House selling valuation

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 girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022

We are just about ready to put the house on the market to sell and it's the first time we have done this. 

We are planning to use one of the online "agents" as they are a fraction of the price. 

I am a bit unsure of the process for getting valuations, so this is what I think I understand of it for now, and I was hoping someone can confirm if I have understood or correct me please?

Looking at the process, you seem to get estate agents to give a valuation, I have seen the suggestion of getting 3 different ones, and then pick maybe the middle one of those. Does this sound right so far? And all the high street estate agents seem to offer this for free (presumably to convince you to use their services), so do we just choose the biggest agents in the area?

So once we have that, we have our selling price? 

The home report also has a valuation on it, does that come from the same report as we get from the estate agents? Or do they make up their own minds? What happens if they have a different figure?

I have tried using some of the automatic estimate tools online to get a rough idea, but they seem way off. They are coming up with a figure for our 4 bed, 2 bath house which is the same as a 2 bed across the road sold for recently! I know the market might not be as strong at the moment, but it's not quite as bad as that!

Any other general selling tips, other than "don't try to sell right now!"?! (We have no choice, my husband will be paying for temporary accommodation for the start of his new job next month, so moving asap is vital so he's not paying more than he needs to there)

5
 FranC 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

I don't know about HR but when I sold my house I got three estate agents round and ended up going with top guy as he was £20k above the others. I got it for that price which was great - they had higher fees but paid off in long run. However, this was for a mid terrace in Sheff where basically every house is the same so fairly easy to value. You may find that they're all much of a muchness in terms of valuation.

On a side note - and this is just personal experience - but we're looking to buy at the minute and the market still seems really competitive in our area of the Scotland. Yes houses are staying around for longer but by that I mean 4days/weeks as opposed to 4 hours. The number of viewings I had booked earlier in the year and then got cancelled before had chance to see them! So you may be surprised at how quickly you sell.

Good luck with your move!

 PaulW 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Not answering your question but a few comments having helped sell a place recently.

Really really work hard at the presentation. Ruthlessly declutter. Tidy the garden as best you can. Going round with a pot of paint. Get a friend or neighbour to walk round with you and point out things you don't notice with living there. We went for new carpets. Wasn't that expensive and made the whole place look so much more appealing. And then do some more decluttering.

Good luck. Xmas/New Year can be a good time to market a property if you can get it ready by then. You just have to make yours more appealing than the others out there.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Get loads of them round to value it and follow your nose. Don't feel bad about wasting their time. Throughout the selling process remember never to feel sorry for an estate agent.

2
 OCDClimber 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

I wouldn't spend a lot of money "titivating" a house in order to sell it. I sold mine last March.  I had 4 Estate Agents value it.  They all came in around the same price. Some wanted more commission but I was able to negotiate that down so that they all ended up offering the same. There are comparison sites that show which agent has sold the most in a given area and their performance with regard to getting the asking price so I went with the one that scored highest on those metrics.

The market was a little crazy at that time and I had 3 offers within 2 hours of viewing all at the asking price. This caught me on the hop because when I marketed it I was really just testing the water. The Estate Agent advised me of the best candidate based on their selling and mortgage position. I came clean and told him my position.  He asked what would convince me to sell so I said a cheeky extra £20,000.  10 minutes later that is what I got so we moved.

My house was in cul-de-sac in  a popular, desirable village with an excellent school, close to amenities and open views across fields. It went on the market at 9am on a Saturday morning and the deal was done and dusted by 1pm and the house taken off the market as that was part of the deal. All of this despite considerable building development in the area including my losing both the views and the cul-de-sac if I stayed. I was sorry to move but the character of the location was changing dramatically.

But that was simply my experience, a desirable property in a very hot market.

