Four tips for getting an accurate property valuation

Agents can often be reticent to provide an accurate valuation of a property they are selling. However, here are four tips for ascertaining how much you should offer.

1. Request the comparable sales data the agent relied upon to determine their opinion of value.  Whilst the agent may refuse your request based on client confidentiality, it has far greater meaning than the irrelevant sales data agents often hand out at inspections.  Confusing? Absolutely!  That is why they are summarised as relevant, not comparable. 

2. Contact the agent’s competition and seek their opinion of what the property is worth.  Most vendors call in at least two agents, so it is logical other agents have presented their sales proposals to the vendor.  What’s in it for the losing agent to discuss values with you?  Goodwill, particularly if you have a house to sell. The prospect of an appraisal is a great trade-off, and the information you get could be crucial. 

3. Ask the question, what does the agent really think the property will sell for?  Don’t ask them in the first week as they will not have had the opportunity to do any buyer follow up. But at the end of the second or third weeks of the advertising campaign (a campaign usually runs for about four weeks) a good agent will know or have a really good idea what the property is going to sell for based on qualifying questions he asks buyers including any offers they received.

Just as an aside, did you know that if you submit an offer in writing to the agent, even if they advise you that the property is going to auction, they must reflect that offer in the price they are quoting, and submit your offer to the vendor.  What frustrates most buyers is the flat line response to the question:  Is there a price the vendor would sell for prior to auction?  You would think that if the vendor was fully informed from the beginning there is a possibility that a sale could be concluded…. 

4. Establishing how much prices exceed the vendors reserve price at auction can provide an important indicator of the final price, the form guide I call it.  Most agents discuss internally how much certain properties sell above the reserve to gauge how much the market is rising. For example, if a house sold for $1 million on a reserve of say $800,000, and the price being quoted was $730,000 plus, then it is possible to predict potential blow outs of other like properties. Be prepared !