House valuation - what to expect?

[BDavis]

We’re hoping to get our property on the market soon. Have never sold a property before. Made calls to the estate agent and they’ve booked us in for a valuation appointment 👍🏻 They said they’ll come round and value the property and give us details of all fees etc.

Absolutely clueless as to how this process works. Is there anything specific I should be asking them? I’m assuming the property should be in as close to viewing standard as possible for the valuation?
Should I be getting more than one estate agent in to value it etc or are they all much the same in terms of fees etc?

Definitely get more than one in.
No, they are not standard in terms of fees
They are not standard in terms of valuations either.

It will depend a bit on your area, but there are lots of different options.

Consider if you want online EA or National office based or local independent.

Get them to break down all their costs...... what does their fee actually buy you..... are they charging one fee or lots of optional add on bits (which another EA might include)....... when will they show people around.......what do they think about an open day.....what happens if you don't sell.....

@Kite22

Definitely get more than one in. No, they are not standard in terms of fees They are not standard in terms of valuations either.

It will depend a bit on your area, but there are lots of different options.

Consider if you want online EA or National office based or local independent.

Get them to break down all their costs...... what does their fee actually buy you..... are they charging one fee or lots of optional add on bits (which another EA might include)....... when will they show people around.......what do they think about an open day.....what happens if you don't sell.....

Thanks @Kite22 😊 that’s really helpful!

The main points I used for comparison when I recently selected an agent were:

• Agent’s fee (which will be paid from the proceeds to them direct by your solicitor immediately after the sale is completed) This is usually a percentage commission of the final sale price and, depending on your selling price, a half of a percent can make quite a difference, so make sure you work out the likely final fee as they vary considerably.

• the length of time they want to lock you in to a contract as this varies considerably between agents. Ultimately you don’t want to get stuck with what may turn out to be a poor performing agent because you can’t go elsewhere while tied to them. A good and confident agent should have no qualms in agreeing a shorter contract period. I wouldn’t agree to more than 10 weeks myself. That gives them a fair period to sell your property and at the end of that period, if your house hasn’t sold you can stay with them, but if you’re not happy with that agent for some reason, you can move on to another.

• the cost of the mandatory EPC - most agents I saw outsourced this to various individuals who also drew up the floor plans for them, and the price varied from included at no extra charge right up to £185.

• the availability to accompany and conduct viewings by whatever works best for you. Think about viewings to decide what you would prefer, depending on your circumstances (babes in bed means you won’t want evening viewings, whether you work from home so can’t be interrupted, if empty house most of the day would you be happy if you’re not at home when they show people round, etc.)

• the advertising methods - most will use Rightmove, but many advertise on other platforms too, so you might consider that an advantage.

• get them to explain the day to day admin process - how they will notify you about viewings, give you feed back, liaison and communications in general.

• what is their process to verify a potential buyer after you accept an offer to ensure the buyer is genuine and viable?

• what is their procedure for supporting the sale to completion (E.g. some will liaise with both parties’ legal teams to keep paperwork moving along and identify any hold ups by chasing, etc.)

I hope some of this helps you work out what to ask them.
Good luck and I hope you find a new home soon.

I'd advise that you get at least 3 estate agents in to give you quotes - ask them about the area of operations they cover and the type of houses they tend to concentrate on/ have experience of (or see what kind of houses they are selling on rightmove etc) - it might be better to go for one that specialises in say family houses rather than high end houses if you're selling a family house etc. They should have experience of the possible issues that will come up with the survey etc to reassure buyers and also will be able to suggest improvements to buyers based on their experience of similar houses in the area.

Also ask about their background knowledge of the area - would they be able to advise on schools etc but this can be hard to determine.

And ask about how it will be administered - who will you actually be dealing with, how close is the office etc, how will they contact you.

And perhaps the most important issue - what price do they think they can get for the house? And can they point to recent sales to back this up. You will probably get a range of prices and whilst its tempting to go for the best price its better to go for a lower price and then get more interest.

You may want to ask them if they have any suggestions about easy improvements you could make to make the house more sellable - eg would they advise to paint a wall/ get some new flowers for the garden/ put some of your possessions into storage/ change the layout slightly etc etc

Generally they will have a similar fee structure but as others have said ask about the tie in period - if its not selling you will maybe want to go for new agent rather than have to reduce it

At the end of the day its which one 'feels' right for you - which of them inspires the most confidence?

Thank you so much @OMGisthisforreal 😊 that’s incredibly helpful 😊
We’ve only ever dealt with estate agents etc once which is when we bought this house about 8 years ago. Can you see any advantage or disadvantage of returning to that agent to market the house again?

@BDavis
I can’t see an issue with using the same agent if they are efficient.
Where we live, there are quite a lot of estate agents - 12+.
Of these, there are 4 we wouldn’t deal with and one that we prefer over the rest.
We are landlords and have bought our own house through them and 3 other properties.