Making sense of your property valuations before you take the plunge.
As you begin to plan your move, the most obvious starting point is having your home valued. With different price ranges and opinions, how are you supposed to decipher this information to establish the actual value of your home?
Selling a property is not a simple process, and the stress levels can run high. This is exacerbated by the seemingly endless decisions you must make, each with high stakes.
You need to decide on the timing of your launch to the market, the agent you will instruct to sell the property, and the pricing strategy you will adopt. Each element can significantly impact the final sale price you sell the property for. And when that sale is completed, it is no longer just numbers; it is now money. Cold, hard cash. So, it makes sense that these decisions are taken seriously. After all, everyone wants to sell their home for the highest price possible. It affords you so many other options, like releasing some of the equity you've had tied up in your home to pursue other dreams, helping you to buy a more expensive property or perhaps simply reducing the amount of mortgage borrowing on your next home.
By the time you've decided on which agents you will call out to give you a valuation and then sat through the presentations of each agent, the decisions are just getting going, and it can be confusing to know what to do for the best.
Each agent has a different opinion of the market and their ability to sell your home for a specific price. And each agent will most likely have suggested a range of prices. In fact, there are 3 valuations for each property. If you invited three agents around, you now have 9 valuation prices for your home. How are you supposed to know that, when you finally launch your property to the market, you've picked the right strategy from those 9 different figures?
It comes down to how much time you have and how confident you are in the figures offered. The value of your property will be based on evidence from similar properties sold in your area. If the figures suggested by the agent can not be backed up by evidence, they can most likely be discounted, which might reduce your number of valuation figures slightly. But the timescale you need to sell by is entirely decided upon by you, the homeowner. The three figures are:
Quick sale price: The lower the price of your property, the speedier the likely sale will be. If you are in a rush and want to sell quickly, you must be looking to come to the market at the lower end of the property valuation ranges.
Average sale price: The average of all valuations will most likely be as close to the true market value. This will give you a fair price within a reasonable time, but the time taken to sell will very much depend on the market conditions at the time.
Aspirational price: The aspirational price is the top-line figure. This figure clouds the judgement of many homeowners because it is the maximum value your property might achieve. The problem is that this figure may take a little longer because the buyer who loves your home so much that they will pay a higher price is a little harder to find. If you have time and can wait, this price may be possible.
But the issue comes when a homeowner doesn't really have the time, or indeed doesn't want to hang around, but still wants to sell for the most amount of money possible. It's also tricky to decide to sell your home for a lower figure than it could achieve because you want to go quickly. This can feel like you're leaving money on the table.
It is important to remember that the valuation figures are only estimates until the day of completion when the cash is in your account (or, of course, passed over to pay for the property you're buying). To ensure that you sell your home within the timescale that fits your plans, you need to be sensible about the marketing and pricing strategy and ensure that you aren't trying to achieve an aspirational price for your home in a 'bargain price' timescale.
If you have any further questions about the value of your home, get in touch with our team of property experts today.
