Tips For Valuing Your Home

01 Jun 2008

We’re a nation fixated with money and greed, and what better way to calculate our wealth than tallying up the value of our most valued asset- our homes? Whether you want to value your home for personal pleasure or for the prospect of selling your home, the best way to find an accurate answer is by monitoring the activity of your local market.

National house price statistics can actually vary drastically. There are several indices that measure house prices, and they don’t always tend to agree with one another, as they have different ways of gathering their data. For example, in April, Rightmove reported that average house prices were £239,521, while Nationwide claimed the average was £178,555. That’s a 60k difference. The Halifax index is represented by statistics based on the mortgages they approve, while Rightmove’s index is based on properties listed on their house. Two very different methods, two different results.

Here are some tips on how to get an accurate valuation of your home (forget the national indices, they’re garbage on a local scale)

Multile Estate Agents

Don’t limit yourself to your most convienient estate agency- get quotes from several of your local estate agents. The average value will be the most accurate.

Rightmove/Findaproperty

Rightmove and Findaproperty are the biggest two property classified websites for UK property. Utilise their data by finding out what other people in your local area are marketing their properties for. That should give you a good idea of what vendors are expecting.

Ourproperty/Upmystreet

The beauty about Ourproperty and UpMyStreet is that they store recent sale prices of property in your area. Websites like Rightmove only show you what the properties are being marketed for, and not necessarily what the properties sold for. Properties rarely sell for the initial asking price. Ourproperty and UpMyStreet can tell you exactly how much properties sold for in your local area.

Both websites actually gathers their data from the Land Registry, so it’s pretty reliable and accurate stuff.

Once you’ve got the golden figure- time to get real

No matter which method you use to get your estimate valuation price, it’s important to remain realistic. Ultimately, properties are only worth as much as what people are willing to pay. The odds are, the majority of people won’t value your property at the same price as your valuation tag says. Whatever quotation your price tag has, subtract about 5% from it- that’s your golden figure. Keep it real. Anything that you get offered above your golden figure is a juicy bonus.

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