How much is your house worth?

How much is your house worth?

When people think about moving the first question that usually pops into mind is, “how much is my house worth”. So with great enthusiasm and excitement they call an Estate Agent and ask them to put a value on the property.

Simple you would think………..not always!

There are some Estate Agents that continue to price property at far higher values than that of other agents. Why?......To out price the competition and to ultimately get the property on their books; after all we’re all human and it’s only natural to want the most money from the sale of our property. However, when an unrealistic sale price is put on a property, owners should not be surprised if there is little or indeed no interest in their property. Having wasted time advertising the property at the higher price, the owner usually has to either reduce the price or accept a far lower offer to secure a sale.

So what do agents gain by valuing higher?

In short it usually starts with the valuers ego. Every valuer wants to get your property instruction because the more properties they get on the books the greater the number of potential sales. The greater the sales……… the bigger the pay check.

Once they have your property on their books they can and often do, tie you in to a lengthy contract of between 10 and 20 weeks, so if your not getting any viewings or aren’t happy with the service you don’t have much choice other than to sit it out or reduce the price in order to sell.

How can you tell if your house price is right?

Experience counts for a lot, there are many young and inexperienced valuers out there so ask how long have they been in the job and what training they have had? Find out what they have used for comparables and ask them to show you, it’s easy to pick up comparables of similar properties with marketing and sold prices using various resources. Check the Agents current stock, if they have unusually large amounts of property on their books ask how long they have been on the market for and why aren’t they sold? Last but not least ask yourself honestly what would you pay for your house? If someone quotes you an unusually high price that seems to good to be true it usually is.

ALWAYS REMEMBER at HomeSearchDirect we don’t over value to gain instructions, we don’t have any tie in period or withdrawal costs, we always check comparables (copies available on request) and in 2006 we consistently sold over 66% of our stock. Call us now on 01228 515515 for a free market appraisal to find out how much your house is really worth!