Q:My house is a typical 30's terraced in one of the London suburbs & I already had a good idea of what it's market value was as it's always been a hobby of mine to keep my eye on the property market.
One agent in particular sells the majority of houses in my road, achieving sales within a matter of weeks. It's an independent family firm & has a good reputation in the area. I had a valuation off them yesterday, which is around what I would have expected for a property in move in condition. Because it's very much a seller's market at the present time with very little for sale in the area, I didn't even have to haggle on fees, 1% was offered as they do need properties like this to sell.
Whereas in the past I've always got 3 valuations because of living in properties of a type that were not so common, my feeling now is not to bother with other valuations. I feel more than happy with this agent, the fact they open all weekend, not to mention the commision, they know the area well & the general local info such as schools & it seems a bit pointless to get another ea in who doesn't have such a presence in these particular surrounding streets.
The only other agent I may have considered doesn't open on Sunday's or Bank Holidays & for me this counts me out as a customer, it's a big no no. I bought this house through that particular agent & found to my cost when they left an urgent message for me the Friday of a bank holiday weekend that I couldn't get to speak to anybody untill the Tuesday morning.
In life I've tended to trust my gut instinct & it has rarely let me down, but would just be interested to hear some opinions from others regarding getting just the one valuation from an agent I feel very confident about.
The second was very different. 5k difference but also warned me of imminent renovation to the area. He warned me that soon as the houses on the main road were demolished mine would go up further. He said wait for the rush.
In the end I stopped answering the phone. We did 3 days viewings at 7-8 people per day. Two people didn't even seen the house inside – they just offered asking price.
After 10 days I had had enough. 20+ viewings, 15 offers (8 over the asking price) letters through the door etc. Even the estate agent said he had never seen anything like it. Eventually got ￡14k over original asking price which for a small market town was good.
I now think experience counts when knowing your market.
Good luck whatever you decide.
P.S Don't you mean a sellers market in your area?
normally you get a few valuations to give you an indication on price, well you already had an idea, was confirmed and have basically said it's the best EA in the area, so surely you can't go wrong.
what are you going to do if a lesser EAs comes out and says it's worth £50k more? deep down you know they're bluffing to try and get you on a contract and would end up reducing the price anyway to the real price.
just chuck an extra £10k on for the first few weeks see how it goes