Estate agent etiquette

[lilacmamacat]

I've inherited a house and it needs to be valued as part of probate. It's 80 miles away so I can't get there at the drop of a hat, and staying there is not ideal (boiler died so no heating), plus I work 4 days a week.

I have been advised by my soIicitor that I need 3 valuations. I haven't a clue about dealing with estate agents, so my question is, can I have 3 estate agents come round all at the same time or should they come one at a time? Also, how long do these things take?

The more I type this, the more I feels it's a really stupid question but I just feel completely out of my depth.

Arrange 3 separate visits for the same day. Maybe 4 in case one of them cancels. It will just be a brief visit of 30 mins or so for each one to determine size and condition etc of the property.

Hi, the EAs should come separately but each appointment should last less than an hour. So you could try to organise one for the morning, one for late morning/ early afternoon and one for late afternoon.

3 at a time is not a good idea or you could end up getting an 'agreed' price between the three of them . It's also just not etiquette.

Call three local agents and book them in for the same day one after another . With a little gap. They only take about 30 minutes max. Unless you have a stately home of course .

Phone each one and say that you have inherited and intend to sell after probate. That way the valuation should be free as they will hope for the instruction. Take the average of the three for probate if doing yourself otherwise send written valuations to your lawyer.

Been in a similar situation.
Google estate agents near to the house, preferably the smaller independent ones.
Ring them up and explain the situation and how to drop/post keys to them.
Agents deal with this situation every day of the week.
Then do it again 2 times.
They will email you their valuations, probate valuations tend to be lower than market value.

Then because you have spoken to them you select the agent you prefer to market/sell the house for you (or rent out if that's what you prefer, after you have prepared the house for renting and have the correct certificates etc in place).

If the estate is liable for probate/inheritance fees and the house sells for more than the figure you tell HMRC you can revise those figures at that point and pay the extra tax.

We paid for a proper professional valuation from a valuation firm when we inherited another house rather than dealing with 3 estate agents and having to listen to their spiel.
Cut down the admin time and we knew HMRC wouldn't need to question the figure.

So that's another way to go, cost was a couple of hundred but this depends on the size/age/location of the property. Ours had sitting tenants too so the lease needed to be analysed as part of the valuation.

I did this with my parents' house recently - we had visits from 2 agents; each took 15-30 minutes. A third couldnt make it so we submitted only the two valuations.

If they're local they should have a good idea of the local area and what houses are currently selling. In my experience they just wanted a walk around the house and garden to gain a general idea, not anythjing technical like measuring- we had no sales spiel as they knew it will be another few months until the instruction. Point out any faults etc as you will generally want as low a valuation as possible.

It may be worth taking photos at that stage too in case of any query later - when we applied for probate the office queried why our valuation was low but we were able to show that it was in need of a bit of work so they accepted the declared price.

We found it actually a positive experience - it good to ask about improvements that can be made to make it more desirable and whether its worth doing - replacing essentials like boilers probably need doing as does any basic paintwork, but not putting in a new kitchen/ recarpeting.

We went through this last year.

You don't need an estate agent at all for probate, you need a property valuation survey (just one not 3) and its a paid for service.

One point to add though as you have all good advice from the posters above.

You mention the boiler needs replacing - this may put some buyers off - for the sake of £2k would you not just replace it..
As winter months set in and given that it will be an empty property, it’d be advisable to have some sort of heating to prevent damp etc - e.g. put on a timer…
Just a thought as this is what I’d be inclined to do if i was in your situation..

You will struggle to sell a property even more so with damp and mould…

Family member had 2 x quotes of £3k and £4k for new boiler very recently. This is in the south east

Good point. Existing (dead) boiler was installed in 1970 and is massive compared to modern boilers - roughly 2ft x 2ft x 3ft (it sits on the floor). I suspect it will cost a lot more than £2K to sort out. Whole house needs gutting and redoing so quotes will be on the low side anyway.

Blimey! That is ancient! Reason why I say £2k for boilers is because Screwfix sell them for a grand or so and then about £1k labour on top!