Estate agent valuations varied - what did you sell your house for in the end?

[Glasshammer]

I was quite shocked today to hear a 50k price difference between the top and bottom valuation. We had 4 in total.

Here's my question - what did your estate agents value your house at? What did you put it on for? How much did it sell for? How long did it take before you had an offer and what year did it sell?

Where are you? If you are in london, or to some extent the south east you'll be looking at the top end of valuations.

Cirencester - so slap bang in the middle of the Cotswolds.

we were given a plus or minus of 6% on the asking price. It sold for 6% less - still quite happy!

Rightmove has a section that tells you what houses sold for, so you can put in the pc and look and see what is a realistic price and what is a mad price and you'll be sat forever waiting to sell.

You must have an idea of what its worth? What is your situation? Do you need to sell quickly? Do you have children (only asking because when we last sold we had 2yr old twins and it was a nightmare to keep it tidy / clean for viewings). Those factors influence whether you go with the top valuation, be prepared for it to maybe not sell as quickly, or whether you put it on at a more realistic / lower price and sell quicker.

I'd also have in mind what 'bands' people look for - so some people will put say 250k or 500k (the stamp duty thresholds) as their 'max' value on Rightmove etc so if you put it on for say 260k, you won't get so many people seeing it.

I find it very hard to be objective about my house. We are moving to be closer to family in Wales but there's no rush.

We're process of selling/buying now. Agents recommended between 230 and 250 as an asking price, with an expected sale price of 220-250. We put it on the market for 245 and had an asking price offer the first day of viewings. The market seems to be moving really fast here, for the first time in a few years (South Wales).

We had three estate agents out, one said £175,000, one said £190,000 and the other said £210,000. We had in mind before they came somewhere in the region of £180,000-185,000 as we'd kept on eye on other properties locally for a while and gone on to Zoopla who calculate roughly what a property could be worth - ours said £173,000-190,000. Went with the middle agent as we felt they were more accurate and they were certainly a lot more pro-active.

By the way, just sold ssc for £183,000 and we had two previous offers of £184,000 (was unprocedable in the end) and £180,000. It's nice to go for the highest price, but if might deter viewers.

Sorry, forgot to answer your questions about timescale. We had two offers in the first 10 days, then had to wait another three weeks for final offer we accepted. We did have a further second viewing lined up later in the week, but agents explained why they thought she was a really good buyer. Also, we'd put our place on the market to go after another one we'd seen, so didn't want to risk not having a chance on that.

We had three valuations:
1 - 120k
2 - 150k
3 - 145k

We put it on at 140 and rejected offers of 125 and 130. We've just accepted an offer of 135.

beware of those valuation. When we sold a few years ago, we were given 20K difference on a small flat! When we read the small print, the % owed to the EA was calculated on their valuation, and not on the final selling price, so it was in their interest to over value.

In Cirencester, you should be able to see similar house for sale that have sold in the last 6 months, that will give you your best answer. My parent have recently bought in Cirencester and after looking for a while it was pretty easy to calculate the actual value of a house as opposed to the asking price.

Ask for their comparables, e.g what they've asked for but what they've actually achieved. Yes they'll cherry pick but it will give you an idea.

Also just one other point - some agents will give you a high asking price just to attract your business. You end up signing up with them, and then after a couple of weeks with little interest, they recommend you drop the price. I would go with the agent that you felt would be the most pro-active, which seems to have the largest number of completed sales, a high profile in the local area.

Just to add, I was looking to buy and could see the disparity!

Also I could check what people paid for their house they were trying to sell to me.

I agree with Mandy. Some agents will price high in the hope your greed will get them an instruction. Foxtons, for example. And some just price high generally (Savills, in the places I've looked for houses).

Haggle on agents' commission. Also it should be on sale price achieved. You want to be able to end the appointment if they're not doing their bit - you should know that after a month or so I think - so you can go to joint agency or another agent.

We got ours valued at £420k, £350k and £325k. Thought the top was massively over valued; went with the middle valuation (as we preferred the agent) but were expecting to be knocked down at mortgage valuation; had two offers at asking price, were knocked down at valuation to £330k. That's still 50k higher than anything else in the street has gone for... SE London has gone mad. I did get the commission down to 1.25% from 1.5% for the middle valuation.

We had three estate agents in to value ours

1. 340-360k
2. 370-390k
3. 375-399k

Decided to go on at 390k with a thought that we aren't in a rush and can always come down if needed. Had 12 viewings within 2 days and sold for full asking price (had 4 offers within 48hrs). The market here is buoyant so i do think it depends on what the market is like by you and how fast you want to sell.

Last house I sold I had 275k 290k and 360k! Sold for 344k. Have just had flat valued yesterday for selling(project) Difference between agents (2) of 80k

I am in SE. Flat over the road nothing special was on for 325. Sold for 357k. Sealed bids is the norm here atm. I don't think this can last.

How do you find out whether an estate agent has a lot of sold properties in the area?

3 quotes. Valued at £375,000, £350,000 and £350,000. Surveyor valued at 325,000-350,000.

Ended up selling for £300,000. We could probably have sold for £325,000 if we'd held out a little longer but we were desperate for a sale.

Sorry forgot the second bit. On market July 2013, finally under offer Nov 2013 (completed Jan this year).

ask the agents for evidence of similar properties going for those prices in the area. Mum just sold her house for the asking price, the valuation seemed high initially but the agent showed her what else had gone for a similar price and they were spot on: it sold quickly. SE though, prices seem to be on the rise again there.

Market seems to have picked up everywhere. A friend put their house on the market up here in the midlands for the estate agents' valuation (both came to same figure) as it was what they were expecting. Sold for £2k over asking price 4 days later!

We saw 4 agents, valuations were £250k, £279k
X 2 and £290k.

It sold for £250k, bang on stamp duty.

The most overpriced agent tried to tie us into a 16 week contact. Arsehole.