It would make valuing property simple

It would be great if there was such a tool to calculate house prices accurately, however there isn’t.  So when you decide to sell your property, most people still see the local estate agent as the first port of call to find out what the value of their property might be.

Do your research

You should always attempt your own research before you contact any agent for a valuation.  Online tools such as those provided by Zoopla can offer some insight, however Zoopla can be a little bit ‘hit and miss’ dependent on whether there have been recent(ish) transactions involving similar properties to yours.  Though in fairness to Zoopla – agents can also be a little bit hit and miss too (see here) as highlighted by consumer magazine Which? recently.

You can also research to see what asking price properties that are just like yours are being advertised for on Rightmove.  Also check to see how long they have been on the market. If the property has been on the market a long time, then the price could be too high.

Check property snake to see if any similar properties have been reduced lately.

Check net house prices to see if any properties that you might recognise have sold in your road or surrounding roads recently, and what price they sold for.

House price crash can give some indication of whether house prices have in general gone up, or gone down since the year that you purchased your property, using Land Registry supplied data.  It’s also great to use in conjunction with sold price data.

For example if a very similar property in your street has sold in December 2010 for a specific price, and you know that it was a pretty normal sale, for example through an estate agent (and not a stressed sale) and you also know prices haven’t really changed at all since then (using the House Price Index for verification) then you can easily work out that your property value might be very similar to the sold property.

Getting a local agent valuation

Get a few booked in and never rely on just get one valuation.  Also, don’t choose the agent who offers the highest valuation.  Not without having a very good reason.  Ask for their evidence to show how they expect to sell your property for the stated amount.

They should be able to provide consistent data to back up their stated valuation (such as comparable properties that have sold).

The agent offering the highest valuation – and who cannot offer any logic to back up their valuation is likely to be playing you, simply to win your instruction.  They will work you for a reduction after a week or two when it’s gone deathly silent and you haven’t had enough viewings.

Ask us for a valuation, it’s completely FREE

We don’t do inflated property valuations unless we think there is a genuinely good reason for one.  And if we think there is, we’ll explain why.

We like to think that we value property realistically, and we ascertain our recommended guide price for marketing (online valuation) by using all the methods mentioned above and by obtaining some information from you about your property.

To ensure we are accurate, when you instruct us to sell your property using any of our online services, we instruct a RICS qualified chartered surveyor to value your property accurately.

There’s lots of unsold stock around

You might want to read this article

We’re noticing a lot of unsold stock on the market.  In fact we’re still seeing lots of property that’s still on the market for sale from way back when we instructed a property that we have now sold, which was several months ago.

Some of the stock looked priced a little too high at the time, and it seems buyers are thinking the same way as us too.

You need to price correctly if you want to sell given that there are far fewer well positioned buyers in the current market.

Other sellers’ properties are your competition.  Make sure your property stands out amongst them