ofsted rating used to increse property value

[lovinguissoeasybecozurrich]

hi all, I'm just asking for opinions and experiences about this.

I'm looking at some houses that I like and they're quite over-priced as it is and when discussing this with the EA, they've given me a whole spiel about the primary schools (two of them) that close by. The EA was really harping about their OFSTED rating of "outstanding".

So I checked with OFSTED and the last inspection was in 2008 for one school and 2010 for the other!! Obviously yonks ago. And then on the website it also says one of the schools "closed" and turned into an Academy in 2012 with no further OFSTED inspections done. That's 11 years without any inspections.

Firstly, I don't really trust OFSTED with all the negative news about that this year. Secondly, is it just me or do these EAs and sellers think buyers are thick or something?? As though we can't check these numbers and "ratings" from a whole era ago??

Please note I don't have children. Just planning ahead.

Can some buyers or anyone with the experiences above tell me what they think of this and maybe what I should say to the EA because I will not be making an offer at asking price (ha!) it will be a fair and square offer also considering the school "catchment" and lack of uptodate OFSTED ratings because 2012 ratings are obviously null and void.

Also what is an Academy School exactly??

Thank you MN!!

Price isn't calculated on ofsted reports. Prices are to do with what people are willing to pay, which is basically market opinion, so will reflect the local opinion on which schools are 'good' amongst all other things about an area. An opinion which is often totally wrong, ofsted or not, out of date or not.
If you have no kids, all other things being equal, you may get more bangs for your buck if you avoid houses in the areas perceived to have the 'best' schools. That's up to you.

Many parents will also be going by word of mouth about those schools as well as Ofsted ratings and this will be contributing to the local sale prices.

We bought a house near an outstanding primary. It hadn't been visited by Ofsted since 2013 but almost every parent in this part of the city applies for it.

Also, the length of time since a visit is a sign that parents haven't been routinely complaining to Ofsted about the school.

Some people place a ridiculous emphasis on ofsted ratings (round here there’s a certain demographic who seem to view their child’s school rating as a rating on their parenting), but ultimately when it comes to school applications time you use a range of factors to pick what’s right for your child (and we intentionally swerved the outstanding secondary as it would have been an awful fit for our kids). The time outstanding schools have gone uninspected is bonkers and they’re currently going around them so ratings change - and inspection regimes have changed so looking at the date of reports is important.

But ultimately estate agents are there to sell houses and they will write any remotely positive point into a description as a sales point- our house has an outstanding primary around the corner and it was in the description when we bought it- not of interest to us as our kids are secondary age, but it will have got other viewers through the door which is what they wanted. Another property had two paragraphs waxing lyrical about the potential of a cellar - again, not much of interest to us (spiders! I barely go in our cellar) but would have got other people interested in viewing.

As for reductions - they know people stalk the listings and can see what has happened historically- and the markets been up and down like a yo-yo recently (with the kamikwazi budget etc) - that’s just the property market for you. Use the knowledge to inform what you offer - if they’ve been reducing they obviously are motivated to sell, compared to the house we bought where it had been on at the same price a long time and it was clearly a case that she would sell if the right price came along but she was fine sitting pretty if it didn’t - so we didn’t prat around with cheeky offers - and in return she was happy to sit it out while we found our buyers and sorted out all the nonsense they were trying to pull.

This!

You don't have to buy in the catchment. I'm a parent who have one in secondary and one in primary. I bought originally before I had children in this area because it's got a reputation of good schools, for both primary and secondary. The primary has gone from good to oustanding, and the secondary has gone from outstanding to good. The secondary also has GCSE results better than average in the LEA average.

You can take whatever value out fo the ofsted or GCSE results. But many people see a lot of value in it.