How to value your property like the Pros. Understanding your house valuation and local property prices

When selling your property, the valuation is important, so it’s only right that you are educated on how to value your own home correctly.

Luckily, valuing your home is quite a simple process, so it’s possible for you to work out a very accurate valuation in a very short time. It also puts you in a much better position when selling.

All valuations are NOT the same. 

The value of your property is dependent on a number of factors ranging from the speed at which you wish to sell, supply and demand in the local area, who values the property and also their motives.

 

How accurate are Estate agent valuations?

The purpose of an estate agent valuation is very different from the purpose of a formal RICS survey valuation. The number one most common mistake homeowners make is using an estate agents suggested ‘asking price’ as the market value of their property. An estate agent’s goal is to put your property on the market with the expectation that buyers will haggle down the price, and also understand that it’s far easier to reduce the price than to increase it, so naturally they start higher than the current market value.

 

Estate agents know your “hot buttons”

Knowing that 99% of sellers want the highest price for their property, agents know how to appeal to sellers and raise their expectations. With this in mind you can see how properties are put on the market ‘over-valued’ in many instances, especially when there is competition amongst agents.

 

Surely a bit of an over-valuation can do no harm?

On the contrary….often getting your asking price on a high valuation may seem like a success, but 1 in 3 house sales fall though, and many do so due to lenders failing to value a property at the sale price, or buyers ‘cooling off’ after a period of time and taking a longer look at the market, realising they have overpaid for your property. Also coming to the realisation of the original ‘true market value’ leaves you with the feeling that you have lost money even though it was never there in the first place. 

How to value your property yourself….(These are also the methods we also use!)

Step 1 – Look to the past

One method to get a ‘feel’ for the value of your property is to view past sold prices. Using a service like www.nethouseprices.com or www.ourproperty.co.uk you can view historic sold prices. Although some of the information will be a little out of date it provides a good starting point for finding out what properties have actually SOLD for in your area.

 

Step 2 – Look to the present

Speak to local estate agents about properties that have sold in the area. If you have seen similar properties to yours in the local area that have sold recently, call up the agent and ask what the property actually sold for, you may be surprise. You can also get a couple of agents to visit your home for a valuation, but ask them for 2 figures; what is the property likely to sell for in the current market, and what they would put it on the market for as an asking price.

 

Step 3 - Use the tools of the professionals !!

 

For a relatively small cost (£20), you can get your property valued at www.hometrack.co.uk. This is one of the most respected methods of valuing property in the UK and is used by all the professionals including surveyors, high street banks and mortgage lenders as a main source of ‘real-time’ valuations. Home track will provide you with a very accurate picture of your property’s true value.

 

Educating yourself about your house value….

Will put you in a strong position when negotiating with buyers directly and also when dealing with estate agents, as you will not fall victim to over or under valuation.

 

If you need to sell your home quickly we can help. We provide all the valuation data gathered to make the whole sale process as transparent as possible. We make it a point to always instruct a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to carry out an independent survey & valuation, as they will be specifically trained on your local market and current market conditions. We aim to complete most transactions from start to finish within 3-4 weeks.