Estate agents valuations. How accurate are they?

[bookmarket]

My house has been on the market a week or so and we've had two offers well below asking price. Is this just chancers or an indication our house isn't worth anything close to the estate agents' valuations? All 3 gave the same valuation. Do they do it just to get the business with the expectation you'll take an offer for much less. Even Zoopla has the same valuation so it's not like potential buyers are seeing a mismatch.

There's not any surprises on viewing the house Vs the description and photos. There's nothing significant that needs doing to it which would warrant a knocked down price.

both times I have sold…. The EA valuation has been bang on. Enough to generate a lot of interest, and both had asking price within a fortnight

That's been our experience in the past when we sold. Also we paid asking price for the 3 houses we've bought over the years. Is that the current situation?

In a buyers market you have to expect low offers. They don't want to overpay.

If one of them loves it they may increase when you decline. Or you can accept and try and do the same with your onward purchase.

How low were they? My DS offered 290 on a 310. Declined. Then decided he really wanted it so offered 300 on the 310 but wouldn't go above as that was the max he had set himself. That was accepted.

Agree buyers market and if you want to move you will most likely have to take a lower offer. Unless of course your house is so popular it ends up in a bidding war.

It won't remain a buyers market for long though will it? If we accept a low offer, then the risk is by the time we find something, confidence in the market has grown and we won't be able to knock prices down. We don't need to move so I guess we'll wait a little and see where things go.

Who knows!

It stayed a sellers market for years. I don't see any reason given interest rates and cost of living why it shouldn't stay a buyers market. But no one knows.

Yes always an issue finding a house you love and a realistic seller. Plus they may have marketed at a price on the lower side to sell anyway.

What percentage off were the offers you received? Did they increase at all after being declined?

It depends. It is not an exact science. Some housed are difficult to value. They normally look at similar sales in the area and tweak the price a bit based on whether yours is slightly better or slightly worse.

Sometimes the market moves faster than the agents ability to value though, especially if there have not been any recent sales.

At the end of the day your house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Not what the agent values it at and if the market is fast moving then it is possible for agents to get it wrong. What is the offer vs. the agent valuation price in % ?

Estate agents basically look at the actual sold prices of nearby houses, and base their valuation on that. If there are lots of recently sold comparable houses nearby, their valuations are pretty accurate. If your house is a bit more unique and/or not much has sold recently in the area, then it’s more of a finger in the air valuation.

How much lower were the offers, as a percentage?

It has only been a week.

Would the offer enable you to make your onward purchase?

Last time we sold our first viewing offered 30% under asking price - they weren't even on the market and needed to sell in order to buy!

Obviously we declined and sold a couple of months later for 10% under asking.

It was a very unique property, absolutely nothing like it, character/size wise locally and we knew all the EAs we had round to value struggled to put a price on it. Some of the 'comparables' we were shown were laughable.

We actually marketed it 50k below the highest valuation as we thought it was ridiculous...and we were right as another house they valued (also unique, but about 5 x the size of ours) is still languishing 18 months on. We were in a rural location with a very slow market and were keen to sell.

Did the agents not show you examples of local properties they’ve sold, for comparison?

When we sold last year, it was at the agent’s valuation, minus a couple of grand.

Yes, they all did that! We'd be happy to take an offer of £5000 below. £10000 if it's dragging on. But not £30000 below.

Ours is also hard to find a direct comparison. Only the house next door to ours is the same. Perhaps there are two other pairs the same in the town in different areas built by the same builders. We're in a very desirable quiet street.

If the house is marketed at £500,000, minus £10.000 is reasonable.
If it’s on at £200.000, minus £10,000 is more significant.

In the end, it depends how much you want, or need to sell.

We sold recently, 5 k under asking which we was happy with

What is the asking price - what percentage is £30k?

If on for £300k, then an offer of £270k could be just the start of a sensible conversation IMO.

When we sold our last house we had 3 valuations, £420k, £525k and £595k. Went with the highest and got an asking price offer within a week which sucessfully completed. It was quite a unique house and we sold it shortly after the last market crash which I think explains some of the variation.

We sold my mother's house in November 2023. We had valuations of £325,000, £360,000 and £425,000!

We put it on the market for £410,000 (feeling ambitious) and got £400k in the end.

So - in my recent experience - no, they are not particularly accurate! Of course what actually happened is that we were lucky enough to put it on the market at exactly the time our buyers started to look, it was the exact house they wanted, they sold their house within a week etc. Sometimes you can just be lucky!

For context, I'm currently selling a property which was placed on the market just over two weeks ago. The agent said they now value houses at the price they think they will achieve and don't encourage offers.

There was a lot of interest and the agents decided the way forward was to invite best offers. This morning I have six offers, with the highest £30k over the asking price.

The fact that you have had 2 offers so quickly woukd to me mean you have a very desirable house and that the offers may well increase. May as well hold on for now And see whatever offers you get,

An estate agent near me is selling a house for £1.75m when it was purchased 3 years ago for £1.3m and has had nothing done to it. The EA is renowned for overvaluing.

Some are just awful.

We got a low offer on our flat - about £50k under asking. We said no, they increased by £25k and we still said no. We hung on for 4 weeks and got 3 asking price offers in the end - and sold for asking too.

If everything is valuing it the same then its probably right but bare in mind offers are usually up to 10% under in a buyers market and 10% over in a sellers market.

So if you are asking say £445k (just a made up number because I don't know your price) and the offers have come in at say £413k & £422k they are both well within normal expected range for an offer. On £445k anything over £400k would be 'expected' range before dropping into CF territory.

Just found out our house which sold for 210.500 was valued by the buyers lenders at exactly the same price, it was listed at 215 k