Estate Agent House Valuation

CarrickD

Hi All, I've had my house valued by an estate agent and it's less than I thoughth it would be. Would it benefit an estate agent to put a house on the market for less than what it's actually worth?

SuzyS1972

No it wouldn't
Is it just your wishful thinking it was worth more or are you comparing it to sales that have completed on your street

Get a 2nd opinion if you are unsure
Valuations are free

sapper

I would say that estate agents all over the country are trying to keep vendor expectations realistic/low. If the vendor agrees to put it on at what might be an attractive price for potential buyers, chances are the house will sell quicker and might even exceed expectations.

Definitely get at least three quotes, but don't be one of these eejits who won't sell a house for a penny less than 10,000 more that what the "house down the road" sold for last April. Your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, not what you want to sell it for

CarrickD

Thanks 4 the replies guys, Yea I suppose it is wishful thinking, naturally, although I have monitored what other houses in the estate have gone for and it is indeed less than these. thanks again 4 the advice

miju

and bear in mind that the market is slowing so holding out for an extra few grand in the price could end up hurting your pocket in the longer term

Sponge Bob

You set the price low enough to get a few or a good few viewings and some of the viewers then bid against each other . If you get no viewings you will equally get no bidders.

Zambia

Aye Sponge Bob is right When someone looks at a house they tend to factor in the bargaining bids that will push it up. Hence you should keep the opening price realistic and let it go up.

Estate agents are at present trying to get people to enter the market a little lower as they dont want to scare anyone off. Look at the prices on myhome.ie for your road and anywhere near that is fine.

By the way I once had a property valued and after two days of bleach a wee bit of paint and elbow grease. Not to mention a major clear out the house was valued 10 grand higher by the same agent.

Best of luck

By the way if this is your house and you dont have to move dont ,

The_Conductor

I think your estate agent is simply being prudent.
The biggest sticking points when determining prices are the cut-off points for the various stamp duty levels. These are even more important than they used to be. So a 2 bed apartment that made 335k in Lucan village in Feb of last year is now listed in a local estate agent at 315 (with a suggestion that you offer a further 10k to the seller for contents).

The tide has turned, and what was a sellers market is now a buyers market. There is a suggestion that if you put it on the market low and get a few people interested that they will bid against each other and push up the price to what you really "want" rather than your guideprice. Unfortunately there is an abundance of property now available- particularly second-hand property, and if you try to do this people may simply move on elsewhere.

In short- if you want to sell, put a reasonable price on the property that will attract a bidder and don't mess them around the place. If you do not need to sell- then you are most probably better off staying put.

The current economic thinking vis-a-vis a soft landing for the property market is that house prices, if they do increase, will be average below the rate of inflation for the next 5 years or so. Then again you have the govenor of the central bank stating that the inherent value of a house in Dublin is 120k and outside Dublin 100k.

Who knows. It used be a case of buyer beware- now the shoe may very well be on the other foot- and the seller should beware?

dochasach

With Ireland's current (lack of) anti-shilling, anti-guzumping laws, there is incentive for sellers to price property at a level which will attract the most bidders. AFAIK sellers aren't required to accept bids here. If a plastic toy is listed on EBAY with no reserve and a minimum bid of 1 Euro the seller MUST sell it to the highest bidder even if the bid is only 1 Euro, yet with Irish property valued at 1/3 million Euro or more, the seller is under no such obligation. Does anyone else think this is insane?

Until Ireland has reasonable and fair property laws (possibly after next election?), smart would-be buyers have incentive to wait, especially now that property prices seem to be stagnating or decreasing. Price your property at whatever level you like but if I were you I wouldn't assume it will always be a seller's market.

Caveat emptor

SuzyS1972

This is interesting - the tide seems to have turned alright
I worked for estate agents in the UK part time years ago and the house would always be put on the market for say 99K and then let people bid on it. You could end up fetching 120K but if you advertised it for that then a lot of people would be put off.
I think this is a better system as if you saw the highest price expected advertised then you wouldn't view as you'd be thinking if it went above that then you would be outpriced.

It does seem to be a buyers market at the mo - I have 2 friends with lovely homes for sale for months and months now and can't seem to shift them.

In my opinion it's about time it peaked and ebbed off - the whole thing was getting hysterical at one stage.

Being cynical I often wonder if upcoming elections and the media have anything to do with it.
Hyping up our super economy before the last election seems to have pushed up prices 4 years ago but now people are pissed off at not being able to afford a home the politicians are urging prudency and the media are predicting a slump

miju

SuzyS1972 wrote:

Hyping up our super economy before the last election seems to have pushed up prices 4 years ago but now people are pissed off at not being able to afford a home the politicians are urging prudency and the media are predicting a slump

i believe that would be stage five leading into stage six of the famous article by a renowned economist on the seven stages of an asset bubble

Lex Luthor

I recently had my place on the market and tried selling it myself for the first 2 months at €230k. One serious tyre kicker but in a chain and waiting on their house to sign contracts before making a bid on mine.
Eventually ran out of time to be able to show it myself, so got 2 evaluations.
First agent said 240k and 2nd agent said anywhere between 245-254k.
Went with 1st agent. Went sale agreed within 2 weeks yesterday for 238k.

There is an apt in the same estate, with same amount of bedrooms also valued at 240k which has been on market for months. Mine is a 2bed mid terrace with garden and 3 bathrooms. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes not