Property Valuation: Valuing your House for a Sale

Property valuation determines to a great extent how successful the sale of your house will be. Therefore, you must take it seriously despite the fact that it is time consuming and complex. In short, valuing your property for its property market is key in securing the best possible price after negotiations.

Remember, when you set your asking price too high you are likely to alienate prospective buyers even before they can view the property. On the other hand, setting it too low means you run the risk of devaluing your property from the buyers’ perspective. How then do you find the value of your house?

Well, while estate agents who are knowledgeable about the property market in your local area and have a good reputation of selling houses that are similar to yours may give you a good valuation, you need to consider house valuations from at least three agents who meet these criteria. For an indicative guide to what your home may be worth, you can use online house valuation tools which aren’t always accurate, but will give you an idea on the price.

This is because, estate agents are not mandated to do valuations that may be admissible by lenders. However, in most instances their valuation is usually close to the report given by RICS registered valuers. Ultimately, regardless of which way you choose to go, your understanding of the entire process especially the factors that influence the house prices is crucial to setting an asking price that will easily translate to the highest sale price possible.

Factors that dictate property valuations

Generally speaking, the selling price of houses is usually determined by the state of the market. That is, what people are willing to pay for the house? Keep in mind that estimating the value of a home is a complex process hence can never be an exact science. Even then, you can predict the selling price using minimal criteria that captures a number of things as developed by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). They are as follows:

  • The presence/absence of features and fixtures in the home.
  • The number of bedrooms in the home.
  • The style and age of the property.
  • The degree of workmanship, be it of your deck builders or pool constructors, involved in the construction of the property matters.
  • The general state of repair of the property.
  • The exact location of the property as well as surrounding amenities.
  • The tenancies and liabilities associated with the property.

Predicting the prices of houses is a difficult undertaking and it gets even more difficult in certain areas. However, with specific criteria such as the one listed above, surveyors and estate agents are able to make an educated estimate based on recent sold prices as well as prices of houses that are currently on sale within a particular locality.