Post edited at 07:31
14
In reply to girlymonkey:

We are selling ours with the first viewings today. Ten viewings today, seven tomorrow, more later in the week. The advert only went live yesterday, but the local estate agent already had all these people who missed out on a very similar house earlier in the year who were waiting for similar to come up. From our experience, I couldn’t recommend an agent highly enough. The brochure, drone shots, walk though video are really excellent,

The market is still crazy competitive here, and the valuation was much higher than we anticipated, but they know the local market and we went with that. It’s valuable having the estate agent visit, as they have the experience around how to present the house well, and exactly what the market is like.

Also, worth remembering that more than half home owners own their houses outright without mortgages so aren’t so influenced by interest rates.

 Moacs 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Yes, agents value; online tools are crap.  If lots of similar houses around you can look at sold prices and asking prices.

Getting agents to value and then using an online cheapy is common, but pause to consider if you're moving locally - you may find the second time is tricky to get valued and you might find buying through them tough in a hotter future market.

 Babika 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Real agent every time. 

The online ones largely undervalue to get a quick sale

1
 Brown 20 Nov 2022
In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

Remember that one never knows who will put in the best offer.

We sold in Sheffield last year and after a hectic two weeks of viewings we squeezed in one last chap who the estate agents had arranged after we had hoped to wrap things up. He ended up being the buyer.

 Fraser 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

> So once we have that, we have our selling price? 

No, you might have your Asking Price but you don't know your selling price till it's sold!

Are you advertising as Offers Over or a Fixed Price?

 MG 20 Nov 2022
In reply to Babika:

> Real agent every time. 

> The online ones largely undervalue to get a quick sale

I agree. Be very wary of online agents. They are cheap for a reason...

OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to Moacs:

It has just occurred to me that the online tools might be thrown by our buying price. We bought it last year, but got it from my mum at the price she paid in 2015. So maybe it just adds x% to the last buying price?

No, not moving locally so nothing to worry about there.

1
OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Any comments on how the value on home report is decided?

Do we just get the home report done and use that price to list it?

In reply to girlymonkey:

> So maybe it just adds x% to the last buying price?

Yes. That's exactly what those online calculators do. 

 MG 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

This is Scotland? It's a surveyor's estimate. Supposedly independent and objective, so a good place to start when marketing. You need to judge whether to go for "offers over" something lower and hope for some competition to get more, or simply.advertise at the valuation, or something else. A good EA will advise based local knowledge.

OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to MG:

Yeah, not using an estate agent. Online cheapy will be fine. 

We are in a desirable area, 4 bed, 2 bath with good garden, traffic free safe walking to primary and secondary schools. 

We don't need to spend thousands on estate agents, just get a valuation and get it listed in Rightmove and Zoopla. 

5
 freeflyer 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

I've tried the online agents twice in the last ten years - they failed both times. They are good if the market is popping and your property is going to rush out the door in a matter of days; if not you'll waste some money and more importantly, time. They don't attract the same footfall as the traditional agents for a variety of reasons. You'll be likely paying 1.2% fee to a traditional agent (they usually quote it as 1% plus VAT which is irritating).

Wrt pricing, you should be able to get a good idea yourself about the right number by looking at what's on offer in your area and comparable areas, effectively by "pretending" to be a buyer for your own house and seeing what rightmove etc comes up with. Also check out sold prices in your immediate area.

In order to choose the right agent, do a list in rightmove at the price you are considering and include sold property; there will very likely be one or two agents that stand out in terms of properties on the books and sales achieved. Get valuations from the best ones, and then go with the agent you have confidence in, but as others have said, choose an offer price that suits your situation - at the lower end if you want to sell quickly, etc.

I can't remember if you're currently based in England or not, but if so bear in mind that it will take about three months to get to completion, assuming there are no disastrophies.

Good luck!

 MG 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Sounds like you'll have no problem selling but do consider that a good EA may well get you £5k+ more and smooth the way, which would offset any additional cost. Or they may not, but don't dismiss the idea out of hand I would say.

OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to freeflyer:

My parents sold easily with online tools. But that was a few years ago and mum wasn't as involved in the process so she doesn't remember the ins and outs of valuations etc. 

I would be amazed if it doesn't sell easily, just need to make sure we set a fair price. 

There is very little comparable for sale around us just now. Nothing at all in the bit of the estate we live in, which is why it is hard to guess. 

In Scotland, sounds like things taking a couple of months to complete here. 

3
 OCDClimber 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

You can always get the valuations from Estate Agents and then see how it goes selling yourself. I negotiated the fees down to 0.85%

 nathan79 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

As far as my experience goes having bought this year, having spent endless hours sifting through home report after home report, properties tended to be listed by agents at offers over 5 or 10k below the home report value. And that HR value takes into account the property and the current local market rather than just the house itself. 

Then it was just a case of how much over that figure they went. (Approx 5% over HR value on average when we're started viewing in April 2021 and I think up to 8% when we finally snagged one in June, we missed out on some that went 18-20% over).

Based on looking/buying SW Edinburgh/Midlothian 

 Fiona Reid 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

The surveyor does the valuation based on their experience, market knowledge and what similar properties in the area recently sold for.

It's the surveyors valuation that folks needing mortgages to purchase will use. Cash buyers don't care, for them it's what they are prepared to offer.

We sold during lockdown 2 in Scotland. That was smoothest house sell and buy ever, we'd no time wasters or nosey folks wanting a look round due to being bored on Sunday afternoon. Our agent vetted everyone, checking they were in a position to buy before viewing and one afternoon and 3 viewings saw us with an offer we liked. 

We approached 3 agents for valuation and selling costs.  The selling costs were very similar, the valuations ranged by 55K. The surveyor valued the place at the upper end of the range but still 10K under what one agent suggested. The surveyor was arranged via the agent we decided to use.  

Might be worth finding out how the online companies choose a surveyor etc? 

Post edited at 09:27
In reply to girlymonkey:

ours has gone on at twice what we bought it for eight years ago. The online calculators don’t take a lot of factors into account so tend to undervalue

OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to nathan79:

Thanks, that's helpful 

OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to PaulW:

> Really really work hard at the presentation. Ruthlessly declutter. Tidy the garden as best you can. Going round with a pot of paint. Get a friend or neighbour to walk round with you and point out things you don't notice with living there. We went for new carpets. Wasn't that expensive and made the whole place look so much more appealing. And then do some more decluttering.

Yes, this is the current game! Having had refugees living with us until last weekend, there is a lot to do! We also have to convert our kit store/ drying room back into a bedroom. This means we have to find space elsewhere for our extensive collection of outdoor kit! 

Thankfully, the garden isn't my problem! My husband is a landscape gardener (and moving for an assistant head gardener post), so he is sorting that. 

> Good luck. Xmas/New Year can be a good time to market a property if you can get it ready by then. You just have to make yours more appealing than the others out there.

Hoping to have it ready by mid December, as that's when my husband starts the new job so I will be left on my own juggling the dogs and work. So we really need it either on the market or ready to go by then

 PaulJepson 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

I'm proper tight but my experience with selling (and buying also), is that its unfortunately worth it to have a real estate agent (if you pick a good one). 

 sophieER 20 Nov 2022

I don't think it makes sense to go to three agents to form a price. It is enough to go to an agency with a good reputation.

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OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to Fraser:

> No, you might have your Asking Price but you don't know your selling price till it's sold!

Ok, fair point!

> Are you advertising as Offers Over or a Fixed Price?

Probably go with offers over. There are currently no other houses at all in our bit of the estate for sale, so I hope we will get a fair bit of interest and it will sell fast 🤞

OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to PaulJepson:

Why? 

The online ones do photos and floor plans. I want to do the viewings myself. I bought this one without an agent so know how to do the stuff with solicitor etc. 

I don't see any need to spend thousands (which just bumps up the prices of homes as it needs to be recouped somewhere!), when I can get it for a fraction of the price and know exactly what I am paying upfront.

