House Valuation Question

[IlFaitBeau]

Wondering if wise MNers can help.. We are trying to establish what our house might be worth after a recent conversion. The purchase price was 500K last year and current HPI valuation is 521k.

We have recently done a garage conversion that has taken our 3 bedroom house to a 4 bedroom. The 4th bedroom is 5 metres by 3 metres and is currently used as a guest bedroom in case someone visits us - but largely as a study.

Obviously garage conversions can be yay/nay depending on context, so for context: the house is in a desirable SE town. It is at the very end of quiet, residential cul-de-sac. We have our own driveway which accommodate 1 car. We also have allocated parking in our nook of the cul-de-sac, for a second car on a bay. Thus both me and spouse park our 2 cars easily on drive and allocated bay. The main road is about a 5-6 min walk away.

We have a mid sized garden with a small shed which houses the kids' bikes, lawnmower, tools, garden chairs etc and we use the back door - to take bikes out from shed via garden alley to road and back into shed without entering the house.

We are trying to establish what the house might be worth now that it has 4 bedrooms instead of 3. I recognise fully that some people may want a garage specifically - over and above the driveway and the parking bay - maybe they have 3 cars, or maybe they wish to store their bikes and lawnmower in the garage. Obviously then the house doesnt tick their boxes. But is there a way to find out the value without bringing an agent in - as we dont actually want to sell before next 5 years or so?

We are just curious!

A local agent would be the best person to advise about current value. Just get a couple in for advice and then say you’ve decided not to sell

Without knowing the postcode ... not a clue.
However i would imagine a 4th bedroom would add 10 to 20% in most areas

Agents are used to valuing houses that don't then go on the market (with them). It's what they spend quite a bit of their time doing.

Are you selling already?
Or just curious?

@GreenestValley

Are you selling already? Or just curious?

Hiya - as per the last sentnece in my OP - we are just curious/nosey. I suspected you'd say to get an agent out but I feel awful wasting their time if we wont sell and are just curious. Never mind - we dont actually need to know this, so will let it go. thanks so much anyway!

They won't mind that much - they'll see it as relationship building if you do decide to sell. Estate agents spend a lot of time on that sort of stuff as the market is so competitive at the moment.

There are online valuations you can get done though if you really don't want an in-person one.

Have a look at others for sale in your area that are comparable, maybe? Generally things around our way are going within days so I'm assuming that most things are achieving asking price at the moment. Zoopla reckons we've gone up in value in 18 months from 475 to 520, which is a bit mad, but a couple of comparable properties have been listed at 500 recently and going within a couple of days so I'm guessing that's around right for ours.

Harder if you don't have much to compare with though, we're a 2 double bed period cottage in a town centre where most of the housing stock is new build, so there's only one comparable property up for sale every few months.

No one can possibly say without knowing exact location. It’s a piece of string question.

Boomin and onthemarket have online calculators too

On Homes Under the Hammer they get two agents out to view it at the same time. Hardly ever do they go on to sell.

@JamMakingWannaBe

On Homes Under the Hammer they get two agents out to view it at the same time. Hardly ever do they go on to sell.

They get to be on TV and advertise their company though!

But agents generally accept that most valuations won't result in an instruction, for whatever reason.

Of you get a valuation it may tip your margate into another bracket to save you ££ so worth asking an estate agent.

Not everyone sees a garage conversion as a 4th bedroom, many wouldn’t want children downstairs away from everyone else, but those with teens may see it as a hangout space - or even a study to work from home there’s no set answer.

It depends on your area. Some areas garage conversions are quite popular others not. I wouldn't buy a house with no garage at that price. Just get two estate agents. They dont expect to get the sale of every house they value.

I wouldn't expect a garage conversion for an extra bedroom to be worth as much as a 4 bedroom house with all bedrooms upstairs, however I'd expect it to be worth more than a 3 bedroom house, given it amounts to extra living space.

As a guesstimate, I'd say halfway between what 3 and 4 bedrooms have gone for in the last 4 months. You can easily get this data from the Land Registry website, just put in your postcode, or those nearby:

landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ppd

Making a garage into a habitable room doesnt make a three bedroom house into a four bed - it merely adds one more room on the ground floor. This will be very useful as an extra living room and for people working from home this could be beneficial. I doubt that families with three children for example would consider the house - they would want to look for a 'proper' four bedroom with all the rooms upstairs.