Disparity between estate agents

[Cantiverous]

There’s often disparity between estate agent valuations for various reasons. Obviously people will only pay what they think a property is worth. What is the difference between lowest and highest valuations you’ve had and what area or type of property. I once considered buying a friend’s 2 bed flat, when I was looking to move, but the disparity was 50k (going back twenty years ago though). I didn’t go for it as didn’t want to either con them or overpay.

Recently, the agents we had to value our last house were within 25K. The one before varied by about 50K. We sold the last one for the asking price, minus a couple of thousand.

I don’t think valuations do vary so much these days, when anyone can compare similar properties and sold prices.

Our estate agents were within 10k of each other with valuations. We went for the higher one, with a view that people would come in under/try and negotiate on the survey results. The Zoopla and Rightmove results are different to what the estate agent said, and different to each other - both over the agents valuation though. It’s not been listed that long so no idea what it’ll actually go for!

200k at the moment. 4 estate agents. 4 very different valuations.

Does it depend on where you live too? I’m in Greater London and there seem quite wide brackets, sometimes in the same street. My house backs onto a busy road so has a smaller price ceiling than the other side of the road for example.

£200k?!!!

In 2024 there was 175k difference between valuations on our last house which was a detached property in rural Wales and fairly unique so hard to value. Our nearest competition was a 14 bed mansion and on the market for 1.5m more than ours.

Ours sold for mid way between the valuations.

I had 2 estate agents around to give me a quote. One said I'd be lucky to get £230k, and i would probably have to accept £210k. The second said to put it on the market for £260k.

I went with the £260k agent, and it was sold on day one by the first buyers. They didn't even have time to put a 'for sale' board up.

I had two agents - one said up to £325k, the other said £350k-£360k. Went with the higher pricing agent and sold within 2 weeks. They were a more local agent and I felt they seemed to understand the local market better. The other agent gave all the talk about access to the London market etc, but I think it's all talk, and choosing an agent with a real understanding of the local market proved to be the most advantageous

I think it will often depend on the type of house.

Selling a 3 bed semi that is part of an estate with 799 other matching 3 bed semis ? I'd expect the evaluations to all be close. The EAs will sell these weekly and know what people will pay for them.
But selling a unique, or at least highly unusual property of which there are no properties nearby which are even slightly similar ? It's going to be a lot more subjective.

No agent can tell you what a property will sell for as they have no idea which potential markets (people) will turn up to look. All they are doing is proposing a marketing price to attract interest.

Some PP have talked about going with (and selling with) the highest "valuing" EA. But they have no idea whether the lower valuing EA would have attracted more and better interest.

There is a certain chain that seems to consistently overvalue properties tbf.

We had some absolute batshit high valuations on our previous house. While we wanted to believe them it was clearly just a hook to lock you into a sole agency contract before they invariably asked you to drop the price. We went with an agency who had actually done some market research and turned up armed with loads of comparative properties in the area and a list of variables that would be applicable to our specific property. The other agents just sent over shiny suited 20 somethings sporting unfeasibly large tie knots who though they could just pluck a figure from their arse backed up with a rehearsed sales pitch. The former got within 10k of their valuation.