What Is Your Home Really Worth? The Honest Answer
When you invite an estate agent to value your home, you want a clear answer. You may already have a figure in mind, particularly if your next move depends on achieving it.
A good local estate agent should arrive with research, comparable sales and a clear understanding of the current market. But there is something every seller should know:
No estate agent can tell you with certainty what your home will sell for before buyers have seen it. We would rather be honest about that from the beginning than make a promise we may not be able to keep.
An agent can give you an informed opinion. They can recommend a Guide Price and explain the evidence behind it. What they cannot do is guarantee what the best buyer will be prepared to pay.
The price suggested during a valuation does not add a single pound to the value of your home. What matters is what the agent does next.
Confidence is not the same as accuracy
It is common for different estate agents to suggest different prices for the same property.
One agent may recommend a sensible price range supported by comparable evidence. Another may confidently suggest a noticeably higher figure.
The higher valuation will naturally sound more appealing, but it is still only an opinion. It does not mean that agent will achieve the better result.
Any agent can suggest an ambitious figure in your living room. The true test begins when your property reaches the market and buyers decide how it compares with everything else available to them.
This is why choosing an estate agent based only on the highest valuation can be a mistake.
The best agent is not necessarily the one who suggests the highest price. It is the one with the strongest process for helping you achieve it.
We believe in a range, not a guess
Property valuation is not an exact science. Every home is different, and the number of suitable buyers can change from one month to the next.
We believe it is more honest to establish a sensible value range using comparable sales, current competition, local demand and the individual qualities of your home.
That range is the starting point for a proper conversation.
We will ask what you hope to achieve, what your plans are and whether your move depends on reaching a particular figure. We will also want to understand your timescale and how open you are to testing the market.
We will not automatically dismiss a figure simply because it sits above the available evidence. Equally, we will not agree with it simply to win your instruction.
Instead, we will discuss the opportunity, explain the risks and agree on the strongest launch strategy together.
The Guide Price is a strategy, not a promise
There is an important difference between an agent’s opinion of value and the price at which a property should be launched.
The right guide price should create interest, encourage viewings and put you in the strongest possible negotiating position.
In some circumstances, it may be sensible to test the upper end of a range. There may also be occasions when a seller wishes to try a more ambitious price.
That can form part of a considered strategy, provided everyone understands what the current evidence suggests and agrees when the response will be reviewed.
What matters is that the guide price has a purpose. It should not simply be the highest figure suggested by the agents competing for your business.
Buyers provide the evidence that matters most
Once your property is launched, we receive information that no agent had during the original valuation.
Enquiries, viewing requests, feedback, second viewings and offers show us how genuine buyers see your home.
Strong interest may confirm the strategy or reveal that buyers see even greater value. Several interested parties can create competition and strengthen your negotiating position.
If the response is limited, that is useful evidence too. It allows us to review the price, presentation or marketing before valuable time is lost.
No viewings is feedback. Several interested buyers is feedback. An offer is feedback.
The market’s response, good or bad, tells us far more than any confident prediction made before the property was launched.
A good agent does not ignore that evidence. They interpret it, explain it clearly and use it to help you make the right decisions.
Choose the process, not the promise
The eventual selling price will not be decided by the agent who gave the most impressive valuation.
It will be influenced by how well your home is presented, how effectively it is marketed, how many suitable buyers are reached, how the response is managed and how strongly your agent negotiates when interest is created.
When choosing an estate agent, ask more than, “What price do you think I can get?”
Ask:
How have you reached that opinion?
How will you make my property stand out?
How will you create interest and competition?
How will you respond if the market tells us something different?
How will you negotiate the strongest possible result for me?
The answers to those questions will tell you far more than the valuation figure alone.
Our approach at The Mather Partnership
We want you to choose us because you trust our judgement, our marketing and our process, not because we made the biggest promise.
We will arrive with evidence and an informed view of your property’s likely value. We will listen to what you want to achieve and agree on a strategy that reflects both your ambitions and the current market.
We will present your property properly, expose it to the widest suitable audience and work to create the interest that puts you in the strongest possible position.
Once your home is on the market, we will continue to assess the response and give you clear, honest advice. If the evidence supports the strategy, we will say so. If it suggests that something needs to change, we will explain that too.
We will never pretend to know something that nobody can know. But we will use our experience, marketing, communication and negotiation to give you the best possible opportunity of achieving the strongest price.
Our job is not simply to talk about the highest price. Our job is to help you achieve it.
The Mather Partnership
Helston and Hayle
Local. Independent. Trusted.