How does an estate agent value my house?

Valuations are a crucial part of the home selling process

If you own a house, flat or any other type of leasehold or freehold property and you’re thinking of selling it, a major milestone in that process will be getting a valuation for your home.

A valuation tells you how much the property might be worth, which is essential for selection the price at which you’ll list it and ask for offers, as Estate Agent Today says. Set a price that’s too high and you risk making many buyers lose interest in your home, and set it too low and you might sell at a loss or only just break even on the sale.

But how should you go about getting a valuation for your home?

One of the most common ways to get this price estimate is by contacting an estate agent. This guide walks you through what to expect from an estate agent valuation of your home, including the various elements of your property that they’ll use when assessing it.

You’ll also get advice on other ways that you could try to settle on a valuation for your flat or house beyond relying on what an estate agent says. And you will also be able to read about the steps that are involved not only with selling your home through an estate agent once you decide on a valuation, but other choices available for selling it fast and for a competitive price.

What is an estate agent valuation?

It’s a crucial part of the process of selling your house or flat to an estate agent.

When you decide to sell through this option, the estate agent will visit your home to take measurements and assess its value based on its physical qualities. But the estate agent will also consider a host of other aspects that can affect the value of your property, including some outside of your control such as the amenities that are available nearby.

This value will guide the estate agent in deciding what price they suggest that you should list your property for sale. If the value is set too high compared to what your home is actually worth, you might struggle to sell it and it could sit on the market for weeks, months, or even years in some extreme cases. And if the value is set too low under the actual market value, you risk unnecessarily losing out on profit if the estate agent manages to sell the property.

That’s why it’s vital to price your property just right when selling to maximise the profit while securing a fast sale.

What factors do estate agents consider in a valuation?

Estate agents will not base their valuation on any one factor, but instead will give you a suggested sale listing price that takes into account several factors at the home and beyond.

Your home’s physical characteristics – Perhaps the first thing that your estate agent will assess is the actual physical characteristics of your home – everything from how many bedrooms it has through to the current condition of important rooms like the bathroom and kitchen.

Amenities available near your house – This is a factor completely out of your control, but estate agents will assess the value of your home in part based on its proximity to amenities that buyers are looking for including gyms, supermarkets, restaurants, and more.

Status of the current local housing market – Your estate agent should have a good grasp of whether the housing market in your area is doing well or is on the decline, and will use this knowledge as one of the various elements that they use before telling you their valuation of your home.

Potential for further improvements to your home – Another aspect that your estate agent will consider is whether your home has potential for future improvements, including physical extensions, because if so this a quality that can help to make your home more attractive to potential buyers.

What can I do if I think my estate agent’s valuation is wrong?

You could consider performing your own valuation of your house of flat. It will require a fair amount of time and work but it’s entirely possible to get a decent idea of how much your home is worth by doing some research online and elsewhere.

There are many online tools that can give you a swift rough estimate for how much your property might be worth, but only use these as a general guideline. Many of these tools use information that is out of date and therefore creates an inaccurate price estimate.

A great place to look for property prices is on the website of the HM Land Registry, a non-ministerial agency of the UK government that oversees home sales throughout Wales and England. If you search for a specific property on the website using the building’s address, you’ll get a wealth of information that includes recent sale prices. This can help you get a better sense of exactly what your home is worth.

Yet another step that you could take is to ask other estate agents to give you non-binding, free valuations of your house or flat. Just beware that certain estate agents could try a sneaky trick of quoting you an impressively high value for your home, even if they know it will only sell at a much lower price.

The reason that some estate agents do this is to encourage you to use their services for selling your property, so that they can financially benefit from the commission that they will charge if they find a buyer for your property. But you can avoid falling for this trick by pursuing other methods for valuing your home, as described throughout this section of the guide.

Deciding how to sell your home after getting a valuation

Whether your choose to rely on an estate agent’s valuation of your property or instead opt for another way to assess its value, you will eventually have to make decision on which strategy to use for finding a buyer. Often the choices are selling to a quick home buyer like LDN Properties, selling with an estate agent, selling at an auction or selling without any assistance.

There are specific advantages and disadvantages with each of the selections in terms of how long they might take, if they will require that you pay commission, and more. For example, you could enjoy a speedy sale that is completed within weeks when selling to a quick home buyer, whereas it might take more than a year to secure a buyer through an estate agent.

A useful tactic can be to write down your top aims with selling, such as how fast you want to find a buyer, your ideal sale price, and whether you can accept paying commission on the sale. Then compare these issues against the specific information about all four selling choices below and those should make it easier to identify which one best suits your needs.

Selling to a quick home buyer

Quick buyers, also known as we buy any property companies, have the financial ability to buy your home immediately, so they don’t have to first wait for weeks or months to get authorised for a mortgage to afford the purchase. This cuts the typical schedule for selling this way to just a few short weeks, and that includes exchanging contracts and paying you the full proceeds.

