Will you tell me what the estate agents valued my home at?

We share the full valuation with you

Yes, we're happy to share the reports we receive. It's also important to share our assessment of the reports as well though.

This is because we consider some valuations to be a higher or lower quality than others - so they'll have more or less of a bearing on our eventual offer.

Why might we take more or less notice of a particular valuation? 

Not all valuations are equal. The estate agents we use are all busy, they're back-to-back with appointments, and this can lead to problems. For example, sometimes a report needs to be rushed to get it out in time so things may be missed, or sometimes a lot of time's been spent on the valuation but a couple of critical things have been overlooked.

Once we receive the reports we spend a lot of time assessing them so we can formulate our offer. During this process we may decide to take more or less notice of a certain valuation - which can mean our offer goes higher or lower.

So what specifically may affect our assessment of a valuation, and how much weight we give it?

Examples

A valuation may be up-weighted or down-weighted in our final assessment for a number of reasons.

First of all, it's not about trying to make the valuation lower. It's important for our business that we value property accurately, and that we do not undervalue your home. (If we do, we end up worse-off in the long run)

So why might a valuation be down-weighted? 

• Less relevant comparables - Sometimes an agent will justify a valuation by using similar properties that are several streets away, or using properties on the same street that are not similar at all (perhaps 2-beds instead of 4-beds, or terraces instead of bungalows). If there are similar properties on the same street these will usually give a better indication of value - and sometimes they're missed.
• Missing important comparables - sometimes an agent may list a number of fairly similar properties nearby that each sold around £140,000-£150,000, and use that to justify a valuation of £145,000. But they may have missed that two very similar houses on the same street sold for £160,000 in the last few months! (This would mean the value would likely be higher than the figure they came up with)
• Missing the marketing history - sometimes an agent will research comparable sales and put a valuation of, say, £100,000 on a property. But they might have missed that the property has been on the market for 4 months at £95,000 and hasn't sold! If a property hasn't sold it £95,000 in 4 months, it can't be worth £100,000.
• Using unsold comparables - sometimes an agent will look at property that is on the market for £200,000 (for example), and use that to say that the subject property is also worth £200,000. However, that property could have been on the market for several months and not sold. Maybe the best offerit had while it was on the market was £180,000. Using unsold properties as comparables can often result in a misleading valuation.
• Underestimating or overestimating repairs - sometimes an agent may visit a property and think it needs around £5,000 of work doing, and base their valuation on that. On a closer inspection though, it may need much much more (or much less) doing. This would affect the valuation we'd eventually reach.

There's no doubt that valuing properties is complicated and inaccuracies can easily emerge. Estate agents do a fantastic job in general. But ultimately, this is why we do a lot of our own research as well, and instruct two local estate agents to complete a valuation for us, rather than just asking one agent to do a valuation and making our offer based on that.

Will this make your offer higher or lower? 

It can go either way. If an agent has over-estimated the cost of repairs needed, or if they've missed comparable sales that sold for a much higher price, we may end up being able to offer more for your home by paying less attention to one of the valuations. It can go either way.

The important part to know is that we're trying our best to establish the true value of your property: We don't want to undervalue it, or overvalue it.

And at the end of the process we can share the valuations with you, and will always share our assessment of the valuations too - along with other bits of evidence we've found.

Read more

• How we value your home (the full guide)
• ‍How much do we offer? (with examples)
• Sell your house fast (why choose a sale to Yes Homebuyers)

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