When selling property, you are most likely to find yourself agonizing over the price that you should put it on the market for. This is because you may not have adequate expert information on the property market trends to be able to determine the market price of your property.
As a result, you may end up putting the value too high consequently making it difficult to sell property or too low so that you end up getting far much less than you should.
Thus, you need to consider engaging estate agents to do a valuation of your property and suggest a probable selling price. Even then, you need to keep in mind that while estate agents will do property valuation for you, they are not mandated by law to do it.
As such, if you need to access financing from financial institutions then you may have to consider engaging a professional surveyor.
Determining the Value of your Property
Determining the value of your property is one of the biggest financial decisions that you will make. Therefore, you need to begin with the understanding that you need to prepare your property to make it appealing to buyers.
You can then adopt a two-stage approach. That is, you first determine a good estimate for the likely price that the house may achieve. Secondly, come up with a selling strategy.
Keep in mind that factors like the duration within which the property needs to be sold will also contribute to the price you put out on the market.
Here are some top property valuation tips to help you determine the value of your property:
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Do not solely depend on valuations by other people – Although the probability of wanting to rely on the valuations from your estate agents or mortgage lenders can be high, you will do well not to depend on them.
Keep in mind that they have a different agenda from yours therefore, their valuation may be skewed. Besides, other factors can result in a valuation that is not reliable. These include the fact that the estate agent or mortgage valuer may opt to rely on house sale statistics from other sources such as the Land Registry hence end up with a poorly informed insight into the property market.
Estate agents may also suggest a high value for your property in order to get you to do business with them. On the other hand, mortgage valuers could give low valuations with the interests of the mortgage lender in mind. Consequently, it is not surprising to find a difference of as much as 20% between the valuation from your estate agent and the mortgage valuer.
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Carry out an independent Research – According to one quick house buying expert David Sessford:- “You will do well to turn yourself into an expert by looking for as much information as you can on the property market. Consequently, you will do well to establish the sold price and the market price for property that is similar to yours.”
There are a number of websites that you can use to establish how much property in your area is selling for. You can look up for comparative information online while paying attention to the prices for which the properties were sold.
In particular, pay attention to the asking prices as well as the trends in the local house prices and the dynamics of the market that inform the selling price. For instance, are the prices falling or rising? Is there a sellers or buyers glut and are houses selling for their asking price quickly?
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Keep in mind the negotiation is presumed – Buyers always have the assumption that there is room for negotiation from the asking price. Therefore, you need to factor this in and ask for at least 5 – 10% above what you would like to receive.
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Take into account the stamp duty – When working out the value of your property, do not forget to take the stamp duty into consideration.
Property valuation is a crucial to both property sellers and buyers. Therefore, take time to determine how much your property is worth before putting it up for sale on the property market. This way you can be sure of getting a good return on your investment.
