With a myriad of websites offering to value your home, at just the click of a button, some people are surprised when they receive a market valuation from an agent as these can sometimes be quite different.

There’s also a difference between valuing your home for sale and a valuation that might be being used for other purposes, especially where there is land, and further buildings involved. A valuation of this kind is a formal review of your property. This is nearly always a paid service as it is very in-depth and typically carried out for lending, inheritance, or capital gains tax purposes.

People coming to us as local experienced agents are primarily using our expertise in order to get a realistic idea of what their property is worth before considering putting it on the market, and for these purposes a market appraisal is perfect. These should always be undertaken by an experienced Estate Agent who can combine expertise and local market knowledge to help you achieve a sale on your property for the best possible price.

Reports have shown that people often overvalue their own homes sometimes by up to 23% - there can be a number of reasons why, one is that improvements made to the property may have been costly however these may not have had such a large impact on the overall value of the home, as owners might have hoped for. There is also the influence that websites, that work on averages for postcodes and house types, can lead to variations once a property is valued.

It can be tempting to get drawn into choosing an Agent based on receiving the highest valuation alone, and everyone wants to achieve the best price they can when selling their home and moving.  An over-ambitious valuation can however deter buyers from viewing the property and impacts the length of the sales process, and the irony is, it  almost always results in a lower selling price.  None of these help make for a good experience when selling your home.

Getting an Agent that understands changes in the local area, such as new schools, transport links, or shops is important as these all have an effect on house prices too. They should also be aware of more general trends such home working leading to an increase in demand for properties with office space and also gardens and outdoor space becoming so much more important to people. Just look at the number of people who have moved to the countryside searching for bigger houses!

We have experienced, locally, a huge demand for family homes, especially from families who are no longer tied to towns or villages with train links as working from the office 5 days a week is not the norm for many now. These factors have all pushed up prices in the country house market.

An agent's appraisal and subsequent valuation includes other important factors, such as location (always key!), the size of the property, the level and standard of decoration, any unique features (high ceilings, original features, or in new homes energy efficient design etc) and the potential for adding value: such as a new extension, loft or bathroom.

If you’ve started to consider what your home is worth and have perhaps popped your details into a property search website why not consider having a discussion with one of our team, who are happy to offer a free no obligation valuation that brings to it all of the expertise and local knowledge required to provide you with the most accurate current valuation of your home.

Contact us today on 01483 268 555.