Disappointed with house valuation

[mumma24]

House valued at £625,000 to £650,000 by 3 agents but I think it will sell for more to the right buyer. We would consider listing for offers over £675,000.
and willing to wait for the right buyer but feel like agents are just looking for a quick sal. All our previous 4 homes have sold within 4 weeks. Dont really want to list privately but what else can we do

Because home sellers seem to know more than the estate agents these days .
My parents have been looking to buy a property up north and my Dad’s been seeing the same properties online for months and months not moving especially the more expensive houses . I know a few people trying to sell and nothing is selling . They drop their houses by a few £ but there’s just no interest,

It’s not worth trying to ‘hang on’ as the housing market hasn’t recovered post covid and it’s now been six years. This government are doing nothing to bring any confidence back, Infact I would go so far to suggest they are doing the exact opposite. People are nervous, mortgage lenders are nervous. If you want to move put your house up for the upper end of the suggested price and see what interest it has. You don’t HAVE to move so you are s as ready in a good position. I would much rather start lower and have a couple of different people pushing the price up than I would go high and have the house sitting there with no interest.

Out of interest, what did you pay for the house?

Yes, and when did you buy? The market may have been very different at the time.

A good idea is to look at sold prices in your postcode, and you'll then be able to compare and see what similar properties sold for over the last year or so. Assuming there have been sales in the area. You can do that on Rightmove.

They don't.

Estate agents know pretty closely what houses will sell at as they have the analytical tools to find out in may cases.

What they don't have is the ability to get a customer to list at that price or convince a person to sell a house at less that they thing its worth (which is often a figure plucked pretty much out of thin air by the homeowner as that's what they need to go to their next place).

Agents often list at prices higher than they think the market will bear, because if you get the instruction there is a chance you can manage down the clients expectations over time to a more reasonable level when the house doesn't sell.

If you don't get the instruction you are pretty much guaranteed zero commission rather than a smaller chance if you over value.

Have you done a £/m2 calc on your property and compared it to other properties in the area

If the price you have in mind sits within that ask the agents why they are pricing lower

Remember to also compare your £/m2 to those that have recently sold

Is it actually worth the extra you want though? I’ve been viewing recently having sold mine on one day of viewings for middle estimated. We went offers over expecting some low ball offers and would have taken £5k less that but we accepted a very reasonable first offer.

What I have seen is some properties being on the market for ages with low reductions (1%) and the owners pricing at a point which it would achieve with everything replacing which would cost c60K so it’s unrealistic to expect what they did.

if you want closer to 675 than 650 do offers over 660, people will question what you actually want and they might think you want £700k which if local properties gone for less you’re unlikely to get

Until there is some wage growth, then housing market will be stagnant.

Properties are unaffordable for the majority of first time buyers and this means there is less movement in the rest of the market.

Dont really want to list privately but what else can we do

Lower your expectations and be realistic.

A house is only worth what a buyer is prepared to pay for it, and there is no point in marketing a house at £50k more than any of the estate agents are advising. They know the market better than you do.

Far better to price low and get loads of interest and offers. Get more than 2 and you can go to best and final. We did that last year. It also means you get a committed buyer who feels happy they got a good deal. Go too high and they will try and reduce it after survey

Ultimately what you think it’s worth is irrelevant, the only the opinion that actually matters is someone wanting to buy it (and the bank I guess).

Prices are down 16% at the moment - perfect time for buying but if you are selling too you won’t actually lose any money because you’re selling and buying in the same market

why bother getting three agents round if you clearly know best? People do this all the time and I just don’t get it - I know EA’s are mistrusted generally and some are frankly shit, but most do know their local market and stay in business because they sell properties. If anything most agents OVER value not under and if all are saying £625-650k presumably based on local evidence and knowledge/experience of the current market, what makes you think £675k is right? You could always try offer in excess of £650k but I think in the current market it would be unwise to go in higher than agents are telling you.

Who is your "right buyer"? Can you help us understand that?