Remember also that legitimate quick buyers like LDN Properties will never charge you commission when purchasing your house or flat, which helps with reducing your expenses. That compares well to selling through an estate agent or an auctioneer, as those two strategies will require that you pay them commission, will be subtracted from the final sale proceeds.

Quick buyers are also an excellent idea for selling if your home has some type of problem that might discourage buyers – whether that’s a physical flaw like dry rot or a leaking roof, legal issues like a dispute over land access, financial complications like overdue ground rent charges or more. That’s because these companies are renowned for making fair and fast offers to buy all properties regardless of their age, condition, location, shape, size, type or any other factors.

For example, LDN Properties launched in 2003 and since then it has bought many varied homes throughout the UK including houses with a heat pump, properties with a defective title, flats located above commercial premises, homes without a bathroom or a kitchen, houses that do not have a completion certificate, properties with solar panels, flats in buildings without a lift, homes with an absence of easement, houses of multiple occupancy, and more.

Selling with an estate agent

If you’re getting a valuation for your home from an estate agent, then you might also be thinking about selling using their services. If so, they will first create a listing that features photographs of the interior and exterior of your property along with a description of its main elements, and they’ll advertise this online, in local newspapers and in their office. They’ll arrange viewings for anyone interested to tour your home, hear offers and try to get one to the last exchange of contacts.

In exchange for putting in all of this effort, you will have to pay the estate agent commission if they are successful in selling your home. This fee is often charged within a range from 1.15 percent to 1.40 percent of a property’s sale price, but may be able or below this amount. And the fee is taken out of the sale proceeds right away, which will increase your selling costs.

Selling with an estate agent can also take a long time, and you should not be surprised if it takes more than a full year to find a buyer. If you are looking to sell your house or flat as swiftly as possible then you should review some of the other options available, such as selling to a quick home buyer where the total timeline should only be a handful of weeks.

Note also that when someone makes an offer on a home through an estate agent that they could still later change their mind and rescind the offer, causing the sale to fall apart – and they won’t face any penalties for doing this if contracts are not yet exchanged. This would then need you to start again with searching for a buyer, extending your selling timeline much further.

Selling at an auction

Another option for selling your home is trying your luck at an auction, where people will have the chance to place bids of increasing value on the property. The highest price bid at the time the auction ends is named the winner and therefore the person that will be buying your home.

It’s possible that you get no bids on your house or flat, which means that it does not sell. You would then need to start again with seeking a buyer, delaying a sale for longer. Or you could get just one bid at the reserve price – the lowest value at which you agree your home can sell – and this is considered a binding agreement to sell your home that the buyer can sue to enforce.

This is why you must take time to value your home and decide a reserve price that should produce a profit from the sale, even after subtracting the fee that the auctioneer will charge you. If you don’t, there’s the risk of only just breaking even on the sale or even selling at a loss.

Auctioneers often charge commission at about 2.5 percent of a property’s sale price, and this fee causes your costs to rise because it will be subtracted from the auction proceeds. There are some auctioneers that might be willing to reduce their commission or have the buyer pay a share of your costs, so you could ask about whether this is possible. But they are not required to offer either of those options, and some auctioneers may charge even higher than 2.5 percent.

The fee that you’ll pay them covers the work that the auctioneer does in selling your home, which begins with putting together a listing, advertising it in the days and weeks before the auction, hosting the auction itself and then overseeing the completion of a successful sale. Some homeowners choose selling through an auctioneer because they do not want the stress and time involved with the various tasks required for finding a buyer.

It can be a relatively slow way to sell a home, with a lot of waiting, including many weeks or even months between when you choose this method and when the auction is held. If your flat or house manages to sell, the buyer then often has about 28 days to sign all of the required legal documents and finish the other steps needed in order to complete the sale. Some auctioneers might be open to setting a short deadline, but others may allow even more than 28 days.

Selling without any assistance

Alternatively, you could consider selling your home without any third-party help, which puts the onus on you to handle all of the required tasks. You will have to create a listing, advertise it, schedule viewings, hear offers and aim to get one through to exchanging contracts.

Every step of the process can be stressful and it can become very time-consuming, so this strategy is usually only suggested for people that have managed to sell a property in the past, or who have a skilled friend or family member that can help for free with the selling process. Without such support it might take many months or more than a year before you’re able to sell.
Also, you might get an honest offer from someone who later on changes their mind and rescinds it, and they can do this without any penalty if contracts have not yet been exchanged. This outcome would add much more time to your total selling schedule because you would then have to begin again with the search for another buyer.

One of the few obvious advantages of selling without the help of an auctioneer or an estate agent is that you would not need to pay anyone commission on the sale, which helps with lowering your overall costs. But you could discover that this saving is eliminated by the amount of money that you will have to spend on marketing your listing and other tasks.

If you want to save money on your sale, you could consider contacting a no-fee quick buyer such as LDN Properties. Not only will you achieve your goal of avoiding having to pay any commission on the sale, but you would get the additional benefit of being able to complete the sale of your home within just a few short weeks – and that includes the crucial last stages of exchanging contracts and you receiving the full sale proceeds.