatory/extensions) and how good a position the house is (on the green, opposite some ugly 60s flats, main road or cul-de-sac)
I'm on the green, 'tis nice0 -
I do remember that when we sold our first (semi-detached) house, it had to be explained to the agent that
a) there were 2 rooms at the front, but only one at the back, and the other half of the semi was the other way round
b) the dividing boundary went through the centre line of the two properties
c) the roof space for both properties could only be accessed from our side
He measured it all, had everything explained twice and then said - "Well what do you think its worth?"0 -
VfM4meplse wrote: »To evaluate a realistic market value of a property that you have no emotional attachment to / financial interest in?
Surely its a case of looking at previous sold prices, market trends and current valuations of similar properties in the same neighbourhood, factoring local knowledge and benchmarking accordingly?
Is there really much more to it than that?
You may have no emotional attachment to / financial interest in the property, but the buyers and sellers do, as they're human beings, and human beings aren't rational economic agents.
Trying to incorporate irrational emotion into an otherwise rational and logical framework means that it's an art not a science: a craft to be practised, rather than a skill to be mastered.0
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