5
 Clwyd Chris 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

If you do use one of the on line agents like 2 of my neighbors have recently done, then the feedback I got from both was under no circumstances use their recommended preferred solicitors, they were based 175 miles away, impossible to deal with and obviously had no clue about the local area. Apparently they offer some financial incentive to use them, but avoid like the plague.

OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to Clwyd Chris:

No, we will use the solicitor we used to buy it. 

 PaulJepson 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

They will probably sell the house for a bigger margin than the cost you'll save using an online company. Once the sale had been agreed, mine were invaluable in keeping things moving and stopping things falling through.

It all depends on the cost of your house probably, and the demand in the area. Real estate agents cost me 2k more but I ended up with a really good one and reckon I got at least 10k more for the flat because of it.

Some friends who have sold through online agents have had pretty poor experiences but the same can be said about some highstreet estate agents.

 Keith C 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

If your mum wasn't living in the house and so it was potentially liable for capital gains tax you could ask her if she had a valuation done when she sold it to you. I've only sold a house once and didn't regret using a good estate agents. With competing bidders I think they did a better job than I would have done of getting the best offers out of people. It's also stressful selling a house and they did a good job of moving the process along - they are keen to do this as they want their fee asap!

 JCurrie 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

The selling process in Scotland is different to that in England and so many of the posts here are not totalling transferable to you.

in short, look to the bigger solicitor/estate agents in your area and work with the one that friends recommend. They will guide you.

 Rob Parsons 20 Nov 2022
In reply to PaulJepson:

> I'm proper tight but my experience with selling (and buying also), is that its unfortunately worth it to have a real estate agent (if you pick a good one). 

In Scotland, the solicitors are the real estate agents.

OP girlymonkey 20 Nov 2022
In reply to Keith C:

We had to get it done for the home report, but didn't obviously have to think about what asking price to set. 

It sounds like we are as well just getting the home report valuation and going with that as it seems to be the one which matters.

I don't like the idea that estate agents push for higher prices. Obviously, we want lots of money for it, and if that comes through an "honest" bidding war, that's fine. That is market forces. If an agent aggressively tries to get higher prices, it just pushes prices up across the market and it's bad for everyone. The rate of price inflation is ridiculous and not be encouraged. 

3
In reply to girlymonkey:

I sold my last house 6 years ago with Purple Bricks. It all went very well - like you I wanted to do my own viewings and their online booking system is great. One word of caution - they want your house to sell quickly! I found myself negotiating to put it on at a higher price, I then wanted it as ‘offers over’ that price, was told that it wouldn’t sell but it did, at a bit over the asking price. 
 

Good luck with your sale and your move .

 gld73 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

I'm in Scotland too, just going through this process. First time I've sold a house in Scotland, my previous ones were all in England where the house buying / selling processes are a bit different (e.g. estate agents giving their opinions of the valuation there, the surveyor doing the Home Report giving the valuation here).

Traditionally in Scotland the solicitors are also the estate agents, but as you'll know, that's not the hard rule now. I'm going with a local estate agent (rather than an estate agent solicitor) to sell my house, they'll be listing it next week once it's decluttered enough for photos! If I'd been flexible enough to do viewings myself I'd probably have gone with an online one to keep the costs down further, but my job makes it difficult, hence paying for a package which includes the estate agent doing the viewings. 

Most of the estate agents have links to the surveyors they use for the compulsory Home Report (including the EPC), but it's not compulsory to use the estate agent recommended one. I got some quotes myself from the surveyors and arranged it separately. The surveyor came round in the last few days and the draft report was sent to me the next day. I'm happy it's accurate and that's where the 'formal' valuation is. It's pretty standard that when properties are listed for sale in Scotland it's "Offers over (the HR valuation)" .... I found that frustrating when buying in Scotland as I was so used to the English fixed price system (and sometimes offering a bit under). Took me a while to buy here as I was so reluctant to go much over the HR valuation!