I live on a road of mid-century houses in the middle of a sea of period terraced houses. The "right buyer" might not be a local family (who might want to pay less because it's not a Victorian terrace), but instead our houses tend to sell to someone particularly attracted to the design and history of our houses. Every other house on our road is lived in by architects.

Our neighbours do put their houses on Zoopla/Rightmove etc, but they also list with The Modern House because that reaches a different type of buyer, who doesn't price in a discount because there's no checkerboard path or bay window.

Is there an equivalent for you, to reach the buyer that you think would pay more?

It's your house so you're well within your rights to market it at whatever price you want - you can always come down in price. However, I look at the market on a regular basis and in all my years of doing that, I've never ever known houses linger/come on and off as much as they have done over the past few months. If you're not desperate to sell, give it a go, by all means. I think sometimes house prices reflect the number of bedrooms and general state and style but if your house is super stylish and has some great features - a lovely expensive kitchen, for example, that the buyer could just move in to and enjoy then that £25,000 extra might represent a saving to them and an avoidance of the hassle of replacing something so go for it!

What are you basing 675k on? If 3 different agents have all come back with a price in the same range they are probably right.

House round here have gone down since last year 10K under what they once were.

However if you're really unhappy are there other estate agents to try? My DGP house was unique - they planned it - and many of the estate agents first tried were comparing it to very dissimilar properties - they went to a more specialised estate agent and while it took 10 months to sell there wasn't a rush it sold for just over the asking price of last estate agent much more than the first ones said.

It's hard to say if it's your expectations - as over princing there can be common - or if something right buyer would pay for realistically - so maybe try more estate agents and ask more questions about why they are pricing like that.

I wouldn’t list it now if you aren’t happy with the valuation because right now is a rubbish market. We have had to sell our parents home as they are in care and it got lower than we thought based on previous sales over the last few years but looking at things in our area, everything is dropping in price, nothing shifting and actually compared to a few doors down we did get a higher price.

it’s all relative though, if you wait till the market is ‘better’ and prices increase, any potential house you want to buy will also increase in price so unless you’re moving to a significantly cheaper area, I don’t know what difference it will make listing it now or waiting it out?

And if you’re moving up the market you actually gain!

If you think you know better than your local agents, good luck! Our house was valued at between £1.4m-£1.5m by 5 different local agents. So we put it on at £1.45m. 18 months later we sold it for £1.3m. It’s a terrible market.

Like otehrs have said, house values have gone down.

It’s up to you what you advertise it for, the agents will give your guidance but ultimately it’s your decision.

So use an agent (if that’s what you want to do) and tell them to put it up for £675k.

The housing market is extremely slow at the moment and estate agents won't want a house unsold for a long time. They'd rather start at a price they think is realistic because the difference in their commission between 675K and 625K isn't huge and probably not worth the time they spend on lots of unsuccessful viewings at the higher price.

If you're not looking to sell quickly it might be worth trying it at the higher price for a while but I would bear in mind that the details of your house are often quite easy to find on the internet even after you've taken it off sale so, if you relist it at a lower price later on, people might still be able to see that you've reduced the price.

EAs emailing today to say that [apparently] the housing market is picking up. Not sure I believe that in any way where I am in leafy Surrey. Our property value apparently decreased 7-10% in 6m last year (between mortgage valuations, not for selling) so unless that was a temporary hiccup or a very very conservative/cautious valuation for the mortgage company, I can’t see that right now is the ideal time to sell. The second valuation was done in budget week though when the mansion tax was announced.

I wouldn’t advise going to market until you really do want to sell and are highly motivated. It is harder to sell a property that has been on the books for a while than one more newly on, so I’d keep a close eye on the area you fancy moving and wait until you see an increase in the type of properties you really want - and get a sense of what they are being marketed at - before taking the plunge.

If three agents are in agreement then the potential buyers bank probably will be too. If you sell for more than it’s worth, the buyer, unless cash, won’t issue a mortgage on it anyway.