SiL worried about value of house

[Andthenanothercupoftea]

My sister in law and her partner bought their first house last year. A 3 bed semi in Bristol with garage and room for 1 or 2 cars off road. They paid £350k.

She's just found out that a house further down the road sold for £285k at the same time - also three beds, with off road parking but with no garage and the middle of a terrace of three but same size/internal layout. It was also slightly less "done up".

She's freaking out about negative equity etc. not helped by a Zoopla valuation of £288-£319k (the same as the other house that sold). This shows as a reduction in value of 13%.

How justified is her panic? They put down a 15% deposit and were closeish to the limits of affordability (although her OH has had a reasonable pay bump since).

As I understood this shouldn't be an issue unless they're looking to sell, which is very unlikely in the near future.

Are there any reassurances I can offer her e.g. about the validity of Zoopla valuations or the relative value of the fact they are a semi and have a garage?

(I think her anxiety isn't helped by the fact that underneath the veneer of being "done up" they are uncovering quite a few bodged jobs.)

Zoopla valuations are pretty notoriously shit.

Zoopla valuations are as accurate as throwing darts at a wall full of random numbers, very inaccurate

Being a semi detached with garage will make some difference. Like you say though, it only matters when coming to sell. Zoopla is definitely not the best guidance to go off.

Where abouts in Bristol?

I know Bristol well, zoopla estimates aren’t that accurate.

Is she planning on moving soon?

That's what I've told her - she's obsessed with it now though. Possibly because it's bang on for the other house. She also looked up the one for my house and it's close to what we were valued at before going on the market. Hopefully she'll calm down.

It doesn't really matter unless she wants to sell.

@OverTheRainbow88

Kingswood area. No plans to move, they only bought it at Christmas last year! No idea what she thinks is going to happen...

350k in kingswood is on the more expensive end for the area, but I wouldn’t say overpriced. There’s a gem of a primary school there with a tiny catchment so maybe she paid a slight premium to be in that catchment!

If she’s not forced to sell soon She shouldn’t worry.

You can take a row of hoyses and have a very broad range. I sold a two bed house for more than any three bed house on the street as I had done it up to a high standard. Being semi as opposed to terrace, garage- all add to it. As will the position of the seller, the buyer, how much ine held out to get a better price, or accepted a lower if is was a quick sale needed and so on.
She will drive herself crazy if she insists on comparing every single sale to hers.

Pointless worrying about what the house is worth now, if she has no plans to sell.

I've been following this board closely for the last 6 months and there have been soooo many threads about lenders valuing houses less than offered, causing issues for people both selling and trying to get a mortgage. Lenders are mega cautious at the moment- if she got a mortgage on the property as recently as Christmas, with a 15% deposit, and the lender was happy with their valuation, then in your SILs shoes I'd be reassured that I can't have overpaid too much.

Worth looking at Rightmove's sold prices for the postcode area, then you'll get a better idea of a wider variety of properties in the area.

Well everywhere else in sw seems to if gone up so they would be unlucky

Being a semi and having a garage would definitely make a difference . And zoopla valuations are rubbish .

Zoopla valuations are complete nonsense. Valued my house at £185k and it later sold for £268k

I had the same worries. I was freaking out that we overpaid. We bought a 3 bed end of terrace for £365k a few years ago and a fee months ago I was seeing similar houses nearby being advertised for less. I majorly panicked! But actually we sold our house a few weeks ago for more than £410k. If it's seriously stressing her ourshe could get an estate agent in to value it for reassurance but if they're not intending to sell for a while then it needn't matter. Besides, they're nothing she can do (I say this in hindsight!)

Don't trust Zoopla! They had our old house valued as a terraced - the entire street was semis!

For all we know the other house had something structurally wrong with it or maybe they just desperately needed to sell so took a low offer.

Fair bit of difference between a terraced house and a semi. Also, what one person is willing to sell for will be different to another person's sale price that they need. Mortgage valuation is probably the best marker to go on, and presumably that must have been close to what they paid for the house as a PP said. If they are planning to stay there for a while and they are happy with the house and location, I don't see why it should be a major source of worry?

Did they get a mortgage? If so, the bank will have valued it, and wouldn't have agreed to the mortgage if they considered it very overpriced. Perhaps that will provide some comfort.