Again, it's not compulsory to use the surveyor-determined Home Report valuation as the basis for the asking price, but it would be unusual. (And the price you paid for it will have no bearing on their valuation as they look at what similar houses have been selling for and their relative condition, they're not just using an algorithm of % rise since you bought it).

Solicitor/conveyancer-wise, I'm using one in Glasgow rather than a local one, just because their quote was a couple of hundred pounds cheaper and there shouldn't be anything complicated that I'd need to see them face to face about. Pretty much everything has been done by email for the one I'm currently purchasing, so I'm assuming it'll be the same for selling. 

Good luck with it all anyway

Post edited at 12:58
 Dax H 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

If I remember right your in Stirling? A pall of mine last year sold his house in Larbert and moved to Falkirk, both the sale and the purchase were done via auction, allegey sealed bids but the estate agent seemed to know exactly how much to bid to secure it.

20% above asking price was the number, he lost out on a few places because he wouldn't go more than 10% above they lost 1 at 15%. I spspect most of this was driven by the estate agent.

They are bloody parasites, when we moved they kept pushing us to take higher offers even though we had agreed a price with someone who had subsequently spent good money on surveys and legal fees. 

 MG 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

> Why? 

Good ones will do due diligence on buyers to avoid timewasters, be better able to suggest an offers over price, have potential viewers on hand, be able to negotiate prices up with clients better than you etc. Bad ones won't of course 

Online EAs don't really do any of this but offer a more minimal service. Having dealt with them as a buyer and also professionally, I'd say they will be fine if everything goes smoothly but they won't add value or be able to deal with any problems.

 Keith C 20 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

I agree with your view on house prices but a good estate agent won't be aggressive and won't be dishonest. They will facilitate the honest bidding process you want and they will market the property in the best way possible. I'm sure lots of people have good experiences with online agents but I'm a little sceptical. Some of the properties you see online with these companies look really poorly marketed. It will be interesting to hear how you get on with an online one if you go for that. Best of luck.

 Mike-W-99 20 Nov 2022
In reply to gld73:

> It's pretty standard that when properties are listed for sale in Scotland it's "Offers over (the HR valuation)" .... I found that frustrating when buying in Scotland as I was so used to the English fixed price system (and sometimes offering a bit under). Took me a while to buy here as I was so reluctant to go much over the HR valuation!

Not everywhere in Scotland. I've bought and sold in Edinburgh and it tended to be offers over a little under the valuation. In the highlands though it seems to be OO the HR valuation.

 e.ms355 21 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

When buying our house, we put a bid in (which was accepted) for a house that was being sold through one of those online agencies. There was an agent that held open houses so it wasn't completely online.

However, we ended up getting gazumped, which i realise isn't unheard of, but the agent told us that particular agency prices the houses low on purpose to create a bidding war.. which in the end got the house owner about £30k over listing price but left a pretty bad taste in our mouths, as buyers and put us off buying through them in the future but also, in hindsight i think the householders could probably have had their house valued at a much higher price originally and possibly got even more from a regular agency.

 Toerag 21 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

> I would be amazed if it doesn't sell easily, just need to make sure we set a fair price. 

Just look at what other places in the vicinity are being advertised and sold for and base your price on that.  All n-bed houses are roughly the same value give or take things like views, school catchment, proximity to a station etc. OK, things are tricky because the market is cooling so quickly due to Mr.average not being able to afford mortgages now.  If your house would be attractive to a BTL investor it will have retained its value better - BTL investors can generally afford the highest prices.

Don't forget, you're selling in what is effectively a Dutch auction - you put it on at a high price and that price drops until someone bites.  If you want absolute best price do that, if you want a quick sale, price lower to increase the pool of buyers and subsequent competition.

