Asking for valuation when we're not sure we want to move?

[oopslateagain]

We want to move to a bungalow at some point. We're currently mid-terrace. We know house prices along our street have gone up considerably, but bungalows are pretty expensive relatively speaking, and we're not sure how much of a 'gap' we'd have to bridge.

We have definite areas in mind for where we'd like to live, and keep an eye on properties that come up for sale there. Would it be ok to ask an estate agent to value our house, even though we're not actively looking (i.e. haven't registered with an agent for properties)? If the price gap isn't too big AND the right house came up for sale, we'd go for it. But we don't want an estate agent constantly sending us information, which is what happened last time we moved.

We've got them coming out to value ours soon and similar situation to you. We told the estate agent we would only be putting ours on market if it was financially viable and they were fine with that. I'd phone round and explain.

Ime you don't start looking until you've at least got an idea what you might get for the place you're selling so I fail to see an issue.

We had two valuations this week, we were clear we were getting valuations to weigh up if we were staying and extending or moving.

Both estate agents were happy to do this and even gave us a rough guide of value if we went ahead with extension.

it is pretty standard to get more than one valuation when planning to sell, so I'm sure agents are fairly used to valuing properties and then not getting the business.

Just say that you are considering selling and need a valuation so you can make a firm decision.

That's normal although do some research before hand into what valuation you expect to get and understand how the asking price relates to actual sale price at the moment in your area. It's also useful to know if the market is such that most properties are reduced before they sell, in which case you might be better to have a lower asking price to begin with rather than needing to reduce it as then it implies there's something wrong with it.

Just make sure you give an email that you've set up for junk mail purposes for when they bombard you with junk, although it's much easier to get your details removed now by threatening them with gdpr compliance. Also be prepared to let your phone go to voice mail for all EA calls until you've decided on whether to move and who to go with etc, otherwise you just end up having the same chat with different agents.

Actually @cardboard33 that's something I hadn't thought of and is a great idea, a separate junk email address that I can ignore

I might also give them the phone number of my crap Tesco mobile which I keep for broken-phone emergencies. And forget to charge it.