Possible stupid question about getting my house valued

[Bibs2014]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I’ve never sold my house before!

I would like to get my house valued and / or get some ideas on what I should do to make my house more ‘sellable’.

What should I do to the house before I ask an estate agent to come round?

It's common sense really. You need to make it look big, clean and not unusual in any way.

Get rid of clutter, make sure all the paintwork is fresh and neutral, keep everything spotlessly clean, make the garden look neat and easy to look after.

The windows are brand new - we have just had the double glazing done.

Garden a bit tatty due to not being able to really do anything recently to it because of winter but DH and MIL are keen gardeners so could sort that out no problem.

Now the neutral paint thing may be an issue. Our bedroom is a teal blue, we have been thinking of changing it to grey for a while… wanted to know if we should do that before I asked the estate agents to come in. We have also been planning on laying carpet upstairs for a while as the laminate flooring is a bit tatty – would you advise to change that before I ask the estate agents to come in too?

I am having mine valued tomorrow and have no clue what to do! I am going to make sure it's clean and tidy, nothing is unfinished (half painted walls), no visible structural issues (roof is leaking but getting that re done next week) and just that the furniture is placed well so it looks as big and as desirable as possible!

zzzz - I had a look on Zoopla so I think I have an idea.

A house in our small road just sold for double what we brought ours for 7 years ago.

Tbh, I would get the estate agent round before doing anything and ask their advice.

One house we were all set to repaint a couple of rooms and do some other jobs and the estate agent said - don't bother. A four bed in this road will sell for £X, and barring huge problems like no central heating you will get that amount but unlikely to get much more. We sold it for £5k over. A neighbour up the road whose house was bloody gorgeous, really up together sold for £10k over a few months later. We really wouldn't have seen a return on doing any of the work we had thought we should do.

Get at least three estate agents round, ask them all to tell you what if anything would make it more sellable. And look them in the eye and say please be honest I won't be offended!

It's their job to know how quickly the market is moving, how 'aspirational' the house needs to be etc.

I'll never forget the estate agent who advised us not to change the carpet because "people round here are desperate for fixer uppers...any little area that makes them think they can make improvements will get them excited. The homes we can't sell are the perfectly 'done' ones". If that's your market, you don't want to be making many changes.

We are in the process of having presale valuations done and all 3 EA have said to declutter which we will, make sure the place is tidy and basically look like a show home (especially for the photos). They have also mentioned that our flat is quite neutral greys etc and would appeal to people just looking to move in and not really have to do much. Only negative feedback is things like move the jackets from the back of the door, don't have towels on hooks etc. Hopefully that helps.

Just to say - an estate agent will generally always say nothing needs doing. That's not because it doesn't need doing, its because they simply want you to put the house on the market as quickly as possible (so it sells quickly and they get their commission).

If the house goes on for £300k and you're paying 1% commission (say), they will get £3,000 for selling your house. If you re-decorate, put new carpet in etc, and get £310k as a result, they get £3100 - so it makes no real difference to them, they just want the sale. Always bear that in mind when you're asking an estate agent for advice!!

I had a teal blue bathroom and knew it was not to everyone's taste so I repainted it jade white. It only took one coat because the darker shade didn't appear to show through. Even though it did slightly, in places!

Sometimes true name. Depends how decent the agent is I guess. I've come across a couple who genuinely do want you to sell for the most you can get. Estate agents get a lot of their work from word of mouth so some of them (contrary to popular belief) are decent and knowledgable.

Just to say - an estate agent will generally always say nothing needs doing. That's not because it doesn't need doing, its because they simply want you to put the house on the market as quickly as possible (so it sells quickly and they get their commission
I disagree with this. Most High
street agents are no sale, no fee and don't particularly want the tricky to sell house that will take 40+ viewings to sell. It IS in their interest to get you the best price. £100 extra pounds on 100 houses is another £10k!

Sorry thecrow, just doesn't work like that in my experience (of course they'd rather have £3k now than £3.1k six months down the line when you've painted it!!)

Thecrow - A £100 on a 100 houses!!

I don't know where you are, but in my area and in the current climate of record low stock levels and a stagnant market even the biggest local EA would take about 5 years to sell 100 houses!

The commission thing is correct - the EA isn't going to get all of the fee as their commission, they will get a percentage of it if they meet their target. They may also need to meet a target of x number of new instructions in a month so it really isn't in their interest to advise you to do lots of work before marketing your house.

I'm not saying you should just take the estate agents word for it either.

Any agent worth their salt will bring pictures and details of comparable houses with them, along with the marketed price versus the sold price. They should also be providing details of length of time from putting on the market to accepting an offer, and number of viewings needed to sell.

All that evidence should be produced to back up what they are saying about work needed / not needed.

The estate agent saying about the carpet wasn't taking us for a ride - we did a bit of our own research on Zoopla (one of the best websites for retaining old sale details, though they all do it more now) and he was right, the ones flying were the fixer uppers, with little difference in sold values to the 'done' properties.

Obviously you can't take all their shit at face value - they always say it's a busy time, the market is healthy, even when fuck all is selling. But generally I've found estate agents to be pretty helpful.

Don't necessarily go with their value. I think estate agents want an easy sale.
Last year my friend wanted to sell for 10k less than her next door neighbour had just sold for, estate agents said no- it's worth 35k less! She put it on for her price and got it fairly quickly.
I've just sold mine having only had 1 weekend of viewings for 15k more than the estate agent recommended it went on for!

I'm south east sal. I chose 100 mainly for the easy maths
It may not apply in this market however...