For what it's worth, I was in a similar situation to you of a cooling market in the autumn after our first lockdown. Prices had gone crazy earlier in the year, but then in the autumn things were looking better and vaccines were imminent, thus people weren't in so much of a panic to buy.  One agent valued at 675, 3 others reckoned market anywhere between 595&620 and expect to sell at 595. The first agent is a twerp, so we used the one we liked best out of the others but put it on at 645 to see if there were any fools around - there weren't, so we dropped it to 620 after a week or so and sold at 595.

If properties in your area have been going for crazy prices and are deemed over-valued, then watch out for surveys saying it's not worth what you're asking and deals falling through because of that.

Post edited at 15:31
 robhorton 21 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

The land registry data (either direct or via Zoopla etc) will give an idea of what similar houses sold for, the trouble is it takes a while for the data to update so the latest prices on there can easily be 6 months old from acceptance. You can also look at what's currently on the market, and what has sold recently, although you won't get to find out what it actually sold for for a while.

I think the most useful thing though is to get a few agents - get a mix of online and traditional - round to have a look and give their opinion. It's not just a case of getting a single value but having an idea of what you can realistically get and how best to price it.

What worked for us is having a good de-clutter/clean over Christmas then marketing it in January, competitively priced. That may not be the best advice for your area/situation though.

For us the £5k or so for a traditional estate agent was worth it; they certainly earned their money post-sale holding everything together and it's nice that you don't have to pay anything until completion. Your circumstances will be different but I wouldn't rule them out entirely.

1
 Richard Horn 21 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Whilst it doesnt hurt to make a property presentable, I wouldnt bother actually spending any money papering over cracks in your house, save it for improvements on your new place. When you are buying a house rooms fall into one of two categories, liveable in until you redecorate it the way you want it, or unliveable so it needs decorating immediately... Internal decoration / tidyness has almost no impact on value.

Also I have heard horror stories about the likes of Purple Bricks, you basically are just paying for advertising space, with no proper backup. House selling can be a drawn out and stressful experience and you will want someone (a real agent) working for you to get it done. Use a proper local solicitor as well (get a recommendation).

 Pedro50 21 Nov 2022
In reply to Richard Horn:

We used Purple Bricks to sell our late mother's house. The local agent was excellent and understood the local market, couldn't fault the process. 

In reply to Richard Horn:

We are just selling our house which has offers over asking price and are now waiting for the bidding to stop. Every feedback we’ve had through the estate agent has mentioned the good decorative state of the house and that they can just move in without having to do anything for the foreseeable future. It significantly impacts the price by drawing more people in to the bidding phase.

 neilh 22 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Its a tough decision on selling a house as to what to do especially the first time you go through the process. I always remember the advise of a solicitor...if you are buying/selling something of high value its worth spending the £'s on getting it right.

A four bed bedroom house with two bathrooms is going to get a good price and be attractive to sell. So ignore the online tools and speak to 3 local estate agents/solicitors. Have a look at their websites and figure out which of the online national sites they use to advertise their properties.Talk through with them what you want to achieve and their view of the best way of doing it.Including advice on decorating etc.

What you want to find is the person who has worked in the area for a reasonable time and knows and undertands the local market, and the only way you will find that out is by getting estate agents in.

So pick up the phone and make those appointments!

Post edited at 09:31
OP girlymonkey 22 Nov 2022
In reply to neilh:

Nope. They are a bunch of torags who try to inflate the market for their own benefit. This makes the housing market WAY too expensive for everyone and it's bad for us all. I am happy with a high price if it's market forces, and people want to bid high prices, I am not happy with estate agents trying to manipulate to make it more expensive than it should be. 

Of course we want a good price for it, but we want a fair price. 

Us paying the thousands adds to our costs, which adds to prices too as we then need to get more for it to cover that. 

7
 MG 22 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

> Nope. They are a bunch of torags who try to inflate the market for their own benefit. This makes the housing market WAY too expensive for everyone and it's bad for us all.

