Q. I plan to sell my house in the next couple of months, and recently had 4 local agents in to give me a current market appraisal. However, I was surprised to find that there was such a huge variation in their valuations. It’s left me feeling confused as to what my property is really worth and whose valuation to run with, what shall I do?
A. To be perfectly honest this does not surprise me at all, as I continuously hear this story as I go from valuation to valuation. Although I must quickly add that it should not be happening! Experienced agents with good local knowledge of both the area and the current market climate should all come in at virtually the same price give or take around £10,000. Unfortunately, you will find some agents over valuing just to win the instruction or simply because they do not know the area well enough to execute a correct valuation. The best advise I can give you is check up yourself what has recently sold, in your road/development with the aid of the many websites that are now freely available, this will give you a good idea of what the property is actually worth, as these will be accurate land registry figures. Also, ask the agent to back up their valuation with comparables they have recently sold.