Estate Agent valuations

[OnTheMoveNow]

Looking for some advice please.

I’ve had my house valued by four estate agents. Three have valued it at £500k, the fourth said £530k which is a massive difference but they are insistent that they can achieve that price. . It’s very hard to do the comparables as it’s a new build and only one of these house types has sold, other than when originally sold by the developer. There is a another one currently up for sale at £500k which hasn’t sold but I don’t know if that’s because the agent’s marketing isn’t great or because it’s priced too high.

Is the fourth agent just leading me on to get the business only to drop the price in stages and what’s the likely impact of that? The other agents seem to want to do it the other way round, ie, set a price and try and generate a bidding war.

TLDR; is it better to set a price and invite offers or to price a bit lower than what you hope to achieve and try and generate competition between buyers?

The one up for 500k should tell you something- if it is comparable to your house and not much worse in terms of square footage, location etc.
I think the 530k agents are probably over valuing to win your business which is a common tactic.

Go for the bidding war

Haven’t heard of flats going to bidding wars as they are just about selling. Especially new builds are struggling to sell from what I can see these days. If your neighbours 500k isn’t selling, it is a good indication about the demand for flats in your block.

If something isn’t selling then it’s usually because it’s priced too high so the other property (if it’s comparable) should tell you that if you market it at £530,000 then you may end up reducing the price or making the other house more attractive . Three agents have all agreed in its approximate value. Unless you’re in London then anything over £500,000 is quite a lot of money so you’re looking at a limited market. I would look into what marketing each of the agents are planning to do and go with the one who seems the most proactive and has more experience selling that type of house. Estate agents make an educated estimate - at the end of the day a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

If 3 agents have said £500k and one has said £530k, I'd go for £500k

@Wanderergirl

Haven’t heard of flats going to bidding wars as they are just about selling. Especially new builds are struggling to sell from what I can see these days. If your neighbours 500k isn’t selling, it is a good indication about the demand for flats in your block.

Where does it say it's a flat?

I'd go for the bidding war OP. How similar to the one already for sale is yours?

Not necessarily just trying to get your business, a good estate agent will achieve the price they advise.

I once had valuations of 3 at 350k and one at 480k

It sold at 480k in first week. Agent was completely brilliant.

Some bad advice, 500k is not actually that much if you are in the South East, not just London. I am currently looking in Hampshire.

OP I’ve seen quite a few new build sell eventually but they must be competitively priced and have take longer than older properties. I’m particularly watch Redrow ones as I’m interested in buying one. I think for these it’s because they are detached, look heritage and have good layouts.

Common tactic to get the instruction. Just ask yourself why would anyone pay£530k when similar properties are selling for £500k? They won’t, put it on for £500k and get the viewings.

We were advised to go for "offers over" - so a bidding war really.

Okay house then. It makes very little difference. There is plenty period conversions and older characteristic houses. As well as developers have a very brand new ones in the pipeline already for pretty much the same price.

As someone said, second hand new builds need to be very competitively priced in order to sell, especially in London.

Ultimately I don’t think it really matters: it’ll sell for what it sells for, the valuations aren’t so far apart than a bidding war on £500k +, or offers under £530k, aren’t going to end up in the same place.

Really it’s about how quickly you want to sell and what will stress you out: personally lingering on the market and having to reduce, while all the while watching stuff on Rightmove that I wanted to offer on come off the market, would stress me out. I’d want to sell quickly so I could get going on offering. I’d list at £500k.

Okay house then. It makes very little difference.

Not really, market for houses and flats is fundamentally different.

My one advice is this:

if either agent is an online agent (eg Purplebricks) who get paid the minute you advertise - and have no incentive like no sale-no fee - DO NOT trust their valuation.

Their business model rests on luring sellers with a high apparent value, get advert listed take money and then they have no incentive to actually get it sold.

If the person quoting £530 is an online agent steer very clear.

(I speak from bitter experience)

I think new builds definitely sell but not sure how much potential to make money is there. The 500k house how long has it been on the market? Has the developer completely finished? How far off the original purchase price?