I don't think house prices are significantly affected by EAs behaviour.  Some EAs are indeed toerags but they can't significantly manipulate the market, only what they get paid.  You seem to have decided that online EAs are somehow preferable and less toerag-esque, which is fine if you think so, but if so I am puzzled why you asked for advice on this thread? 

Also, if you can afford to sell below the best price you can get, there is nothing stopping you!

Post edited at 11:33
 neilh 22 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Its the market which dictates the price, not estate agents-- all they do is respond.

A good experienced estate agent who knows the market is worth their weight in gold.Like anything you get what you pay for.

Its not thousands-- its a few thousand.- and there is always a cost in selling.

But if you are just going to ignore them from Day 1 and not at least speak to them then there is no point in rasiing the subject.I would suggets you might be better burying your views until you have at least heard what they have to say.You might be surprised.

Post edited at 11:34
2
 neilh 22 Nov 2022
In reply to MG:

I too was a bit surprised...!

 Keith C 22 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

With agents probably getting around 1% commission on the sale price I'd suggest they are not the ones getting most benefit from an 'unfair' sale price. I am interested how you define a fair and an unfair price. If you have a good bid significantly higher than others would you go back to them and say you would be happy to accept an offer just above the second highest bidder?

 LastBoyScout 22 Nov 2022
In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

> Get loads of them round to value it and follow your nose. Don't feel bad about wasting their time. Throughout the selling process remember never to feel sorry for an estate agent.

I had an estate agent once tell me he would do his utmost to get me the best price for my flat and then, in more or less the same breath, ask me what the lowest I'd accept for it was!

OP girlymonkey 22 Nov 2022
In reply to MG:

The advice I was asking for was to work out the process for the valuations, like which ones matter most. 

It sounds like the difference in systems between England and Scotland are far more significant than I realised, and so much of the advice actually doesn't apply. 

What I have gathered, is that the valuation for the Home report is the key one, so I probably don't need to deal with EA at all. Just a very basic online tool which gets me onto Rightmove and Zoopla. I have found one which seems to do all of that for £500, so that should do fine. We have our solicitor from when we bought it, so we know they will deal fine with all the legal work. 

You say that EA don't affect the price, and yet the main reason people seem to be suggesting for using them is that they gave push your selling price up significantly!! 

 MG 22 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

> The advice I was asking for was to work out the process for the valuations, like which ones matter most. 

Fair enough

> It sounds like the difference in systems between England and Scotland are far more significant than I realised, and so much of the advice actually doesn't apply. 

That's correct

> You say that EA don't affect the price, and yet the main reason people seem to be suggesting for using them is that they gave push your selling price up significantly!! 

Getting you individually the best price -  sure, that's their job.  Making prices rise overall?  I doubt they have significant effect, any more say than car sales staff affect the prices of cars overall.

OP girlymonkey 22 Nov 2022
In reply to MG:

>   I doubt they have significant effect, any more say than car sales staff affect the prices of cars overall.

I try to avoid car sales people too!! First port of call for cars is Gumtree and Facebook!

1
 neilh 22 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

Try thinking of it as a route to market your property and forget about your personal feelings on the subject. EA are either mediocre or very good and you want the latter. Ignoring that option may not produce the best price to help you move and that maybe the best way of thinking about it. 

 JCurrie 22 Nov 2022
In reply to girlymonkey:

You need to be careful with your sale. Whilst I appreciate your concern about inflated prices you need to take your next home into account. Your sale will fund that new house and so getting the best price for your current property is important. The market will decide this, not an EA, and people will only bid what they can afford. (I think you’ve said before that you live in a place that doesn’t have the same heat as, say Edinburgh.) There is no point in putting yourself several thousand pounds out of pocket.

Many areas have a Solicitors’ Property Centre which will be the ‘go to’ place for buyers searching for a home. Is your solicitor a part of the one in your area? How much does it cost to advertise your property in it?


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