Tag: how do you value a house

How do you value a house?

This is the first thing you need to do when you’re thinking of selling.

But do you really need to get an estate agent out to value your house?

Here are a few ways that you can determine the value of your own house and how estate agents come to the conclusion they do…

It’s fairly straightforward to get an idea of what the value of your house is. Firstly, go to this link – https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale.html – although Zoopla has some great tools, I think Rightmove just edges it, simply because more agents use Rightmove and so it has by default held more property records that are For Sale and so can give a fuller picture. (If only agents used Zoopla instead of Rightmove as the actual tools on Zoopla are better, but anyway, I digress…)

Pop your postcode into Rightmove and search for properties in your postcode and ¼ of a mile around. Make sure you tick the box to ‘include under offer, sold stc’

Generally speaking, you should look at the ones that are ‘For Sale’ as your competition, and not base the value of your house on the asking price of houses that are ‘For Sale’. Properties that are ‘For Sale’ can give you a guide, but only a guide. The ones to look at closely, are the ones that have got the green sticker on them, that say ‘Sold, stc’ or ‘Under offer’.

The reason for this is simple – the ones that are ‘For Sale’ may be on the market for too much money and this may be why the property hasn’t sold. The ones that are under offer or sold stc, are ‘proof’ that someone has bought that house at a price. The tricky thing is, you don’t know what price was achieved and the agent probably won’t tell you.

If you see a house that’s the same as yours on for £200,000 and it’s under offer, that makes your house worth £200,000 as well, right?

Perhaps, but what if it only sold for £180,000? This is why agents claim to be able to value properties better as they will know what that property actually sold for.

The second thing to do is to go here – https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html – pop your postcode in and see what other properties have sold, and what they actually sold for according to land registry data. This is actual true data from land registry so can be relied upon as fact and not what someone told you down the pub!

Remember though, that land registry doesn’t document the price until around 3 months after the house sale has gone through, so if you spot a ‘Sold’ board going up at your neighbours house and you’re desperate to find out if they got what they were asking, you’re either going to have to bite the bullet and ask them directly, or you’re going to have to be patient and wait for land registry to publish the update…

At this link, you will see the properties listed in the order of the most recent date of completion first. You can also extend the area to ¼ or a mile, ½ a mile, a mile, 3, 5 and 10 miles. If you’re in a built up area of similar properties, then I would suggest no more than ½ a mile. If you’re in a rural area or your house is worth more than say £1m, and there are less houses to compare too, then search for a wider radius.

When the list comes up, you will also see some of the addresses are ‘linked’ and coloured in blue. Click on these links and you can often see all the photos from when it last sold, along with a floorplan. This can really help you to value your own home as you will be able to see what your house is like, compared to the one that sold up the road. Is yours better, bigger, smaller, etc, etc. The tricky part for you (and this is where estate agents come in), is knowing what an extension has added in value, what a loft conversion has added in value, what a South facing garden compared to a North facing garden adds in value.

The next thing to do is head on over to https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-value.html – this is a similar area to an area called ‘Rightmove Plus’ that only estate agents get access too, but this is essentially a slightly watered down version of what I can see, and can give you a really good idea of properties that didn’t sell.

Ones that didn’t sell may have been asking too much money, or they could have just been badly presented by the estate agent.

As a general rule when looking at all these areas, you must be objective about it. The biggest mistake I see and hear is when potential sellers get wrapped up in a house that was asking £250k and was on for 6 months and didn’t ever sell, when the one a few doors down achieved £200k in the space of a few weeks. We often have customers tell us that their neighbour who sold for the lower price were “desperate to sell and so took a lower offer to get moved.”

Although that could be the case, it is often not the case. As long as it was marketed to its maximum with the maximum coverage, then it’s probably achieved what it’s worth and the owner perhaps didn’t ‘undersell’ it.

So those are the best ways to value your own house.

Of course, if you are unable to do this, or you need a second opinion, then the best bet is to get an estate agent to come and value the property.

As estate agents, our job is not just to advise on the value of the property, but also to advise on the correct asking price and marketing strategy that will help you to maximise the value of the property, depending on the circumstances you are in.

If you’re ready for that, then don’t hesitate to give me a call! You can book a face to face appointment or just a phone call to begin with to see if you think I might be a good fit by using my handy calendar https://craigthompson.exp.uk.com/contact-us/