Valuing your own home is not as difficult as you might think, thanks mostly to the internet.
The internet gives us free access to information about almost all the property currently for sale in your area and allows you to find out the prices of properties that have sold recently in your area.
By combining these two sets of information and using your own judgement when comparing your property to others, you should be able to come up with a fairly accurate idea of what your home is worth.
If you aren’t sure where to start, try this approach:
Search property websites for homes for sale in your area. Concentrate on properties that are as similar as possible to yours, and note down their prices.
If you have problems finding something suitable, see if your local estate agents have anything similar for sale.
Now find one of the websites that lets you see the prices at which properties have sold – try searching for ‘house prices’ to get started.
There’s not much point in looking more than six months back, just concentrate on recent sales.
After you’ve done all of this research, you should already have an approximate idea of what your property could be sold for.
Now You Have Two Choices
Book free valuation appointments with at least three local estate agents
If you really want an accurate, impartial valuation, arrange for a survey of your property by a local chartered surveyor. However, this won’t be cheap and probably isn’t worth it in most cases.
Managing Estate Agents
If you invite an estate agent to your property to give a valuation, you need to understand that their main focus will be on trying to win your business.
Don’t be overwhelmed by this – and don’t give anything away.
In particular, don’t let on how much you have valued your property at. Tell them you don’t know – that’s why you’d appreciate their expert opinion. Don’t tell them whether you are in a rush to sell, either – as this can influence their valuation.
You’ll probably find that the estate agents’ valuations will cover a fairly wide range – they normally do! If so, see which one matches up best with the results of your research.
The chances are it will be somewhere in the middle – that’s your valuation.