do estate agents get valuations totally wrong?

[hatesponge]

I'm going through mediation with my Ex and as part of it we have to agree value of house - so have both had agents out to value our house.

Both the agents I contacted tell me its worth max £300k. In telling me this one referred me to a house in next street he sold recently for £280k (was up for £285k) the other to a house for sale with his co for £275k. They also each referred to a house in my street which recently sold with another co for £250k.

Now because I want to buy my Ex out, it suits me for the value to be as low as possible, so I'm not going to query it. But the 'comparable houses' really didn't seem comparable - the one for £280k has 4 beds, 2 of which are singles and only one reception room - my house has 4 doubles/1 single and 3 receps. The £275k has a ground floor bathroom, 5 beds (but 2 singles), 2 receps but a tiny kitchen, etc. And the one for £250k is literally half the size of my house! I found it a bit odd especially since last yr Ex was given a figure of £350-375k...has anyone else experienced this?

I don't have experience of your situation, but my recent experience of agents is that they are valuing blind. I had a property valued the other day, she started the conversation at one price, and by the end of the conversation was 40% lower .

Could you instruct an independant valuer - the type mortgage companies use. We had to instruct one to value the my fathers properties when he died. An estate agent valuation wasn't valid it had to be a valuer. You have to pay for this but I think it will give you a fairer idea of the true worth and they tend to lean on the lower side.

The valuing blind bit is interesting - I expected them to refer to historic prices as much as stuff that's currently for sale (a house a few doors away which quite similar to mine though still slightly smaller and with worse garden sold a few years ago for £325k).

I have to wait and see what Ex's valuations are, if they're similar I think we will end up going with them. Although I can't imagine he will be impressed having been told previously it was worth so much more!

I've found in my dealing with local agents is that they can range hugely - the first time we put our property on the market we had a difference of 50k between three of them! Now we're trying a second time, the difference between the quotes wasn't so much - but they're still trying to get us to drop the price way too soon and without much cause, so it looks like they're just looking for a quick sale. Be firm about what you want and do some research yourself and stick to your guns!

Estate agents valued my house at between £43,000 and £48,000 between them, buyers surveyor £32,000 - they have no flipping idea especially in the current market!

From my experience, estate agents chance the current market depending on what they see as demand for the area, number of similar properties on the market, number of people they have on their books, condition of the property etc, it's not an exact science in fairness.

If they cannot generate sufficient interest at the higher prices then they will ask you to drop it quite quickly. We dropped our price £20,000 and got loads of viewings after a slow start, it's in nobody's interest for a property to languish on the market because of an initial inflated valuation. Maybe in your situation OP, take an average of the valuations or split the difference between the highest and lowest valuation i.e 275K based on the 250-300K projection

I found estate agents can value their usual type of home but have no clue about others. We had 3 agents value our last place; two said 'flats like yours are our bread and butter' and we got offers within 5k of their numbers, other posh agent valued it 25% lower. Was tempted to write to them going 'ner-ner' after we sold!

Consider the factors involved in estimating price:

• historic prices (which you can check yourself)
• current asking prices (you can check yourself)
• current supply (you can check yourself)
• future demand factors (e.g. new employers, area improving etc - you can check yourself)
• current demand (agent knows how many people are on their books looking for that type of house)

It's only the last where the agent has any 'inside knowledge' and that will be limited to the coverage of their firm. The other factors they may well investigate less thoroughly than you.

I'm not surprised that valuations are lower even than a year ago as there does seem to be a falling market. I am in an area usually described as recession proof however houses are currently failing to sale and prices are declining. It seems to be quite sudden as 2 years ago it was a very different story - it was bidding wars and houses sold over the asking price.

In the Uk we tend to use nos of rooms as price indicator but floor plan size (sq m2) is more accurate as is plot size. The reality is that you never really know what a house will sell for until you actually try to sell it. estate agents (in my opinion) will be optimistic initially but if the house doesn't get viewings they are keen to drop the price.

Good Luck (I think now is a tough time to sell so works in your favour i.e lower valuation, the news from europe is making everyone very cautious)

We were given three figures by estate agents - if you want to sell very quick, expected price for a normal sale, and if we wanted to hold on for a while to try and get the maximum price. The normal price was exactly what an identical house sold for a few months ago. So no surprises there.

The only benefit they have is they can look up the details of sold houses on rightmove so can compare the condition of similar houses - as this can make a difference to price and unless you saw it advertised you won't know what it was like inside.

there are lots of houses selling round here, 3 have sold recently in a friend's road nearby for £400k plus, and another friend sold her buy to let for £250k, so there is movement. The whole valuation thing is very much academic because I'm intending to buy out my Ex, not to sell, but if I was selling, I find it shocking that agents are telling me to sell my house for just £15k more than one which is significantly smaller, both in terms of room sizes and overall square footage!

NB If you check prices online, the Land registry DO NOT include sales at "under value" in their data (repossessions, auctions, private sales, company purchases etc etc) so chances are that the TRUE price of houses in any area is lower than what Zoopla would have you believe.

You need a valuation by a qualified valuer e.g. MRICS, not just someone who works as an estate agent (anyone can title themselves an estate agent).

For a professional valuation you will probably be expected to pay a fee.

I'm not sure about this, but I thought it was the value at time of separation, not the current value (friend stung badly with that one)

I think it depends on whether or not your house is the exception to the rule in your area, anyway different and the number of sales in the area.
When my parents divorced and my dad bought my mum out of the house they had valuations with a difference of £500k, as frankly I don't know that the EA's had ever seen a house like it (very conteporary open plan, think art gallery rather than house) and didn't know what to say and as its in a village there was little to compare it with.
If however you live with an area with lots of similar properties and a few sales then its pretty easy to work out value and tweak for the specifics of you house (double glazing, new heating, roof, solar panels etc).
I know what ours is likely to be as we live in a terrace and 5 other properties nearby have sold within past 4mths.

My parents ended up with 10 wildly different valulations - they knocked off the really daft ones at either end and then took an average of the others. It was a fairly amicable divorce though and my dad just wanted an easy life and i think would have agreed to anything by the end.

apologies for the spelling - half asleep

I would second the get a proper surveyor in. I think half the time Estate Agents just tell you what you want to hear. I live in Scotland and no one I know would instruct an Estate Agent to get a house value. Seems madness.

I would get a surveyor to do the valuation. Estate agents just pluck numbers out of the air. I sold my house for almost £70k more than what it was valued at by one of the estate agents (suffice to say, when I received that valuation I insisted on putting it on the market at the much higher price I thought was reasonable and it sold).