Fairest way to work out house value?

[RoseNarene]

I'm not going to tell you who had which valuations done, and I'm not going to tell you who wants what out of the house so as to not colour your opinion! All I want to know is, when going to court for financial proceedings (which start with negotiation), which would be the fairest way of working out a house valuation based on these six, three of which were obtained by me, and three by my ex...

£240,000 (the estate agent used pictures and didn't visit the property)
£240,000
£240,000 - £250,000
£250,000 (the estate agent hasn't visited the property for a year but confirmed her valuation hadn't changed if the property hasn't changed, which it hasn't)
£250,000
£250,000 - £260,000.

What would the fairest valuation be in your opinion and how would you work it out?

All estate agents who visited knew that the valuations were for court and financial proceedings related to divorce. I know that a court can order their own valuation but let's assume they won't have to because your advice will mean negotiations are successful!!

£245,000

245

I would go down the lines of getting a chartered surveyor in and get a proper valuation done that way. Much less room for argument then

I'd split the 2 estate agents' values and go for 245,000.

Don't use an estate agent. Of course they lie. Pay for an independent valuation.

250,000

It's pretty much agreed by thr agents as between 240 and 250.so just split the difference and go for the mid ground.

250k

245, 000

BUT

Big But! would it actually sell for that? Everything round here advertised for 450 actually sells for 430. So I'd look at past sales on Zoopla where you can see the price

Property valuation is a art not a science with a margin of error of 5%-10% so the fact that they are all roughly the same means that the Court will set a value somewhere between £240k and £250k and is unlikely to spend very long pin pointing precisely where on the scale should be and will probably split the difference at £245k unless there is obviously something wrong with the methodology used.

This is only for negotiation. I'm not getting surveyors in because it's highly unlikely that a court will order for this to be done; in a simple case like ours, they just won't bother. So it'd be a waste of money.

I'd say 245 as well

It's a valuation not a sale price

It depends on o/s morgage and other depts etc ..... so this is irrelevant in someways

Six valuations is a lot and they are all in the same ball park so agree with £245

There may well be an official way to do this. I'd take midpoints of the 2 ranges and then do a flat average of the 6 datapoints (240, 240, 245, 250, 250, 255). I make it £246,667

OR
Similar but discard the top and bottom, leaving mean of (240, 245, 250, 250) = £246,250

245 - 250

Thank you! I will now reveal the one I thought was the fairest...

Take the bottom valuation (240) and the top one (260) and go in the middle at £250,000.

Seems fair to me, not that any of yours seem unfair though!

So now I can finally ask AIBU lol

I'd say the 260 is an outlier so could be dismissed so it's more like 245

Ah ok. I specifically wouldn't choose your method because the top and bottom ones are the most "different" to the rest and less likely to reflect the consensus. Had you had one valuation at £300k and 5 at £250k would you still have said £275? That's why I'd either use them all, which dilutes the impact of any outliers, or discard the extremes and use the rest.

As it happens the valuations are all very similar so it makes little difference.

I'd go on what it would sell for.

I bought a relative out of a house that we inherited. We decided that would be the fairest, as if she didn't accept my offer, it would be up for sale for at least three months and sell at the lower end of the price.

I'd say the 260 is an outlier so could be dismissed so it's more like 245

Me too.

And the judge in my divorce ignored the valuation my ex got which was £25k more than the next highest.

I too would throw away the top and bottom and average the remainders.
As such I would come in at 245-247.5.

240+240+250+250+250+260÷6=248.3
Or
240+240+245+250+250+255÷6=246.6
Is how I'd be tempted to go depending on which benefited me the most, although to be fair not all that much in it.

I am a family lawyer. I would go for £245k. It is not true that they won't bother with a surveyor because it is low value. I have seen valuations ordered on properties of that value. It would be a waste of money though.

The 260 is an outlier and probably EA trying to snatch business but overvaluing so would rule it out.

Of the rest its quite consistent and 245k is the mid-point so I would go for that. If however, its how much a sale would get and these are what EA are putting on market at I would take a further 5% or so off to get a fair value.