Do we need more than one valuation?

[Bedofroses85]

We are starting the process to sell our house. We had a valuation from one estate agent. We are familiar with them as helped us buy our current house and like them. They gave us a report showing what a bank would value our house as, which they explained is what we should expect for it and price it accordingly. Also they have quoted us a reasonable 0.5% fee in the event of a sale.

Is there any valid reason to approach other estate agents for their valuation? What would we gain from it?

We are thinking of not bothering but not sure we are missing a trick?

Thanks

Wouldn’t do any harm.

We had three valuations for our house. It was valued at over £100,000 difference from lowest to highest. It's an unusual house though, with nothing like it locally on the market.

If there are other local houses very similar to yours on the market that are priced similar to your valuation and that haven't been on the market for a long period at that price, then you could just accept the one valuation.

Personally, I'd always go for at least two even if it's a house like others around it.

Nothing to stop you going with your original preferred agent when you come to market it.

Yes. They could be overvaluing to secure your business. Get two others.

If there are a lot of similar houses nearby (especially if you’re on a big estate), you can work out whether it’s a reasonable valuation by yourself, by checking recent sold values, recent market changes, and what other houses are currently on sale for.

It’s only if it’s unusual that I’d want to get at least one more valuation. If the second valuation is similar to the first, you probably don’t need to bother with a third - it’s just that sometimes two valuations can be markedly different, which is why people often recommend a third.

Thanks all, there are not many houses like ours in the area and with the market slowdown there are not many recently sold to give us an idea of current market value. We’ll follow your advice and get at least another one, thanks all x

It's usual practice to get three. And each EA imparted a bit of info and perspective on selling my house that was really useful. Two valuations matched and one was a fair bit less. Went with one of higher ones and sold very quickly.