to be confused by 2 estate agents valuations

[oopsIdiditagain21]

Just had the house valued and been given valuations miles apart (£50,000 difference). Obviously we'd like to sell for the higher valuation but worried by the lower one! Anyone else experienced this? There's nothing else on the market comparable with our house at the moment so it's hard to tell which is the most likely.

Sometimes an estate agent will over value a property to get your property on their books and will reduce the price later on. Can you use rightmove to work out last house in your street sold price.

Has anything sold recently that's similar?

The easy option is "split the difference", but they may both be out. Get a third opinion?

Depends if one or both has a buyer in mind, along with knowing their budget

We had 3 valuations done. The highest and lowest were €30,000 apart. Our first offer was for the highest value.

The reason is that, as you say, there is nothing comparable. The agents are essentially guessing. So go with higher valuation and see how it goes. Feedback from viewings will give you a better idea. Or if no-one views at all the price is too high. You can always put the price down, but up is much harder!

Really depends how what % of the price £50k is. If it's a million pound property it wouldn't be surprising.

I would suspect that the first agent has overvalued to get it on his books. If there's nothing comparable, then you could try it at that price. If you need a quick sale go lower.

Has one of them given you a valuation and one what you should put it on the market for? We are just about to exchange and were told that they value a house then add 10% for a market value as that's the amount the average buyer will offer. X

I guess it depends on whether you are talking about £100,000 v £150,000 or £1,000,000 v £1,050,000!

ask them to justify their valuations with copy details of houses they've recently sold and the asking / sale price, and why those properties are good comparisons for yours. ALso clarify with them what their asking / likely sale prices are - not going to be the same.

ONe may well simply need the business more than the other!

You can always agree a really short exclusivity period with the one who's given the higher instruction, alternatively a staggered commission fee so x% to £xxxxx and a higher % for any sum they achieve in excess of £xxxxx if that will incentivise them? Their terms are there to be negotiated.

Very likely it's the lack of comparables that make it hard to value accurately. I used to own a very unique property and when I had it valued by estate agents, the valuations ranged between £1.4m and £850k. We finally sold it for somewhere in the middle (£1.15m) but because it was unique it also stayed on the market for a very long time. Despite the agents and buyers eventually being willing to agree a price, we found during the sale process that the surveyors undervalued it again because there was nothing to compare it to and in those cases they will go with safety and the lowest figure.

Thank Christ I'm finally rid of it now, is all I can say. We were also due to buy a property with a similarly unique layout but I'm once bitten twice shy and decided to pull out after we had three very low valuations.

I wouldn't rely on what the agents think. But if you happen to know a property surveyor I'd ask them to give you an idea - they're likely to be more realistic than the agents and you won't run into pricing problems down the line.